Economy supports,
Science discloses,
Music connects souls and arouses emotions.
“These are the feelings we try to convey with Emotion for Change: wonder, the awe of beauty and the mystical sense of unity that both nature and music convey. We want to encourage audiences to act ecologically and respectfully, not out of fear of the future but out of love for nature”.
Painting “Terramadre”, by Monica Martin.
The birth of Ipermare
But then, if we combined music and economics with different concepts, could we perhaps create new emotions? And perhaps, such emotions, could contribute to the necessary change with respect to the environmental, social and individual crisis we are experiencing?
This is the challenge that the Emotion for Change project has taken up since 2015 through concerts, educational performances, production of art videos and music albums, the latest of which, titled Ipermare, was released recently after a good three years of gestation.
Ipermare is a term borrowed from the research of two American scientists, Mark and Dianna McMenamin (see Ipermare) which evoked an image for us: that of the global, collaborative interconnectedness between beings in nature. It is this image that inspired and guided the making of the album.
Starting from the example of how the plant world behaves, we wanted to explore and then narrate new ways of relating.
Since we were dealing with music, we did his first of all with the sounds that make up the album: after spending a long time in contact with nature, scrutinizing its slow and continuous metamorphoses, we tried to organize the sound of frequencies in a kind of analogy with what observation had brought us across.
Immersing ourselves, for example, in the trees of the forest, the Style of one album’s tracks, our gaze fixed itself from time to time on certain details: a majestic tree or a small leaf resting on a dry branch.
What was revealed was a continuum in which nothing appeared perfectly symmetrical or “ordered”; yet beauty and a sense of harmony pervaded that place in every part, from the micro to the macro.
Hyperconnected #1 by Elisabetta Zavoli
Hyperconnected #2 by Elisabetta Zavoli
Hyperconnected #3 by Elisabetta Zavoli
Listen to the podcast
of Ipermare
Elevating Art to the nourishment of the Soul
Art, as well as health, education, culture, scientific research and information, should not be regulated by the logic of the market, convinced that the wealth these sectors bring should be measured in terms of nourishment for people’s health and psychophysical well-being, not in money.
Today the opposite is happening: the market “regulates” these areas, and the effects are there for all to see. It is such an entrenched state of affairs that we struggle to understand that it could also be otherwise, that other avenues could be explored, where people and nature are at the center, not economic interests. We shared these ideas with friends who work in the business sector and who have been collaborating with companies for years, bringing, through art, impulses toward new paradigms of development; with them we set out in search of a new model, the goal of which is to remove art from the logic of the market and be replicable.
We began by asking some questions: if we leave art, and the other sectors mentioned above, in the hand of the market, is what is returned nourishment for the human being or for someone’s economic interests? What good is economic life if not to sustain these sources of health for human beings and nature? Putting man and nature back at the center and economic life at their service is needed more than ever. Utopia? Dream? Or perhaps a blade of grass beginning to emerge from concrete?
What about music? Imagine if within any musical ensemble, rock band or symphony orchestra, everyone wanted to bring themselves out at the expense of others: what would come of it? Could the world of nature and the art that draws nourishment from it inspire a collaborative economic model? These are the questions and thoughts we are sharing in ever-widening circles. That similar content enters the daily debate, that interdisciplinary groups are created to address them with determination and systematicity, we believe is as necessary as ever these days. Currently, there are no roads to be traveled but to be traced.
While working at the creation of Ipermare we have been able to achieve the collaboration with various realities that have offered us economic support to cover the costs of production and the printing of the vinyls and booklets; in addition, we have had the participation of two studios that took care of the graphics and the web part.
In the full spirit of sharing, the distribution of compensation to the musicians took into account the need of each one; some then decided to give it up, others donated it to a project dedicated to disadvantaged people, the “Casa da Musica”, in Trujillo, Peru.
Creation of
an Ipermare sketch
A video made by figurative artist Marco Tidu, inspired by Ipermare music, can be seen here on the side.
Music and art: a guide to a sustainable future
Art has the power to guide human progress
by helping us think beyond our limitations and obstacles.
Its power is needed more than ever,
as our world faces an unprecedent health and environmental crisis.
The art world can, and must, play a key role
in restoring the balance of our relationship with nature and beyond,
particularly because art has an impact on the way people define themselves
and in relation to the world around them.
Abdulla Shahid, Presdent of the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly
Finally, we chose to make the album and booklet available to everyone directly from our website thus avoiding tracking or profiling, which is known to generate huge profits without our knowledge.
We recommend downloading the album and booklet for a smaller impact on the environment.
In short, as the booklet states, “we have done our best to match our ideals of respect and care for the Nature around us, well aware of all our limitations…”.