Terraforma, like so many festivals, did not happen in 2020. However, this forced hiatus pushed its organizers to reflect on both their core disciplines and the future of live music, themes they have explored with every iteration of their event since 2014. Presenting sustainable and ecologically mindful music, architecture and art at the historical Villa Arconati palace and gardens outside of Milan, Terraforma explores these topics while presenting performances by highly regarded experimental acts—Caterina Barbieri, Mica Levi and Laurie Anderson were just a few of the names on last year's lineup.

For festival organizer Ruggero Pietromarchi and the rest of the Terraforma team, 2020 was the year to focus more on the ideological pursuit behind the festival and its offshoots. The summer was "a moment of reflection," Pietromarchi told me over Zoom in September. "We decided to break from a more performative festival to [focus on] research-based projects."

"Terraforming," or world-building, is an idea rooted in science fiction that has to do with making a deliberate and sustainable impact on an uninhabitable environment. Pietromarchi's approach also draws from an ecology of care, which involves collective practices of self-organizing and mutual support during the unprecedented onslaught of an eco-crisis. Keeping these ideas in mind, how can care guide our relationship to sustainable cohabitation? And can music (or any cultural input) play a role?

Ecologies of care are somewhat hard to imagine during a time of social distancing, especially as concerns rise over the future of our electronic music communities. Nonetheless, Threes (the agency behind Terraforma and many other cultural productions throughout Italy) continued to support experimental live performances over the summer, albeit at a much smaller scale than usual. Thinking through all the apprehensions surrounding the future for electronic music communities, the agency remained devoted to the prospect of a better one.