Art as an agent of societal change

Irene Cassarini

How music and political activism intersects in avant-garde electronic music.

The Work

I am a producer, DJ, visual artist and activist. In my work I explore how the field of music production intersects with technology in relation to self-expression and gender, analyzing how the enmeshment of artistic disciplines and political activism can find an outlet within the avant-garde electronic music scene. As my work is informed by a wide range of music inputs and its creation is based on digital tools, I am interested in analyzing how new media and technologies are shaping artistic expression and illustrate how they can be used as tools for political and social action. My practice encompasses three main fields, which intersect and blend in unique ways between my research on online culture, music production and activism in queer communities to promote safe spaces through club nights.
As a specific focus within music, I aim to express the fluidity of human life, experiences and emotions through digitally-produced music: I am to embody or disrupt the analogies digital = emotionless / real = emotional, fluid/fixed, binary/non-binary, therefore extending my framework also to gender-related issues and self-representation.
How can technologies fully incorporate and represent emotions and complexity of expression? Can digital binary tools be used to explore fluidity? Can artists use digital spaces as places to promote inclusivity and freedom of being while defying normative codes?


As I use technology extensively within my practice I aim to challenge and explore the use of digital tools and what implications they have on my production.
Music is for me a tool to produce change and propose an alternative to a straight white male-dominated electronic music scene, leaving space to new forms of expressions.