On 13 December 2025, Palazzo Ducale in Genoa hosted In the Port / Listening Session, an event that brought together scientific research, artistic experimentation, and public engagement.
Free and open to all, the initiative took place in the Sala del Minor Consiglio and formed part of the RAISEmotion pathway within RAISE – Spoke 4, “Smart and Sustainable Ports”, strengthening the dialogue between technological innovation and contemporary culture.
From 3:00 pm onwards, the public began to arrive for the autonomous listening sessions. The room welcomed visitors into a space of open and informal engagement, where the port of Genoa took shape as a soundscape and a place for reflection. Curators accompanied those who wished in direct conversations about the creative process, the environmental and port data used, and the value of a research approach that intertwines art, science, and territory.
At 6:00 pm, the programme continued with a mini-conference and a shared listening moment. Davide Giglio (University of Genoa), Leader of Spoke 4, opened the session by introducing the themes of RAISE and the strategic role of smart and sustainable ports within the innovation ecosystem. His contribution offered a clear framework for RAISE’s role in applied research and interdisciplinary experimentation.
He was followed by Marco Faimali, Head of RAISE Communication and Leader of Spoke 3, who presented the RAISEmotion project, outlining its aims and development. During his talk, the audience watched a short video retracing the first RAISEmotion event, held on 29 October 2025 in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio at Palazzo Ducale as part of the Science Festival programme. The presentation highlighted the project’s ability to build bridges between the scientific community, creative practitioners, and the wider public.
The scientific dimension featured contributions by Francesca Garaventa (CNR-IAS) and Melissa Ferrini (CNR-ILC), both involved in Spoke 4. The researchers presented the projects from which the data used by Stellare were drawn for the creation of In the Port and for the immersive images based on underwater ROV footage. Their talks clarified how port traffic data published by the Port System Authority, together with data on the impact of underwater noise pollution, fed into the sound composition through the Ocean software.
During the meeting, the artists of Stellare presented their video and sound work in progress, offering the audience a close-up view of the construction process. The shared materials showed how the composition takes shape from data on goods and passenger movements in the port of Genoa collected between 2017 and 2025. The sound pathway follows the dynamics of port traffic, translating variations, intensities, and cycles into a musical structure that remains dynamic and clearly perceptible through listening.
The guided listening made the differences between historical periods audible, with particular emphasis on the transition between 2020 and 2021. In that phase, the acoustic landscape changes rhythm, density, and breath, rendering in sound the impact of the pandemic on flows, activities, and port life. The sound pathway thus becomes both a narrative and analytical tool, capable of transforming complex data series into a sensory experience that invites attentive listening and reflection.
In the Port / Listening Session, a project by Stellare – FiloQ, Ale Bavo, and Raffaele Rebaudengo, curated by Maria Pina Usai for U-BOOT Lab with scientific supervision by Francesca Garaventa, was conceived in the heart of the port of Genoa and enters into dialogue with the exhibition “Moby Dick – The Whale” at Palazzo Ducale.
The performance unfolds as a living score: movements, transits, and frictions become acoustic material, making perceptible the deep rhythm of one of the city’s most complex places. The experience invites audiences to observe the relationship between work and environment, production and quality of life, the local dimension and the global horizon, through a form of listening that is both critical and poetic.
