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BEN ROBERTS' ECLECTIKTURNTABLISM: THE ANTI-DJ
Description
A performance of interactive experimental turntablism: recycled music. Based around and inspired totally by waste material considered utterly worthless and low-tech, found dumped or purchased second hand for minimal cost. This material includes records, tapes, cds, record players, tape machines, electronic toys, and other domestic appliances, such as fans and bathroom scales, which are modified for the purpose of music making.
The compositional process
Each time many analogue formats (such as tapes, vinyl records) are played, they are gradually degraded. This performance is based upon accelerating that process: here, audio material is modified destructively. The 'found audio material' (tapes, discs) is used as the basis for improvisations and is prepared in various ways: Records are etched, marked, glued, warped, stickered and painted, tapes to be spliced and cut up. Playback machines have been previously modified by the artist so as to interfere with the discs and tapes and degrade them irrevocably in use whilst producing new sonic textures not conceived by the original manufacturers. This degradation thus forms the basis of the compositional process.
From here, these sound elements are thrown together in an improvised live situation led by the artist. The audience is then faced with a new sound environment, a spontaneous 'recycled symphony' which, they themselves are invited to participate in making – hence ceasing to be an audience, with all its passive connotations, and instead become creators.
The performance involves using the machines, discs, tapes etc. as instruments in their own right, beyond the music they contain. This is achieved mostly by including the sound of the degradation of the format such as crackles, surface noise, hum, rumble, scratches, background hiss, etc. which are generally considered undesirable/lo-fi artefacts.
Eclectikturntablism, however, is not merely the creative destuction of certain mass culture products. The performance sets out to destroy the traditional 'norms' of the DJ and demolish the hierarchical concept of 'audience'.
Conceptual framework
'From the top 40 to the cultural scrapheap in no time at all' is one possible description of the ephemeral and disposable 'mass' or 'popular' culture. Thanks to this phenomenon, piles and piles of unsellable records are continually accumulating and often end up in landfills. Add to these the ones which are discarded because of damage or wear. In addition there are whole collections of obsolete or less desirable formats such as cassettes, 8 track cartridges or open reel tape which were dumped because the consumer preferred a more 'desirable ' format such as cd or mp3. It is precisely this waste which provides a continuous stream of raw material put to use in Eclectikturntablism.
Eclectikturntablism aims to destroy the norms of the DJ and generally takes up a diametrically opposed position in terms of material, appliances, methodology, status and performance, with the aim of creating new performance relationships and sonic environments.
Notes on Methodology
This could be summed up as: Transforming the 'undesirable' into the valuable :
-Using the machines, tapes etc. as instruments in their own right, beyond the
music they contain. Modifying, dismantling etc. in order to investigate new
forms of expression and artistic possibilities of old and out of date analogue
media. Making hybrid devices out of old domestic appliances not usually
associated with music making.
-Recontextualising commercial cultural products (discs, tapes etc) through
distortion, hence removing the function conceived by the manufacturers (music
for dancing, relaxation etc.)
-Perverting the norms of the DJ (see below): making use of what they generally consider
disasterous - the stuck/scratched/jumpy record - as a central part of the
performance.
-Using the sound of the format, traditionally considered undesirable/lo-fi, such
as hum, rumble, scratches, hiss, etc. as an element in the sound sculpture.
-Purity in approach: No use of high technology, computers, sound-cleaning or digital treatments.
-Maintaining a continual process of investigation and experimentation with both
materials and performance elements such as collaborations with visual, dance
and performance artists
-Challenging the existing power structure whch exists between the artist and the public by | |||||||||||||||||||||