diary

April 22 2019 pt.1

Since I arrived here, I decided to hang out on the Schulterblatt without approaching anybody for the Schulterplayy project. I wanted to have a feeling of the street, of the people that inhabit it, and of the business that characterises it.
I used this exploration phase to write down the names of the shops and the bars, and identify the buildings where apartments are located. I mapped out the area for myself, in order to embed analog notes of my research onto a bigger poster-size sketch of the street.
I felt overwhelmed since the very beginning, because the street is marked by different kind of paces.
There's the business-level pace, which is fast and hectic and profit-driven.
There's the tourist/stroller/window-shopper pace, which is more relaxed even though a bit goofy and intermittent depending on the inputs the tourist/stroller/window-shopper receives from the environment.
There's the homeless pace, driven by the attention the begging manages to get; the local/inhabitant/frequent-customer pace which is more secure and it can be either faster or slower, depending on the schedule of the person (lunch break/day off/cigarette-purchase mission, etc).

Then there's me.

I've been zig-zagging among different bars and cafes, and observing the different agents on the business level. I walked around with my notebook (I use a smaller one for quick notes, when I don't want to be overtly visible, and a bigger one for proper project notes). I also tried to purchase whatever I needed at the moment from local businesses, in order to have a disengaged (from the project) interaction with the people, and try and understand the level of friendliness or suspicion these people might have.
I had mixed feelings regarding this, and I realised this first reconnaissance had been useful, and productive in its own way.
As I said, I felt overwhelmed by this street, and took three days of break from the Schulterblatt, taking advantage of our Lord's holy Easter vacation.
Today, April 22, our Lord is still forcing everybody into their breaks from work and grocery shopping, but I managed to use the detox from the initial insecurities to start harvesting songs from the Schulterblatters.

April 22 2019 pt.2

For the first day of Harvest I covered 15 out of 118 business activities on the Schulterblatt (and 27 songs). Most of the people were very enthusiast about the idea of contributing songs for a street playlist.
I observed different kind of listening habits from the reactions of the people. Some of them, especially the younger ones, wouldn't be able to say what their favorite songs were without looking at their Spotify library or at their YouTube chronology. Sound and video streaming platforms are the most popular amongst youngsters. The use of either Spotify or YouTube marks not only a difference in music consumption (with a revamping of video streaming, especially with unlimited data in mobile phone contracts) but also a divide in terms of regional music markets' representation. For example: most of the Germans of Turkish descent - those who listen mostly to Turkish music - use YouTube mostly because Turkish music is underrepresented on streaming platforms such as Spotify.
Other younger people would be able to tell me their favorite songs right away, showing a voracious listening practice, executed with special attention to the artists and the content of their songs, as well as their emotional response to it. In relation to this: some would clearly state "I listen to this song almost every day when I come to work on the Schulterblatt because it makes me feel good", and others "I have too many songs that I like but I'll choose just a few for you".
Other people, especially older people, would share with me songs from their regional/cultural descent out of Germany, underlining the political meaning of the music they were giving me, and clearly separating this music from the music they broadcast in their business: "This is not the music we put on for our customers, this is our music".

The people I approached were immersed in the fast pace of their activity, which didn't allow me to record our conversations.
I am planning to go back (I said goodbye to them adding every time, with a smile: "You'll se me again") and collect perhaps some conversations or some portraits of them in their workplace.
The fact that they had to share something as simple as a song or two for me (some shared up to 4), and that I wasn't selling or promoting anything, allowed me to have an easy access to them.
The only exception is given by people who were REALLY busy, which makes me think I should layer my interview work in time sections, for example approaching the people working in restaurants before or after the rush hour.

