ROBOT Festival’s «Syntax Error»: From Sound Into Fashion, Film, and Al

ROBOT Festival brings Autechre, Lawrence English, and Bochum Welt to Bologna for “Syntax
Error, an edition bullt on work that crosses from sound into other disciplines.

ROBOT Festival’s «Syntax Error» Moves From Sound Into Fashion, Film, and AI

ROBOT Festival opens its seventeenth edition, «Syntax Error», across Bologna and the nearby archaeological site of Kainua, in Marzabotto. The program runs from September thirteenth through October tenth. Five venues host it: Kainua, Palazzo Re Enzo, Ex Ospedale dei Bastardini, DumBO, and Estragon. Confirmed names include Autechre, Moodymann, Boys Noize, Actress, Marina Herlop, Mykki Blanco, Lawrence English, and Bochum Welt. Several works on the bill stand out: a runway show, a photography exhibition, a wordless film, and an AI-assisted piece move sound into new territory.

A Runway Composition at ROBOT Festival: Bochum Welt

At Estragon, on October tenth, Bochum Welt opens the program ahead of Autechre. Bochum Welt is the project of Gianluigi Di Costanzo, signed to the label Rephlex by Aphex Twin. Di Costanzo composed the music for the Jil Sander show in Milan and worked with Gerald Donald, of Drexciya.

His album Mixes followed that collaboration. The same set introduces MDX, the alias of Andy Maddocks, founder of the Manchester label Skam. Skam released early material by Autechre and is linked to the collective Gescom.

A Photography Score at ROBOT Festival: Lawrence English

At Ex Ospedale dei Bastardini, Lawrence English opens the program on October eighth. He premieres The Rest Is My Ghost in Italy, built around a concept he calls «Acid Nostalgia». «Acid Nostalgia» is the use of nostalgia to erase, rather than preserve, the past. English previously worked with Jamie Stewart, of Xiu Xiu, on the sound for David Lynch’s exhibition Factory Photographs. The two projects place his work inside a practice built, in part, around scoring images made by other artists.

A Wordless Film at ROBOT Festival: Noémi Büchi

At DumBO, on October tenth, Noémi Büchi presents Exuvie. She describes the piece as the score for a film that has no footage. The images exist only inside the listener’s mind, generated by the sound itself. The work reverses the relationship between music and image found in the runway and exhibition pieces above. Here, sound produces the visual, rather than following one already made.

Chant and Artificial Intelligence at ROBOT Festival: Baldini and Insana

Also at Bastardini, on October eighth, Luca Maria Baldini and Salvatore Insana present Nessun cielo è senza luce. The audiovisual work spans seven chapters. The piece combines Gregorian chant, field recordings, analog instruments, and artificial-intelligence processes.

Festival material describes the work as tracing a form of spirituality, placed between Franciscan thought and machines. Artificial intelligence appears in the ROBOT Festival program as one instrument among several. It sits alongside chant recorded centuries earlier and an archive of field recordings.

A Radio Room at ROBOT Festival: URË

At Palazzo Re Enzo, on September twenty-fifth, the project URË takes a different approach to the question of format. Composer Baldini leads the project. Partners include the Conservatorio Luisa D’Annunzio of Pescara and the Istituto di Cultura Italiana of Tirana.

URË distributes its sound material through thirty FM radios placed across the Sala degli Atti. Organizers gathered the material among the Arbëreshe communities of Abruzzo and Molise. The audience does not face a stage. It locates each performer by tuning through the radio frequencies, turning listening into a form of navigation.

Sound and Image Together at ROBOT Festival: Actress

At DumBO, on October tenth, Actress presents Radical Frame, a live set built from audio and video together. The performance marks the artist’s only confirmed Italian festival date this year. Where Exuvie removes the image and URË removes the stage, Radical Frame keeps sound and picture together, live.

The Rest of the ROBOT Festival Program

Beyond these six works, the seventeenth edition brings Autechre to Estragon for a live set on October tenth. It is the duo’s only confirmed Italian festival appearance this year. At DumBO, the same two nights add Moodymann, DJ Stingray, MACE, and Marina Herlop. Also on the bill: Mykki Blanco, Boys Noize, Blawan, Space Afrika, upsammy and Valentina Magaletti, and Batu.

At Bastardini, Aho Ssan, Front de Cadeaux with Gabor, and the touring project Baronato Quattro Bellezze complete the bill. Their sets run October eighth and ninth.

September previews at Kainua and Palazzo Re Enzo add Kevin Richard Martin and Marta Salogni and Stefano Pilia. Carla Dal Forno, Ana Roxanne, and Sam Ruffillo join them. Memoryman — also known as Uovo — and Serena Dibiase, known as Kratu, round out the bill.

ROBOT Festival: Background and Partners

ROBOT Festival is a project of the cultural association Shape. Partners include the Ministry of Culture, the Emilia-Romagna region, the Municipality of Bologna, Fondazione Carisbo, and the Santo Stefano district. Sponsors include Jägermeister, Martini, Goose Island, LavoroPiù, and Red Bull. Tickets and passes are available through robotfestival.it and the partner platform Xceed.