June 12th 2012 |
late May |
Early May |
A journal about my art related experiences and investigations. This blog serves as an organizational, and social tool, as I build my Masters thesis project, based at the Facultad de Bellas Artes, Pais Vasco, Spain.
#1 of the Series: Ignorance is Bliss (Prueba de Artista) by Colin Hoisington |
FLATOW: Hank, let's start with you. As producer for Public Enemy, you really treated sampling as collage, putting pieces together. How did you come up with this technique?
Mr. SHOCKLEE: Actually, it just came from my DJ and radio, you know, experience. And it was it was actually another DJ that came and he mixed - he was mixing like four records together and it sounded like -to me - it sounds like a mess to everybody else.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. SHOCKLEE: But to me, I heard something that was unique in it. And because all the different, you know, textures just playing off of each other gave another rhythm. It created another sense of harmony. It created another sense of timing and different things. So it kind of like - that aspect of it kind of like propelled me into wanting to do more of those things on a commercial level, as you put it.
FLATOW: Right, right. And it became a more complex with the technique as you moved along.
Mr. SHOCKLEE: Correct.
FLATOW: Yeah. Kembrew, how important is sampling in pop culture today?
Prof. McLEOD: Well, I think it's basically the central part of popular culture if you think about social networking and the way that people interact with each other across great distances. And they get to collaborate with each other, you think about open-source software, the way that people collaboratively create stuff, they're essentially taking samples of computer code and remixing them.
And the same is true with music. I mean, I know a 12-year-old who make mash-up videos on YouTube and upload them. It's just - it's almost part of the DNA of - not just youth culture but just popular culture more generally.
LICHTMAN: ...to introduce us to the concept of sampling, which is basically taking a snippet of a song and repurposing it. And for the purpose of this segment, we thought we'd do a little demonstration. So what we first have is this song, which is by James Brown, "Funky Drummer." It's one of the most sampled songs in history.
(Soundbite of song, "Funky Drummer")
LICHTMAN: That drum beat...
FLATOW: Ah.
LICHTMAN: ...that you hear is sampled all over the place. And so, a musician would take that drum beat and pick it out of the thing. And so, let's hear then the sample from that song.
(Soundbite of song, "Funky Drummer")
LICHTMAN: That's it.
FLATOW: Just took it out.
LICHTMAN: Just - exactly.
FLATOW: And now he's going to take that and make something new with it.
LICHTMAN: So the next step is taking the drum beat and then looping it. So here's a loop.
(Soundbite of song, "Funky Drummer")
FLATOW: Over and over, it keeps playing.
LICHTMAN: Oh, repeat, repeat, repeat.
FLATOW: Yeah.
LICHTMAN: And then that becomes the basis of a new piece of - a new song.
Stay Free!: What are the origins of sampling in hip-hop?
Chuck D: Sampling basically comes from the fact that rap music is not music. It's rap over music. So vocals were used over records in the very beginning stages of hip-hop in the 70s to the early '80s. In the late 1980s, rappers were recording over live bands who were basically emulating the sounds off of the records. Eventually, you had synthesizers and samplers, which would take sounds that would then get arranged or looped, so rappers can still do their thing over it. The arrangement of sounds taken from recordings came around 1984 to 1989.
Draft: Liquified dancers. by Colin Hoisington |
"Until recently, my work has been very heavy (see above). With Smoke, a new series of drawings, I employ light materials (paper, pencil) to describe a weightless subject (smoke) in delicate lines and soft shades of muted color. As in my paintings, the materials underscore the subject matter in these works which explore the more transient, ethereal aspects of existence."The heaviness in my work is also very apparent and lately somewhat concerning. This has led to a recent fascination and attempt to capture scenic photographs of fog, clouds, steam and evaporation. To my delight I have found it impossible to capture its magnificent subtlety, smoothness, and delicacy with a camera, thus giving me the perfect excuse to express it through paint.
Draft 2: Liquified dancers now evaporated, by Colin Hoisington |
Draft 3: Evaporated dancers overlayed with smoke drawing |
1. "Literature and Art are instruments for presenting that which can not be described nor seen."
"La lituratura y el Arte son un instrumento para mostrar aquello que no se puede decir ni mirar de cerca."
2. "Una sensibilidad narrativa nos obliga a atender al contexto; en mas relacional que decisional."
H.Brody: Stories of Sickness (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1987, 171-181.