April 23 2019

This has been my Schulterplaay harvest day number 2. I started off from the shops that seemed to me less inspiring in terms of "local colorfulness", which turned out to be the places in which I found the most enthusiastic and committed people, who even proposed to design a logo for Schulterplayy (wow!) and want to be updated about the forthcoming events and the developments of the project. These are the people that work in fancy shops that do not receive floods of customers on a daily basis, hence they spend their time listening to music, and exchanging music from each other's digital libraries. They are also very embedded in the local music scene, reason why they shared with me tracks by local musicians.
Some people chatted very friendly with me, especially after complimenting about my Deftones White Pony cap, and told me clearly "You're always welcome here with any kind of art!".
This kind of friendliness really boosted my energy up, together with the fact that some bar tenders recognised me from my first reconnaissance days and even guessed what would have been my order at the café (a.m.a.z.i.n.g.).
I had a research turn off though, especially when I encountered some resistance in particular from two older people, who had no idea of how to make sense of what I was proposing to them. They perceived me as a threat, treated me with suspicion, and refused to engage with me, urging me to leave.
I found out that a bar on the Schulterblatt is owned by a German rapper (will investigate further this one - of course they shared his music with me), but my gem today was - o.f. c.o.u.r.s.e. - a record shop.
I had a nice chat with the owner, bought some records and CD's (not a captatio benevolentiae, this is just me not resisting when I find some music I like), and he curated for me a list of 5 songs which not only represent his taste, but also the attitude and the genres mostly supported in his record shop.
L.O.V.E. I.T.
One thing that I realised is that I cannot maintain a level of enthusiasm and persuasion after hitting 14-15 interactions. And when I am not enthusiast and able of persuading with a relaxed, trustworthy, and committed face, I encounter resistance.
I am wondering whether I should try and approach the elderlies again in the coming days, but...I also observed that there was no music in their shops, which might also mean that they actually DO NOT like music, or do not have any particular preference. Which might be the case. Or maybe they just did not like me...which might also be the case, and it's ok, just because if they refuse to share music, then their taste is not going to be represented. It's not the end of the world after all.
One thing is good. Many people are waiting for me to bring flyers and posters of the coming events. And I am oh-so thrilled about what's coming up!

April 25 2019

I started the day with an amazing meeting with professor and thinker Kathrin Wildner. We had a conversation on the Schulterblatt and about Schulterblatt/Schulterplayy related things. As all good occurrences on the Schulterblatt, this gave me the right energy to harvest new music when Kathrin left to head to work.
As already acknowledged and registered in the previous days, there are ups and downs in the interactions with Schulterblatters, some of them respond very enthusiastically, some do respond with some hesitation, some refuse entirely to transition from mere Schulterblatters to active Schulterplayyers.
I encountered one more resistance today; a pharmacist, as the other two people described in the previous diary entries, responded repeatedly "No" to my question, even when confronted with one last question: "You have absolutely NO music in your life?".
"No."
These answers are entirely legitimate, but I cannot hide that when this kind of exchange happens, my mood and energy lowers. I feel like I have to perform more in order to convince and seduce them, and the amount of energies a person has is not infinite, unfortunately. Even when people respond positively and are willing to share their music, even then - when they charge you with positivity and enthusiasm - the amount of received energy is not equal to the one spent, mostly.
I realised I cannot yet cover more than an average of 15 interactions in one day.
The good part is that some people I talked to already do recognise me on the street as I walk up and down (I do not follow a specific trajectory or plan, I follow my guts and the level of business in the shops) and greet me as I pass by, smiling.

I want to share briefly something in relation to my yesterday's activity. As I explained, it is very tiring to sustain a number of interactions on a daily basis for this project, so yesterday I decided to take a break and visit the Hyper exhibition at Deichtorhallen.
The exhibition shows works that bridge/cross/hybridise/merge art and music. My overall judgement is that it is a very good exhibition. Most of the works spoke to me, and some of them spoke to me on a deeper level - emotional, intellectual, aesthetical.
I do have three favorite exhibited pieces, which reached the podium for entire different reasons, and perhaps they embody some of the core reasons why I like art, when I like art.

