Gimme some transformation

Combining the different beats of two tracks is a form of translation. Sampling Arabian coffee house music from the 1950s for a Rap in London is a form of translation.

Freestyling and Breakdance moves are spontaneous translations of a moment, just like the mimicking of machine-generated sounds in Beatboxing. The reinterpretation and hence appropriation of the “other” has always been a driving force of creative performance in Hip Hop.

Host: Mark Butler | followed by film screenings

Participants:

Jannis K. Androutsopoulos is Professor of Linguistics and Media Linguistics at the University of Hamburg. His current project examines the tensions between improvisation and script in a London Hip Hop theater group.

Mark Butler studied cultural sciences and European ethnology at Humboldt University. In addition to his academic work, he also develops various multimedia projects. He is a founding member of the Berlin artists’ network, Memenet.

Born in the Bronx in 1963, Joe Conzo is considered the first photographer of the Hip Hop scene.

Jürgen Streeck is associate professor in the Departments of Communication Studies and Germanic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. His main area of expertise is the video-based study of human face-to-face interaction in real-life settings.

Dorit Rode is a Hip Hop dancer and author. In 2002 she published her book “Breaking, Popping. Locking”.