Call for Papers: Listening to the Environment. Resonances of Art in the Italian Landscape

Edited by Lara Conte and Pasquale Fameli

Download the Call for Papers (PDF)

With the practices of the neo-avant-gardes that emerged in the 1960s, the artwork not only abandoned its conventional supports but also the spaces traditionally assigned to it, developing directly within natural or urban environments. In Italy, collective exhibitions such as Parole sui muri (Fiumalbo, 1967), Un paese + l’avanguardia artistica (Anfo, 1968), Arte povera più azioni povere (Amalfi, 1968), Campo urbano (Como, 1969), and others initiated new exhibition strategies, placing the artistic experience in a horizontal perspective, in close contact with nature, urban space, and local communities.

In this environment of total experimentation, some of the earliest explorations involving the use of sound emerged, interpreted –depending on the context– as a plastic presence or as a relational factor. These were often ephemeral interventions, linked to the temporality of a single exhibition, to the changing processes of nature, to the precariousness, residuality, and biodegradability of the materials used, or to the need to highlight, activate, and redefine the functions of a specific place. The exhibition Sonorità prospettiche, held in Rimini in 1982, represented the first Italian opportunity to survey national and international artistic research focused on the relationship between sound and environment, featuring both pioneering and more recent interventions by John Cage, Alvin Curran, Bill Fontana, Christina Kubisch, Alvin Lucier, Max Neuhaus, and –among Italian artists–Claudio Ambrosini, Dal Bosco-Varesco, Davide Mosconi, Maurizio Nannucci, Roberto Taroni, and many others.

Over the last decades, artists’ interest in sound as a mode of environmental intervention has grown exponentially, generating heterogeneous and discontinuous experiences that now require understanding and study, especially in light of their engagement with crucial contemporary issues –from climate change to shifting identities within anthropized landscapes, from the opposition between center and periphery to the problems of marginality and cultural minorities. Recent studies on contemporary sculpture have also begun to outline an initial survey of the relationship between sculptural processes and sound, considering practices that have yet to be analysed in terms of their complexity of reception and relational dynamics. At the same time, the wealth of experiences arising from the interaction between artistic practice and sound is frequently grouped under the much overused and problematic category of Sound Art, an umbrella term that risks simplifying a complex debate that intersects with key issues: the residuality of production sites, the acoustic properties of materials, the role of technologies, and more.

Based on these considerations, this CFP issued by piano b aims to gather studies and reflections on the relationship between sound and landscape in Italian artistic research from the 1960s to today, with particular attention to process-based, installation, and participatory interventions carried out in decentralized, peripheral, and marginal areas of the Peninsula. Within the framework of the PRIN 2022 PNRR Art Sound Environment: Towards a New Ecology of Landscape, and drawing also on the data emerging from the mapping available at https://ase.uniroma3.it/, we invite the submission of scholarly contributions addressing the following topics:

• analyses of exhibitions and sound installation/performative interventions carried out in Italy, with particular attention to projects developed in small towns and geographically decentralized or marginal areas;
• conservation and documentation issues related to sound-based artistic practices realized in urban or natural environments;
• relationships between sculpture, nature, and sound;
• field-recording practices and sound relocation;
• artistic action as a practice of listening ecology;
• sound-based artistic interventions centered on collective and territorial identity;
• relationships between art, sound, and environment involving sociological issues;
• relational aesthetics and sound research.

 

How to Submit a Contribution

The journal accepts only complete contributions (30,000–40,000 characters, including notes and spaces) submitted according to the procedures described below. The editors of each issue will evaluate the contributions and select those that will proceed to the double-blind peer-review stage. The editorial staff will notify authors of the outcome.

Authors must submit their articles through the journal platform, using the five-step submission process.

The file must contain the text of the proposal without the author’s name appearing under the title, in notes, or in the bibliography (where it must be replaced with ***). The file must be anonymized. The author’s name must not appear in any form. Any references that could allow identification of the author must be removed, otherwise the proposal will not be considered. Furthermore, file properties must not contain names or personal details, using the anonymization features available in standard writing programs (see the instructions on ensuring a double-blind review).

The anonymized file must be uploaded at step 2 of the process. The text must conform to the guidelines.

The proposal’s metadata must be entered at step 3 and must include the following information:

1. For each author: full name, e-mail, ORCiD ID (if available), institutional affiliation, country, and a short bio (maximum 1,000 characters including spaces);
2. Title;
3. Abstract (maximum 1,500 characters including spaces);
4. Five keywords separated by semicolons.

Contributions may be written in Italian, English, or French. If the contribution is submitted in Italian or French, the title and abstract must also be provided in English using the “Form language” function on the platform. Submissions sent through any other means will not be considered.

 

Timeline

Proposals must be submitted by 6 March 2026. Each contribution will undergo a double-blind peer review. If the evaluations of the two reviewers are in conflict, the editors (in dialogue with the issue curators) will decide whether to make a final decision or to send the article to a third reviewer. The editorial staff will notify authors of the outcome.

The publication of vol. 13 no. 1 is expected for June/July 2026.