The Human Web EPK (eng)

THE HUMAN WEB LINE UP

Marta Giulioni (1), Nadia Washington (6), Davide Cerreta (6) – vocals 
Claire Parsons (4) – vocals, electronics
Anais Drago (1,8), Angela Varo Moreno (2,4) – violin
Soojung Lee (2) – alto sax
Camila Nebbia (4), Alex Rashad (2), Andrew Saragossi (1) – tenor sax
Nish Manjunath (6,7) – tenor sax, electronics
Federico Calcagno (1,2,4,5) – bass clarinet, clarinet
Livio Bartolo (7), Killick Hinds (3) – guitar, synths, electronics
Heikki Ruokangas (3) – acoustic guitar
Sonya Belaya (4) – prepared piano
Naomi Nakanishi (7), Suwon Yim (6) – piano, synths
Summer Kodama (7) , Liany Mateo (6), Helen Svoboda (1),
Aretha Tillotson (2,4), Stefano Zambon (3) – upright bass
Francesca Remigi (1,3,4,6,7) – drums

All tracks are composed and arranged by Francesca Remigi

About tHe human web

“The Human Web” is an interdisciplinary project designed to investigate how technology and specifically Social Media negatively affect mental health, self identity and public life at large, starting from the composer’s personal narrative. 
In this concept album, music making is conceived as a healing process and a way to share and recover from personal trauma.
Through creative music-inspired compositions combined with literature and contemporary dance performance, The Human Web unravels how social construct and pop culture’s toxic stereotypes are in control of our life models and choices.

SINGLE RELEASE: March 9, 2022
ALBUM RELEASE: March 23, 2021

Album recorded from our homes in 2021

Record Label: Habitable Records
Mixing Engineer: Alessandro Mazzieri
Mastering Engineer: Killick Hinds
Video Maker: Anisa Xhomaqui
Graphic Designer: Caro Nebbia

TOTAL TIME: 45.31 min

Dancers

Clotilde Cappelletti
Mayke van Veldhuizen
Hannah van den Berg

Video filmed at Splendor, Amsterdam

The Human Web represents my own healing process as to my experience of eating disorders. I’ve always wanted to use music as a tool to process, heal and share personal trauma. It took some years to find the courage to talk openly about something so private and deep, but besides considering it as a personal healing process, I really hope this work will contribute to raise awareness about this mental illness, outlining how distorted and idealized reality promoted by commercial culture via Internet and Social Media can trigger harmful consequences on individuals’ physical and mental health, and community life.

METAMORFOSI
Metamorfosi is the first track of the record. The word “Metamorfosi” refers to a significant change in structure, form or substance, which can be descriptive of individuals’ physical and/or emotional alteration. When affected by eating disorders, people not only experience an evident physical change in their body, but they also find themselves dealing with a dangerous mental condition which can alter their psycho-emotional state. Metamorfosi was written to represent an interdisciplinary journey through different psycho-emotional stages that characterize eating disorders, such as depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, hallucinations,…

MERE APPEARANCE & TRUE BEING
“Every living thing depends on spectators to acknowledge and recognize its existence”. Through these words, in her book The Life of the Mind philosopher Hanna Arendt describes the larger culture’s need to foster and sustain identity based on external validation. Social Media represents the perfect platform where users can showcase their personality, even if that sometimes implies conformity to external, idealized and even toxic stereotypes. The piece Mere Appearance & True Being represents a journey of reconnection to the “Self”(= true being), which is made possible by breaking out of the social validation feedback loop. People can find their path to a balanced and authentic life when they refuse to wear those insincere masks that allow them to meet social expectations.

LOST GENERATION
This composition tells the story of a 17 year old boy who tried to commit suicide during the pandemic, as a desperate attempt to escape from living in a virtual and locked up reality devoid of human contacts. Surely the online world offers opportunities and new possibilities, substituting face-to-face interactions. However, it opens the door to well-known online risks such as inappropriate content, overuse, cyberbullying, cyberhate, disinformation, misuse of personal data. Those people who are insecure of their identity, who are seen as weaker, unpopular, or simply different are the main target of bullies that, protected by a screen, feel empowered to discriminate, harass, stalk,… 

INSIDE THE ALGORITHM
We live in an era in which our choices are often dictated by Social Media algorithms, which are in total control of our private information and of the selected content we see online. Internet and social media platforms are beautifully designed in order to keep users in front of their screens as much time as possible. In fact, the longer you keep on scrolling, the more Google, FB or IG get money from those companies that exploit the web for adverts and publicity. The composition Inside the Algorithm was created using the google page rank algorithm as a musical cryptogram from which extrapolating a series of pitches and rhythmic sequences.

TRANCE
As the algorithm facilitates the selection of preferable contents that avoid disagreeable and contrary information, influential people can easily exploit Social Media in order to reach their followers in a fast and direct way. Without the 2-sided information flow normally promoted by traditional Medias (TV, newspapers,…), influencers and political actors are able to influence their followers’ opinion without presenting different perspectives and opinions about a specific matter. Internet and Social Media are probably one of the main causes of political polarization in our world, and they’ve been improperly employed with the aim of affecting political campaigns and elections. Trance is an improvised duo track, conceived to denounce social media’s destructive use in politics and its fundamental role in spreading conspiracy theories and fake news. Statistic Companies such as Cambridge Analytica are known for illicit data mining on Facebook and Instagram: by getting to know users’ private informations better, these companies are able to target undecided citizens and inject selected contents which aim to influence people’s opinion on political campaigns and elections (2016 US presidential elections).

THE HUMAN WEB
Taking inspiration from McNeill’s concept of “Human Web”, I’ve created a web-shaped graphic score to visually represent the set of virtual connections that link people to one another around the globe. The album’s title track The Human Web portrays the good side of the virtual platform, that can be positively employed as an incredible tool able to bring people together and to spread some fundamental values of sharing, mutual support and community. 

HOME BODY
This intimate solo violin composition invites to reflect on what it means to be a womxn in our society. As womxn, we hold our identity in relation to others and to our relationship with our bodies. We live in a time when images of our bodies are easily shared on social media and there are pressures to look, dress and act a certain way. Home Body celebrates womxn’s natural beauty, encouraging body acceptance and self-love.

FOLLIA
Follia is a chamber music piece based on a twelve-tone row.