Project description

ClockClacked is a web portal dedicated to the works in the field of sound art that Tempo Reale has produced, contributed to or promoted since its foundation in 1987. It aims at opening a window onto the Centre’s archival patrimony, presenting the works in a thorough, clear and engaging way, and providing access to first-hand documentation and archival sources.

Each work has an individual page, where information and selected documentation are divided into six sections, designing a path that leads the user deeper into the work:

General info provides a general overview of the work with very essential data;
Description includes a text, either by the author(s) or by the portal’s editors, giving a more detailed account of the work; 
Staging provides information regarding each staging of the work in terms of time frame, location, context, personnel and credits;
Media is a collection of video, audio and photographic materials documenting various stages of the works’ life;
Texts, promo & press includes a variety of mostly published sources, which can give insight on the author(s) intentions, the chosen communication strategy for public presentation, and the work’s reception by the press;
Sources and instructions provides first-hand, mostly unpublished sources (technical documentation, preliminary sketches…) regarding the work’s production and presentation, also signaling when the work was last updated. 

We are currently working on including an Archival Sheet for each work on the portal, with details regarding all the documentation stored in Tempo Reale’s archive, which is accessible by appointment at Villa Strozzi, Florence, Italy. Since the archive is currently undergoing a major reorganization, we opted for waiting until the archive is fully operational again to implement this feature on the portal. 

ClockClacked is mainly directed towards a specialized audience, curators and students/scholars. 
For people interested in sound art, accessing the portal is a chance to explore Tempo Reale’s patrimony in a more engaging way than going through lists and databases: they might be especially interested in looking at the Media section.
For curators, the portal can be a tool to discover recent or historical works which can be programmed in new contexts: they can also get an idea of the requirements for their presentation by looking at the Sources and instructions section.
Finally, the portal is expected to encourage students and scholars to conduct specific research on the works included in Tempo Reale’s archive, thus contributing to their safeguard and enriching the history of the field: they can use the first-hand documentation provided on ClockClacked, but they can also contact us to have a full overview of the documentation stored in Tempo Reale’s archive, and plan a visit.

CloackClacked is an open project: adjustments or even substantial changes may be carried out in the future as new works are included in the portal. Suggestions are very welcome: please contact us at archivio@temporeale.it. 

Credits

This portal is the first outcome of a larger project concerning Tempo Reale’s archive, which ethnomusicologist Giulia Sarno carried out in the framework of her doctoral research conducted at Università degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento SAGAS (Dottorato di ricerca in Storia delle arti e dello spettacolo, 2017-2021). Aiming at the activation of the archive as a cultural device, the project includes a series of actions which intend to safeguard and promote the Centre’s patrimony and invite its potential stakeholders to engage with it. 

If Giulia Sarno designed the general structure of the portal, its realization was a group effort. Scientific matters where thoroughly discussed with Tempo Reale’s collaborators Luisa Santacesaria (musician, musicologist, and curator) and Agnese Banti (composer and sound artist), who crucially contributed to the implementation of the project: every choice in the presentation of the works was the outcome of a fruitful exchange which benefited from the different perspectives each of them brought to the table. The same collaborative approach was used in the construction and graphic design of the website, which involved the expertise of Tempo Reale’s webmaster Mario Carovani. 

The name “ClockClacked” is a tribute to Luciano Berio, Tempo Reale’s founder: it is taken from Chapter XI of James Joyce’s Ulysses, a text that Berio used for his 1958 composition Thema (Omaggio a Joyce).

ClockClacked was realized with the contribution of: