Other Minds Festivals ➔ Other Minds Festival: OM 6: Artist Forum II, "Cultural Identity and Music in the Post-MODEM World" (March 18, 2000)
Analog Moving Image
Event Type
Lectures and Panel DiscussionsOrigin
Other MindsIdentifier
OMF.2000.03.18.02Program Series
Other Minds FestivalProgram Length
119 minDates
| broadcast| 2000-03-18 | created
Description
This is the second of two Artist Forums held on March 18, 2000 as part of the 6th Other Minds Festival in San Francisco. After a brief introduction by Guest Artistic Director, Carl Stone, professor Herman Gray moderates a panel discussion that takes as its topic "Cultural Identity and Music in the Post-MODEM World.” DJ Spooky talks about remix culture and how it reflects greater changes in culture in general with the advent of a true global community and advances in science such as DNA splicing. Annie Gosfield then talks about her interest in ambient industrial sounds which she has sampled in her own compositions. Eddie Def relates how he has always been interested in sampling records and manipulating them in a wide variety of ways, largely for reasons of personal satisfaction. He makes a distinction between turntablism, which he sees as a largely performance art, and sample manipulation, which allows for more individual creativity. Scanner describes how he took his name from the radio scanner, from which he has derived many of the samples he has used in his records.Despite Eddie Def’s insistence that cultural identity is not very important and people simply like music that they like, Herman Gray pushes back, pointing out that for many composers the music of one’s youth often has a significant influence on their later efforts. DJ Spooky offers some support for this thesis, but also stresses that recent hybridization of cultural influences, mediated by global communication networks, has created for many an identity no longer tied to an individual’s location or native culture. Gray picks up on this point and inquires whether technological advances lead to issues of access, power, and the digital divide. The discussion is then opened up to questions from the audience, the first of which suggests that there might be a gender barrier to using technology in music, a suggestion that the panel takes umbrage with, and leads to a lively give and take with the audience. Other audience members ask about performance practices for live electronic music; issues surrounding the sampling of traditional ethnic music; whether technology is outpacing creativity, and copyright law, among others.
Genres
Popular musicElectro-Acoustic / Electronic
Subjects
Popular musicTurntablism
Sampling (Sound)
Group identity
Music -- Philosophy and aesthetics
Acknowledgment
Digitized by the California Audiovisual Preservation Project (CAVPP) supported in part by the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian.Related Event
Other Minds Festival 6Related place
San Francisco (Calif.) (was recorded at)Related Entities
Other Minds FestivalStone, Carl, 1953-
Gray, Herman, 1950-
Miller, Paul D., 1970-
Gosfield, Annie, 1960-
Eddie Def
Rimbaud, Robin, 1964-