DMLab London- Accessible DJing and collaborative instrument design
When: Tuesday 28th May
Time: 6PM-8.30PM
Venue: Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London, E1 6LA OR live stream
DMLab is a space for Disabled and Non-Disabled musicians, technologists, and makers to exchange practices and explore new accessible instruments.
We’re delighted to welcome guest presenters who will be sharing their practice and research projects: Dr Maria Witek, Caroline the DJ, and Gemma Nash from the University of Birmingham will present a recent study in DJing and Disability; and artist, composer, and lecturer Ingrid Plum from UAL: London College of Communication who, together with BA Sound Arts Year 2 students, will discuss their accessible musical instrument development projects.
The event will also include opportunities for networking and music making and testing a selection of instruments from Drake Music’s Accessible Musical Instrument Collection.
While this will be an in-person event, there will also be the opportunity to view the presentations online. Register for an online ticket to receive the Zoom link.
Access:
The venue is accessible, there will be a quiet space available, and we will have live captions and BSL interpreters at the session. Please let us know of any specific access requirements when registering for the event.
Taken from the Rich Mix website:
“Our main entrance can be accessed via a ramp on Bethnal Green Road. Once inside, lifts provide access to all our gallery/performance spaces and all three of our cinema screens, each of which has wheelchair bays.
There are four accessible toilets in venue with RADAR locks:
- On the ground floor near reception / The Stage / Streetside
- On the first floor by the Cinema Bar and near the Gallery / Cinema
- Outside Screen 2 (2nd floor in the cinema)
- On the fourth floor near The Studio and The Mix space.”
Image description: Overhead view of analogue turntables, with added colouring in purple, green, pink and red. Two hands are seen adjusting a record on one of the turntables.
Photo credit: Maria Witek
DJing and Disability by Dr Maria Witek, Caroline the DJ, Gemma Nash
https://more.bham.ac.uk/witeklab/projects/
This talk will present a recent study using the social model of disability and participatory approaches to explore the experiences of Disabled DJs. In collaboration with Drake Music and Native Instruments, we used media diaries, follow-up interviews and workshops to understand the experiences of both physical and mental barriers to DJing as a Disabled Person. In addition to these barriers, the research highlights the socially and emotionally empowering experiences that DJing can offer.
Dr Maria Witek (she/they)
Maria Witek is Associate Professor of Music at the University of Birmingham. Her main interest is in researching the psychology, cognitive science and cognitive philosophy of musical experience, with a focus on rhythm, timing, emotion and body-movement. Much of her work is centred on trying to understand how dance music experiences and practices emerge from interactions between embodied, neural, musical and social processes.
Caroline the DJ (they/them)
Caroline the DJ, also known as Caroline Cooke, is an electronic music artist, educator, and advocate. They are celebrated for their DJ work, including a residency at Aaja Radio and a feature in DJ Mag, where they shared their unique perspective as a neuro-divergent artist. Caroline is not only committed to creating art but also to fostering inclusivity within the music industry, particularly for marginalised communities, making music both a creative outlet and a powerful form of communication.
Gemma Nash (she/her)
Gemma Nash works in sound with a focus on re-imagining the ‘othered’ body and the complex relationship between medicine, disability and ethics. She came to sound art through being a laptop DJ and VJ mixer. Specialising in funky house and drum and bass under the name Crip2night, she later produced her own compositions and began to experiment with VJing.
Image description: A headshot of Ingrid Plum against a background of green leaves. Ingrid is wearing a grey t-shirt and is smiling at the camera.
Ingrid Plum (they/she) – https://www.arts.ac.uk/colleges/london-college-of-communication/people/ingrid-plum
Ingrid Plum is an artist and composer who uses the voice with extended technique, improvisation, field recordings, percussion and electronics. Ingrid is Lecturer in Sound Arts & BA Sound Arts Year 2 Leader on UAL’s BA (Hons) Sound Arts, and has been running a course centred around collaborative design with a particular focus on accessible musical instrument development. Ingrid will be talking about this course and will be joined by some students who will discuss the projects they developed as part of the module.
Daniel Marin & Lucas Yoshimura
BA Sound Arts students Daniel Marin and Lucas Yoshimura will be presenting their accessible instrument- ‘The Air Soundscape Generator’, which consists of a series of sensors playing different sounds common in the sound arts realm, like noise, ambience or field recordings. The instrument also has a built-in effect, with everything controlled by ultrasonic sensors, making it very easy and very accessible to control with any part of the body.
Daniel Marin:
Daniel is a sonic artist and experimental electronic musician based in London. He likes to play with electronic devices and experiment through different genres of music and forms of art, always trying to go a little bit further and finding new fields and techniques which are innovative. Currently focused in composing electronica and ambient pieces, he has been involved in diverse projects in sound art and sound design with different organisations from around the globe. The sound emerging from the modular synths and tape recorders he uses, brings us tracks full of immersive atmospheres and rich textures, creating an abstract world to submerge in.
Lucas Yoshimura:
Lucas Yoshimura Wood is a sound artist/musician from London. They study BA Sound Art at UAL LCC, main focuses including noise, soundscape, sound design. In 2024 they began performing improvised noise sets with Tata Cheng using no input techniques.
DMLab London is supported by the City Bridge Trust and with public funding from Arts Council England.
Poster photo credits: Maria Witek, Martin Delaney
