The second edition of the Marchigiano and Italian Synth Museum was held in Macerata with the theme “From transistor to microprocessor”. and this year Age of Audio was also present.
Many events and concerget organized in the location of the "Ancient Ovens".
The evening of 25 October was entirely dedicated to MARS (Musical Aaudio Rsearch Station) machine used by Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Luigi nono e Karlheinz Stockhausen, which have marked the evolution ofcontemporary musical art.
The MARS was built byIRIS (Iinstitute of Rsearch forIndustria and lo Spettacolo), a research and development center active in the 90s financed by Bontempi-Farfisa formed by researchers, engineers, musicians and directed by Prof. Giuseppe di Giugno.
In 2019, a fortuitous discovery allowed the staff of the "Museum" di find in disused industrial warehouses, a large part of the IRIS archive and some MARS workstations that have been laboriously reactivated after more than 20 years.
The MARS, conceived as an ideal evolution of the previous musical computers 41 e 4X and as a "reservoir" of new technologies to be used in the production of electronic musical instruments for the public, it had limited diffusion but was used in important works such as Ofanim di Luciano Berio and it was requested and used in numerous research centers and conservatories, at least until the advent of modern personal computers.
With a large number of IRIS staff members, Prof. Joseph of June, in his presentation “From Ircam to IRIS”, he illustrated all the work that starting from 4X led to the creation of MARS.
The intervention of Prof. Albert Jordan, with his work that will soon lead to a book, illustrated the contribution of Prof. Di June to electroacoustic music before the realization of IRIS.
Sylviane Sapir, former IRIS researcher , spoke about his role in the creation of the MARS of the IRIS center:
The evening ended with a panel deformer employees of the IRIS research center, Followed by a performance by Walter Prati and other authors with some music for MARS.
Umberto Sorbo
