Ramona Ponzini's Sonic Reading of Ted Chiang's 'Exhalation' on Artribune Podcast

Ramona Ponzini, a musician and curator, has created an original sound intervention titled 'Exhalation' for the Artribune podcast series 'Rubriche d’Aria' and the project 'Carico Massimo'. The piece is a sonorized reading of a part of Ted Chiang's short story 'Exhalation', from his collection 'Respira' (Breath). In the story, a scientist makes a discovery about his own existence starting from the held breath that originated the universe. Ponzini's reading is accompanied by an original soundtrack, creating an immersive environment that leads listeners into a science fiction world. The intervention is divided into two parts: the reading published in 'Rubriche d’Aria' and a sound collage taken from various films. Ponzini debuted in 2005 with 'Painting Petals On Planet Ghost', based on Japanese poetry as a source for musical texts, released on the cult Japanese label PSF Records. She has collaborated with figures such as Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth and industrial percussionist Z'ev. In 2016, she began a solo project featuring unusual DJ sets contaminated by vocal interactions and sound collages. Together with curator Matteo Mottin, she founded the art project Treti Galaxie. In 2018, she was a resident DJ at OGR in Turin. The podcast is part of 'Carico Massimo', which started in 2012 within the former Magazzini Generali of the port of Livorno as a meeting place and experimentation between different artistic economies. The article is by Alessandra Poggianti and Juan Pablo Macías.