2 posts from August 2007

Art Jones

I met Art Jones back when I was a baby curator in the mid-90s and he was part of the progressive video collective Not Channel Zero. It might serve to mention that the essay I penned on this collective of guerilla documentarians of the African Diaspora experience got me admitted into the Ph.D. program in Cinema Studies at New York University. In the Q&A below, you can see that Art refers to himself as a sometime Professor, but I have always been struck by the vivid intellectualism he articulates not only in conversation (I always leave the dialogue feeling smarter), but in his expert video mixing which I’ve experienced on many an occasion. First, lets cover the basics: What is a VJ? A VJ is a performance artist. And, if we were to define it in less superlative, layman’s terms, it refers to a live performer of visuals in clubs, music festivals, and arts events. Employing video mixers, they are the guys mixing and scratching and improvising the cool visuals (via projected light) on screens in the background—in much the same way the DJ mixes music. Coolness. I’ve always been a film junkie, I love everything about screen culture—its all about the retina and immersion for me. The cool thing about Art is that he works in a variety of old and new media interfaces and video mixes in the US and abroad. He works in film, digital video, and hybrid media and, as VJ, he has performed with Soundlab, DJ Spooky (That Subliminal Kid), Amiri Baraka, Femmes with Fatal Breaks, and the Anti-Pop Consortium. Currently he is working on an installation project titled SELECTOR, which adopts the concept of the “selector,” so named in Jamaica, beginning in the 1960s, as the careful chooser of music. The selector held the most important role at public and private parties with his/her continuity of rhythm and the ebb and flow of the party at his/her control.

Name: Art Jones
Profession: Media Artist, and sometime Professor
City of Birth: New York City
Tell us about your current project: I'm shooting and coding for an installation project called SELECTOR.
Where do you find your inspiration? I get inspired through obsessive media watching and people-engaging. and music of course.
What’s the one thing that everyone must know about you? I've been told that I'm smooth on the virtual turntables.
What is your most treasured possession? Only one most treasured possession? OK, my original copy of Subway Art by Martha Cooper.
What is your morning routine? Wake Up (alas!). Shower. Grab breakfast and eat in the park. Check email and news. Exciting!
Passion or permanence? I have a lot of passion FOR performance! I guess I will have to say passion.
Are you addicted to anything? Anyone? Image-making and diasporic music scenes. Hmmm...
What was your biggest break? Interviewing hip-hop activist and media assassin Harry Allen.
What is your favorite junk food? Those Japanese chewy fruit candies. You know the ones that are ten times better than starbursts?
What’s on your iPod? My last subway ride I listened to: Big Audio Dynamite’s “Medicine Show,” “Mind Playin' Tricks On Me,” by the Geto Boys, Lee Scratch Perry’s “SDI,” Gil Scott-Heron’s “Who'll Pay Reparations On My Soul,” Dawn Penn’s classic “No, No, No (You Don’t Love Me),” “The Magnificent Seven” by The Clash, “Native Yard #133345” by Teleseen, and I watched some Democracy Now podcast.
Do you recycle? And if so, what? I recycle the images and sounds I encounter.
What’s your favorite website? Today its flickr.com and livesinfocus.org/prison/
Discretion or disclosure? I will disclose if you are discreet.
When and where are you happiest? When I feel balance in my life and I taste freedom.
I would love to work with: All of my past collaborators, MF Doom, Kool Keith, M.I.A., Bad Brains, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Don Letts, Phase 2, Hybrid Groove Project, Spank Rock, Princess Superstar, and for the many who are no longer with us, R.I.P.
The last book I read was: A Portrait of the Artist as a DJ. Notes on Ina Wudtke.
Do you have a side hustle? And if so, what is it? I sometimes freelance as a photographer and cinematographer.
Historical figure you’d like to have met? Walter Rodney
If I weren’t an artist, I’d probably be a(n): A version of my former troubled youth!

In 1993, Erika became a Glamour Magazine Top 10 College Women honoree. This year Glamour celebrated the 50th anniversary of the college women competition with a luncheon presented by L’ORÈAL PARIS. As a distinguished alum, Erika was featured in a video to commemorate the competition’s past history.