WORKS IN PROGRESS

2010 – Entro MC – Sometimes It Snows in April (in Dub) – 2010 – sound/mixed media

Utilizing recycled tape media, indelible marker, marantz tape decks, and Ableton live, Chicago based Entro MC sets out to edit and reinterpret through fair use Prince’s “Sometimes it snows in April.” In dub.

The process samples heavily the studio techniques of analog tape pioneers like King Tubby and Mad Professor. By utilizing tapes rather than other media, there is the ability innate in the medium to physically augment and reappropriate the sound contained therein. It also heavily nods towards the anarchist street ethos of fellow subversive artists such as Weed Wolf, Oh Shit!, and Morgan by questioning antiquated concepts of legal boundaries establishing new autonomous zones.

Utilizing oil based opaque paint markers, the original cassette media has been tagged in pure white marker with the Korean word for “corpse” methodically every three open spaces of the audio tape case. The tape has been manually wound with a finger to cover the length of the original track. By the nature of the paint, each sigil varies in clarity based on the amount of time left for the mark to dry until the next rotation which ultimately changes the sound of the audio per inscription.

Once the original tape has been obfuscated, it is loaded into a marantz deck and archived digitally. Due to the effect of the paint on the tape heads, each deck also varies in sound quality and output. All three sources are imported into Ableton live and further cut, splice, chopped and screwed with their particular timbres and textures to recreat the original work.

The unlikely usage of Prince, who at heart is staunchly against free intellectual property, is ultimately the subject matter of the piece referencing varying themes of fear such as death, money, ownership, and loss. It is meant to be not a criticism but a reaction and meditation of the lack of control, which at its very heart is the essence of glitch.

Final work presented on Cassette at 7 minutes.

2010 – Disintegration “A Meditation on Nostalgia” – Sound Mixed Media

“nostalgia is the repetition that mourns the inauthenticity of all repetitions and denies the repetition’s capacity to define identity.”

Inspired from the work of William Basinski’s Disintegration Loops, Disintegration is a combined sound work and mixed media piece focused on the repurposing of found cassette media, recontextualized audio interpolations, and thematic reappropriation. Rooted in the essence of hip hop culture, fair use, copyright reform, and conservation, the aim is to create a sound work using base alchemical memes from distinct decades of music and sound. It is at once a reflection of a journey or instinctive travel towards redefinition, repurposing, a rewinding of values and also a sobering criticism of nostalgia in the wake of mortality. Each tape of fifty is a recursive recording of each predecessor and varies in meaning, tonal quality and audio consistency breaking free from the apparent surface commonality of each edition.

The specific vessel are collected cassettes of the original work by the Cure “Disintegration” procured via various resale and record shops. Each holds a 35 minute audio piece reimagining the incidental and interweaved skit that first appears on “People’s Instinctive Travels in the Paths of Funk and Rhythm” by a Tribe Called Quest. The content features the original three second sample from Eugene McDaniels looped tirelessly while a single performer claps in time. An announcer speaking in a stream of consciousness mimicks Jarobi’s adlib introduction of the song titles to announce the programming of the Cure’s cassette over a span of 35 minutes. The piece is recorded directly over the original content of the cassette and only ceases at the beginning of the final track on side A.

These introductions are meant to comprise a eulogy of sorts, rambling on to reinterpret the actual content which has been physically eradicated by means of the recording process. The repetition of “Word” to close each chapter is meant to hypnotically signify a line break or footnote like an amen. Similar to a funeral hymn the last entry entitled “Untitled” is allowed to play in its entirity before the tape program ceases, looping to the other side. The cover has been personalized and obfuscated into a makeshift casket masking the original packaging much like a cadaver is adorned for a public viewing or a makeshift scrapbook handcrafted for a dead high school friend.

Ongoing video blog

2010 – Fake Names – Installation / interactive GIS map





Fake names is an exploration of semiotics through street art inspired by my years involved with graffiti art culture. It stands as both a criticism of the state of current street art content, an exploration of the use of language and a navigation of foreign territories and landmarks. Using the phonetic based Korean language and Hangul characters and the use of markers, spray paint, and stencils, I set out to reinterpret various recurring street art tags. Each of these pieces displays the phonetic spelling / translation of an assumed street name of a particular street artists work. These obfuscations are incorporated into the street artists work somewhat in the vein of the concept of toys, untalented artists who either created substandard work but act more as subtitles. It is a direct reference to Beat Street and the character of Spit who sprayed his tag over other pieces to assume ownership over other people’s work. By translating phonetically the artist’s fake name, it is intended to create a feedback loop; neither understood or interpreted by the artist or the Korean culture in which aids in the translation. Each point is mapped via GPS data from an iphone and imported as GIS data using ArcGIS. An alternative tourist map is created to mark these points and to map new, legitimized territories bridging cultures, languages, and laws.