Sampling as a Kind of Writing – An Interactive Lab with Kayo Chingonyi

Akala @ Rick Mix for Refugee Week produced by Counterpoints Arts, June 19, 2015. Photo © Marcia Chandra.

Credit: Marcia Chandra

Venue: RichMix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Rd, London E1 6LA

Date: 26th April 2016

Time: 4- 6:30 pm

Please join us for a Learning Lab with Kayo Chingonyi, where we’ll explore, through discussion and practice, the idea of ‘sampling’ and writing as acts of migration. In particular we’ll look at the potential for ‘creative revision and activism’ when artists play with the texture of a word, sound, or image.

During the Learning Lab we’ll also look at various kinds of disembodied language (content that has no explicit author). We’ll work with ‘found’ text and content to make new writing.

Ahead of the Lab, we’d like you to record (in audio or visual format) some examples of words being used in this way. Some examples: leaflets, signs, train station announcements, etc.

Please send one image or one short audio recording (10 – 15 seconds or so) to k.chingonyi@gmail.com by midnight April 24th with ‘sampling as a kind of writing’ in the subject field. Preferred format for audio is wav, mp3, or aac.

Moderator: Aine O’Brien, Counterpoints Arts; Respondents: Agnes Woolley, Royal Holloway University and Ismail Einashe, Researcher and Journalist.

Links for further reading/inspiration:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2011/01/mess/ (an article by poet and performer, Douglas Kearney)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDGO6BrYNXQ&list=PLUjRLqgT2VpVK9Y5zhaOkF9J85XwTH9vb (A playlist exploring the role of sampling in Hip Hop and in particular the oeuvre of James ‘J Dilla’ Yancey).

https://vimeo.com/112424063 (A collaborative performance incorporating poetry and sampling)

http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/audio/speaking-out-spoken-word-artistic-practice-audio-recordings (Audio from a symposium held at the Tate re: Cathy Lane’s book Playing With Words – which collects writing from a range of artists who use the spoken word in their practice).

Kayo Chingonyi is a fellow of the Complete Works and the author of two poetry pamphlets, Some Bright Elegance (Salt, 2012) and The Colour of James Brown’s Scream (Akashic, 2016). He has held residencies with First Story, the ICA, and Nuffield Council on Bioethics and is currently Poet-in-Residence for Counterpoints Arts and Royal Holloway, University of London.

To register and for more information, contact Tom Green: tom@counterpointsarts.org.uk

The Lab is part of Kayo’s ongoing residency, a collaboration between Humanities and Arts Research Centre, Royal Holloway and Counterpoints Arts: https://artsmigration.wordpress.com/

A related event featuring Kayo will take place at RichMix that evening from 7.30pm: Literature and Activism – bringing refugee experiences ‘home’. The event is presented in association with Pereine Press in the run-up to the publication of breach, by Olumide Popoola and Annie Holmes

Details and tickets: http://counterpointsarts.org.uk/event/literature-and-activism-bringing-refugee-experiences-home/