STCR Update Summer 2016: Bury the Lead aka Humblebrag aka TL;DR

Hi Fam.

Happy Strawberry Moon on this First Day of Summer. It has been a year since my last confession so I’m super-amped to share these overdue studio updates below.

As the 2016 Media Artist in Resident at Spotify I’ve been given access to all of their data and I’m using it to make art! After 3 months of meeting teammates, attending in-house lectures (& concerts), wrangling data and bartering hack hours, I’ve completed the first stage of my project which investigates virtuality and looks at the playlist as repository of listener aspirations seen through song lyrics. Expect a Winter launch. In the meantime, this Tuesday I’ll be a guest on the panel Black Music: Sound + Culture + Identity which is a part of the Spotify Black Music Month celebration.

#Intersectionality

I’m Super Felice to be in residence this Summer at The Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center on the shore of Lake Como in northern Italy during the thematic month on human behavior.

#Buongiorno

Upon my return, I’ll start a position as an ITP Something In Residence at NYU Tisch School of the Arts and teaching the course Actual Fact: Visualizing Hiphop Lyrics as Cultural Indicator. I’m honored, their alumni list is bonkers!

#WuTangIsForTheChildren

Since the beginning of the year my team of Rap Research Lab fellows and I have been providing professional development to the NYC Parks Department. We are training NYC Parks how to implement the Rap Research Lab Curriculum in 10 Computer Resource Centers throughout NYC.

#AllCity

Provoked and inspired by my inquiry and output, the staff, board and curators of Yerba Buena Center for the Arts have selected me as a member of this year’s YBCA 100.

#IHellaLoveTheBay

Creative Capital produced this cool mini-documentary on some of the work I’ve been doing at the Rap Research Lab

#DataActuallyComplicatesThings

I just sent out the first set of Hip-hop Word Count beta tester invites to my Kickstarter backers. The project was included in this recent celebration of The First 100,000 Funded Kickstarter Projects in 100 Numbers:

#TestingOneTwoTwo

We recently launched a call for entries for Actual Fact at Eyeo 2016 in Minneapolis. Actual Fact is an exhibition of data visualisation & critical writing created from rap lyric data. Actual Fact collaborators set the aesthetic, ethical & intellectual bar for projects involving Hip-hop x Big Data. Sign up here to get involved.

#CommunityCenteredData

Big up to The Black Lunchtable for creating a space for this to happen: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahir_Hemphill

#LetTheEditWarsBegin

The Rap Research Lab is supported by Creative Capital, Hive Digital Media Learning Fund in The New York Community Trust, Eyebeam Art + Technology Center, The Hiphop Archive & Research Institute at Harvard University, The Frank-Ratchye STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University and NEW INC.

Peace to those who have suffered during the recent tragedy in Orlando.

That is all for now. Thanks for your eyeballs. Forward widely. Unsubscribe wildly.

Be Well,

Tahir