Zhao, you come of (to me anyways) as having a big chip on your shoulder about other people thinking what you do is fake / not real / etc. Why are you so worried about other people think about your craft and choice of tools? If you find them good and suffiicient for your dj'ing, why the hell do you care so much about other peoples opinions and reasons that obviously boil down to personal preference and aren't right or wrong in any objective sense.
Alfons, i am quite happy with what i do, how i do it, and the small amount of success it is receiving. I am not in the least worried about what other people think.
The Importance of Being Honest
the question of "honesty" as applied to artistic endeavor, as i have said before, is not only real, but an important one. no it is most certainly not all subjective.
there is a Christian Marclay sculpture, in which audio tape is constantly in the process of dropping from the ceiling from a tape recorder, like a waterfall, accompanied by the sound of water falling. it is quite beautiful, but the fact that the sound of the piece did not come from the actual movement of the objects you see was a let down. because it diminishes the integrity of the work, is destructive of what would have been a natural elegance which arise from the process, and takes away from the experience. the natural hissing noise made by the tape would have been much more Honest.
so in art making, there are things that are generally ill advised. "hiding", "pretending", and "betraying context" are a few of them.
in a Tara Donovan sculpture consisting of a large cube of toothpicks, no glue was used: the toothpicks clump together naturally. knowing this is very important to the work; and if somehow it was discovered that glue was actually used, or worse that there is a wooden structure below the surface, it would drastically reduce the power and significance of the piece.
another few examples: showing pure graffiti in a gallery is categorically a bad idea because it belongs in the street, and its recontextualization not only adds nothing, but destroys the purpose of the work. similarly, lip syncing on stage, as practiced by pop stars, is not cool.
who cares you say? not the general public, but those who are invested in art, art making, and art experiences do.
of course there are exceptions:
if your project is
about illusion, theater, etc, then hiding is of course OK. (cover photography for Vogue arguably is about theater and ideal beauty, so air-brushing is OK).
if your work is
about disingenuousness or make-believe, the act of making something which pretends to be something else becomes a part of it. (most Hollywood films are about these things so using a painted sunset backdrop makes sense)
so i am calling bullshit on the "if you can't do it on stage don't put it on a CD" attitude. because, to state my position again: a studio recording is a studio recording. a live performance is a live performance. and the process of their making should stay true to their respective context of creation and ultimate function.
there is room for debate along the lines of what is the function of a recorded DJ mix -- but remember i do not have a problem with Martyn using turntables; it is he who said using Ableton to make perfect studio mixes is "dishonest", which to me is a false interpretation of what Honesty means (and again, he did not preface it with a statement of personal preference or project specificity, so it can only be assumed that he means it generally)
is dance music art? i think it can be but perhaps in most cases not exactly. but neither is industrial design -- i believe all creative work should be accountable to this kind of criteria, this kind of questioning.
do most people think these things are important? no. but i most certainly do. and if you are still reading this, it probably is at least a little to you too.
