Submitted by Joshua Pablo Ro... on Tue, 04/07/2009 - 16:27
Hello imagined readers, here goes my first post. I've been thinking long and hard (perhaps too much so) about this project and what I want to do with it. Although there are more uncertainties than than things known at this point, I've compiled a list of questions, as well as a bunch of ideas and themes that I want to "get across" in my work. It will be interesting to refer back to these lists as the residency progresses, to get a sense of my own evolution and also to see if what I end up with has any connection to what I'm thinking about at the outset!
What I'm starting with is a desire to tell a story with 3 chapters:
1969 - "The Funky Drummer"
1979 - Digging, Looping
1989 - sampling: Versioning vs Intellectual Property
Questions:
- How do I tell history and what is my relationship to the stories I'm interested in telling and the people that inhabit them? This is a biggie. I feel like I need to either actively put myself as a character into the work, or else perhaps totally distance myself and try to really let the participants speak for themselves. What I don't want to do is present an omniscient historical voice that tries to represent "truth" about these historical moments, none of which I've lived through myself!
- How to responsibly represent another race/culture? This is the affluent white guy from New Hampshire thing. Or, "White boy, what do you know about hip hop?!" I think I need to talk to Wayne Marshall or some other Anthropologist type about this.
- My ideas about "myth" and "shrine" and "holy relics." Do these add an interesting frame through which to play with history? Or does bringing religion into this add a whole layer of irrelevant associations that I don't really need?
- Even though I'm really interested in Hip Hop, I'm not really thinking at all about whole elements of the culture like Rap and Graffiti. What's up with that?
- How can I clearly articulate the connections of this project to my existing body of work? (this will be kinda moot once I actually start making stuff, and inevitably do what I do!)
- Is it OK to take an "experience designer" role and hire other people to make stuff for me? This makes me uncomfortable, but i'm probably just insecure.
I also came up with a list of
"Ideas to Get Across"
- Some kind of counter-narrative or representational strategy that undercuts my own omniscient voice/claim to truth (see above)
- The joy of collecting/obsessive collecting behaviors
- The "outlaw" nature of sample-based artforms in a litigious society. See Wayne/?Love's essay about how hiphop art of sampling old records can't really be practiced any more, except for rich megastars
- The inner city/ghetto as incubator for explosively popular youth cultures
- New technology and especially the willful abuse of technology (viz scratching) facilitating new process of artistic production
- Artist's responses to being sampled (I should go interview Clyde...)
- The recording as commodity (and fetish!)
OK, that's all for now! Stay tuned as I over-think things some more!