First place my own personal podium is Powerbank (Alice in Blockchains) by Britta Thie. The Powerbanks are sculptural/design seatings from which bulges of cables hang. They are power stations, where you can recharge your devices' batteries. For Hyper! she compiled some playlists that can be listened to while sitting on the Powerbanks. 11/10 for me. It is a work that somehow hides itself, because not recognisable at first sight (what? a USABLE artwork?) and the playlists are amazing.

The second spot on the podium is Nightlife by Cyprien Gaillard, a 3D film accompanied by the refrain of Black Man's Pride by Alton Ellis, processed into a dub looping sound piece with echo, reverb and other effects that immerse you into an extremely trippy experience where seemingly artificial images alternate with drone shots.

My third favorite piece in the exhibition is I've Never Been to Berghain by Filip Topolovac.

April 26

Since yesterday night, I dedicated myself mostly to the design of a flyer and general visual communication for the event that I am organising here at Westwerk. (which kindly gave me a studio to live and work in while in Hamburg). Beside studios, Westwerk. has also a nice gallery and bar/concert space, the latter is the one I will use for my event with Broshuda.
Broshuda is one of my favorite musicians, beside being a real and digital friend. I consume avidly his music, and I am very fond of his attitude towards creation and distribution. His varied interests always condense into very nicely crafted end products which carry his unmistakeable signature.
I am very happy to host him within this project, and this is why I wanted the design to be "good enough".
It's not the best, because the time available did not allow me to reach out and ask for professional help, and I am a bit rusty in editing visual designs.
This is what thinking, overthinking, planning, overplanning, doing, (sometimes) overdoing do to you.
See the results of my design struggles on the right.

April 27 2019

People shared with me soundtracks of their heartbreaks, others made a collective effort of choosing songs they truly love, other more artistically inspired people thoughtfully selected tunes that can represent their overall taste across eras of music history over the last decades.
The best places, as usual, for my harvest, go on being the record shops, where the selection process is always a very meticulous endeavour, in which the record shop person needs to showcase his/her own taste.Some other people realised they could just ask me to Shazam the music that they were playing in their shops..and this is how Shazam started being used in this Schulterplayy harvest process.
All of this adds more and more variety to the taste mapping of the Schulterblatt as Schulterplayy, as a digital user interacting with algorithms aimed at recognising consumption/streaming patterns.

This is me, in my Westwerk. studio, with my Schulterblatt map, and my playlist mindmap.

April 30 2019

I visited XYZ Cargo's studio. I am very glad that this studio agreed on partnering with Noiserr at the Hamburg Maschine/Schulterplayy by lending their amazing cargo bikes. Their work and their mission match Noiserr's purposes and aesthetics.
Today I also collected the flyers from the print shop, and the spreading of the Noiserr Feat. Broshuda verb on the streets of Hamburg officially took off.

May 2 2019

"Can I take a picture of your favorite song?"
The harvest continue, those who don't want to write down the songs allow me to take pictures of the devices they stream their music from, or to..again..Shazam the music that they are streaming in their shops. I managed to catch a woman singing along her favorite song when I stepped into the kiosk she works in, and she was very quick in telling me: "Shazam it, this is my favorite song!" and went on singing.

May 3 2019

The harvest continues. Today I had amazing encounters with older women who were glad of sharing their favorite music with me. I became a great fan of specifically one of them, a woman with a stunning white and red coordinated outfit running a bar on the Schulterblatt which smells of spilled beer and ashtray. She was taking the trash out when I got into the bar, and when she stepped back in, she got scared because of my presence. When she realised I was not there to threaten her (and also seeing how this scene made me giggle very much), she took a moment to get herself together, and looked for her favorite song...on the bar's jukebox.
I loved this moment very much, because after days of people looking down on their phone screens to search for their favorite music, this woman performed an entire different set of moves, which were touching, hilarious, sweet, and dedicated, all at once.