The aim of this special issue of Rivista di Estetica is to investigate the nature of the auditory object and its specific status as an object of perception. The investigation was carried out using different methodologies: 1) focusing on the auditory object in relation to its metaphysical dimension; 2) working on the comparison between auditory and visual perception; 3) finding similarities and differences between auditory and musical objects; and, finally, 4) focusing exclusively on the speci...

The aim of this paper is, firstly, to identify the areas of conceptual confusion about the notion of auditory object that could benefit from a cooperation between philosophy and psychology of perception. Secondly, I try to clarify in what sense there may be individual entities that exist only in time focusing on auditory objects, and to establish what kind of relationship links the existence of such purely temporal entities with the existence of spatiotemporal entities such as bodies or physical objects. (...) Finally, a new definition of auditory object, conceived as a partially mind-dependent object, or Meinongian higher-order object based on inferiora, is discussed. (shrink)

This article aims to investigate the relationship between music and Mimmo Paladino s figurative work throughout his career. Starting as a painter of silence, an artist finding shelter in silence to paint, Paladino then engaged in an increasingly dense dialogue with the art of sounds. He is convinced that the creation of music stemming from tonal harmony is parallel to the creation of the work of art originated from formal harmony, and believes that the elements of his compositions can be (...) compared to counterpoints, notes, intervals, rhythms and musical harmonies. It is a long and complex path that led - and this is recent history - to the two collaborations with the non-musician Brian Eno, whose works this article will extensively dwell on. (shrink)

In this paper I try to shed light on the relationship between Ugo Nespolo and the Fluxus group, which the artist contributed to import to Italy in the late Sixties. I then argue that, thanks to the fact that Nespolo’s artworks (especially in the avant-garde period) are documents, it is possible to look in a new and different way at an (anti)artistic movement that sought, in vain, to undermine the idea of objectivity and authorship of the work of art.

Questo articolo si sofferma su alcuni aspetti della relazione tra performance musicali e registrazioni sonore. Dopo una breve introduzione sul tema dell'improvvisazione in musica, cerco di integrare due dei contributi teorici più rilevanti della filosofia di Maurizio Ferraris – la ridefinizione dell’estetica intesa come “scienza della percezione sensibile” e la teoria della documentalità – per far luce su alcuni dei temi più discussi in filosofia della musica: l'ontologia della performance, la registrazione su supporti sia fisici che (apparentemente) immateriali, e infine (...) il ruolo cruciale giocato dalla tecnologia, e in particolare da Internet, nel rendere disponibile contemporaneamente a milioni di utenti sterminate quantità di musica archiviata in memorie dalla capienza praticamente infinita. (shrink)