Global Studios and Audiotopias Showcase

Audiotopia, coined by scholar, writer, journalist, teacher, and curator Josh Kun, describes music’s ability to create a unique virtual world for the listener in which “contradictions and conflicts do not cancel each other out but coexist and live through each other.” Working digitally with each other across the globe, this project of collaborative musical compositions featured artists including Francis Ayamga’s Top Link Music Band (Bongo, Ghana), The Meridian Brothers (Bogotá, Colombia), Dustin Wong (Los Angeles), Takako Minekawa (Tokyo, Japan), MC Yallah (Kampala, Uganda), Debmaster (Berlin, Germany), Nililoxica (Kampala, Uganda/Leeds, UK), Lucas Santtana (Salvador, Bahia, Brazil), Tafi Cultural Institute (Tafi Atome, Ghana), Golden Teacher (Glasgow, UK), and Sun Araw (Los Angeles).Using the “human signal chain” as the basis for compositional strategies that utilize the “virtual” and the “global," this course explored new models for remote collaboration.

Collaborators: MC Yallah, Debmaster, The Meridian Brothers, Takako Minekawa, Dustin Wong, Lucas Santtana, Francis Ayamga, Golden Teacher, Chilly, Banty, Sun Araw, Adham Zidan, Nadah El Shazly, Nihiloxica