A new space to narrate the music of Officine Schwartz with the contribution of Politecnico students.

The collaboration between the students of the Transmedia course at Politecnico and Officine Schwartz, a prominent entity in the Italian industrial music scene celebrating its fortieth year of activity this year, comes to a close. As part of the celebrations, on March 1st, the group’s new website was inaugurated at the Auditorium in Bergamo. At the core of the project are the three most significant multimedia works developed by students of the Cinema Engineering and Communication Media Degree Course during the hackathon held at the university on May 17th.

During the hackathon, students analyzed the rich material related to Officine Schwartz’s musical journey, from their first concert in 1984 to the present day, provided by the poli-media publisher Rizosfera. Specifically, this included videos, tracks, lyrics, and images upon which the students—approximately eighty divided into ten working groups—structured an intensive event focusing on the intersection of industrial music and working-class culture. Four hours were spent collectively analyzing the artistic experimentation proposed by the group, which featured originality in subjects, forms, and colors, and served as the centerpiece of the transmedia projects undertaken. Among these projects were video interviews and thematic explorations of self-built instruments, such as the ‘tubicordo,’ created from an old stove pipe, which garnered widespread interest from those present in the classroom.

The inauguration of the new website, created by Rizosfera, thus becomes an opportunity to showcase the students’ creations to the public, engaging users in the communicative journey conveyed by the works and recounting to them, through multiple perspectives and different points of view, the history of Officine Schwartz, the evolution of their style over time, the originality of their performances, and the innovations they have brought to the Italian music scene, both in the past and present.

The hackathon is an intensive workshop focused on developing a project,” commented Domenico Morreale, a professor at the Politecnico and organizer, along with Elisa Roscelli, of the hackathon. “It’s a format that has allowed students to work closely with musicians (Osvaldo Arioldi), multimedia curators, and developers (Paolo Davoli and Andrea Corsini of Rizosfera) to create public digital works using interactive media. A real-world task that has allowed participants to acquire design skills while simultaneously creating useful and interesting works for the community in which they live. The official presentation by Rizosfera, as part of the celebrations for the fortieth anniversary of Officine Schwartz, highlights an educational path that, given the enthusiasm shown by our students, we plan to repeat during this year, exploring new cultural projects.

News from the Poliflash website: https://www.polito.it/ateneo/comunicazione-e-ufficio-stampa/poliflash/un-nuovo-spazio-per-raccontare-la-musica-delle-officine?fbclid=IwAR3QMnMTP5gu5epVNwznPUbEwfdCSKJKypOwF5pb9oa5ryK8OHHz77dpr20

Here’s the link to Hackathon / Officine Schwartz:  https://schwartz40.rizosfera.org/