Il ghigno di Aphex e altre maschere. Volti del transumano in musica

Starting off with Aphex Twin’s evil grin sonically encoded in his track Equation (1999), the paper addresses the presence in popular music discourse (e.g., performance features and artworks) of iconic marks of transhumanism, meant as a proper form of life — i.e., “embodied narrative” — rooted in the enhancement of human condition granted by technology. By considering the visage as the place where the musician’s identity surfaces, the paper outlines a brief, provisional overview of notable cases of “trashuman masks” — cyborg, mutant, glitch — worn or elaborated by electronic artists musically thematizing the hybridization with technology (Kraftwerk, Detroit techno, Daft Punk, Breyer P–Orridge, Arca, Holly Herndon). Finally, the paper questions whether and to which extent does transhumanism would consistently be pursued not only as concerns its representation or remediation, but also the very musical matter; thus leading to a “transmusic” capable of stepping into the uncharted territory of the “trans–sonic”.