Rap is Art: Creating Spaces for the Interpretation of Misunderstood Voices
This paper by TeAiris Majors explores the integration of rap music, an auditory art form conveying powerful sociopolitical commentary, into visual arts spaces to create immersive multimedia experiences. A virtual museum was developed in Unity, spatializing music from prominent rap artists to amplify their messages. Interactions allow users to visualize lyrics and access sources linked to deeper analysis. Parallels are drawn to soundscape composition techniques and the World Soundscape Project’s exploration of acoustic ecology. Goals include highlighting lyrical depth in rap by extracting and projecting vocal and song lyrics, uniting visual and auditory arts through an inclusive museum space, and providing an innovative template for future virtual experiences. This paper argues that rap music deserves recognition as impactful artistic expression, not just mere entertainment, containing deeper meaning beyond its aural perspective. It concludes that embracing rap music in cultural institutions and virtual interactive experiences can increase accessibility and awareness, foster dialogue about social justice, identity, and empowerment, and resonate with more diverse audiences.
Songs of Wind and Flowers is an instrument design project by J.F. Nation centered on reframing the Aztec Death Whistle within a decolonial sonic history of the Anthropocene. By redesigning the whistle to augment metal vocals in a historically informed performance practice, this work rejects the bloodthirsty tropes associated with the instrument that enabled genocidal violence against Indigenous peoples. This reinterpretation instead highlights Nahua philosophy’s high literature and spiritual symbolism, contextualizing Plantationocene capitalism through the genocide of Indigenous Americans leading to the ‘Orbis Spike’. The research invites Western audiences to reevaluate the instrument’s mythologized historical context, moving beyond unfounded pop cultural narratives and fostering a deeper engagement with Indigenous contributions to environmental and cultural discourses.
Doongdoong.club: A Web-Based Metaverse Music Sequencer With Korean Onomatopoeic and Mimetic Words
Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression
By: Chaeryeong Oh, Dayoung Lee, and Alexandria Smith
DoongDoong.club introduces a unique musical metaverse, where participants collaboratively create real-time music with Korean onomatopoeic and mimetic words as a distinctive sound source. This exploration emphasizes the platform’s innovative contributions, featuring Korean onomatopoeic and mimetic words as a central, unique sound element.