Meet a Bay Area musican who has been busking for years.
Far Off Sounds Ep 18 - Onyx Ashanti Programs Himself
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
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Onyx Ashanti is a Detroit-based Afrofuturist living in a basement with only an extension cord from a nearby unit. When he's not traveling the world having sonic conversations about evolution and technology, he's using a homemade 3D printer made from recycled electronics to work on wearable kinetic modular digital synthesizers. The implicit story of music on earth is that of a shared destiny, a deeply-felt common bond that transcends space, time, and tribe, and helps to define us as a species. Onyx works in evolving rituals, from the ancient to the contemporary, forging new paths and passing down timeless practices.
Citation
Main credits
Hurwitz-Goodman, Jacob (filmmaker)
Hurwitz-Goodman, Jacob (film director)
George, Nick (filmmaker)
George, Nick (film producer)
Ashanti, Onyx (on-screen participant)
Distributor subjects
No distributor subjects provided.Keywords
WEBVTT
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The idea of this
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is to kind of
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project reality by
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programing myself
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and then being the thing
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that I program.
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I think that
00:00:54.054 --> 00:00:56.639
like with this, this
00:00:56.639 --> 00:00:58.016
is a computing interface,
00:00:59.184 --> 00:01:02.187
you know, once you have computing
00:01:02.187 --> 00:01:04.397
when she makes the commute, the
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the interface with King Esthetics
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is a different way of
00:01:08.068 --> 00:01:09.235
interacting with the computer.
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I haven\'t gone out on the street
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on purpose to play
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in like two years, so
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I\'m really.
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And it\'s, you know, it\'s going to
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be more drum like than sex
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like, which is going to be
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interesting.
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I like the idea of
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of twisting up
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someone\'s idea
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of what
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of what,
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what jazz is, because once it gets,
00:02:28.022 --> 00:02:30.567
once it gets too predictable,
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it loses its magic
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because there was a time when jazz
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really freaked people out.
00:02:36.322 --> 00:02:38.324
Yes. It\'s like after World War,
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during World War Two
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in New York, there was,
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you know, they weren\'t allowing
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any any clubs to play music
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in that time.
00:02:48.793 --> 00:02:50.962
And so all these
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great jazz musicians
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just kind of shed it in
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basements and like invented
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bebop in like a dozen
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other variations
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on jazz at that time.
00:03:03.641 --> 00:03:05.935
We live in an age that\'s
00:03:05.935 --> 00:03:08.730
after the year 2000.
00:03:08.730 --> 00:03:10.732
You know, we\'ve got
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two three
00:03:12.942 --> 00:03:14.986
generations that have grown up
00:03:14.986 --> 00:03:17.197
on predominantly electronic music
00:03:18.781 --> 00:03:20.950
and all of the cultural shifting
00:03:20.950 --> 00:03:22.911
that that that\'s brought.
00:03:22.911 --> 00:03:23.912
So
00:03:24.913 --> 00:03:26.706
it\'s interesting to investigate what
00:03:26.706 --> 00:03:28.666
type of a jazz form
00:03:28.666 --> 00:03:30.919
would would actually
00:03:30.919 --> 00:03:32.962
be able to drop into
00:03:32.962 --> 00:03:35.340
that and proliferate,
00:03:35.340 --> 00:03:36.925
you know, and propagate itself.
00:04:20.677 --> 00:04:22.053
Eventually, I had to answer right
00:04:22.053 --> 00:04:23.054
now.
00:04:23.680 --> 00:04:25.265
What are you doing?
00:04:25.265 --> 00:04:26.808
Well, the thing is that the keys
00:04:26.808 --> 00:04:28.351
will be working, but right now they
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ain\'t working yet.
00:04:29.477 --> 00:04:31.312
But do you get
00:04:31.312 --> 00:04:32.814
some sleep?
00:04:33.940 --> 00:04:35.108
No, no. This we do.
00:04:35.108 --> 00:04:36.442
OK. I don\'t even know how to get
00:04:42.949 --> 00:04:44.450
back home.
00:04:55.086 --> 00:04:56.087
It\'s
00:04:57.255 --> 00:04:59.048
the overachieving man.
00:04:59.048 --> 00:05:00.049
What you know,
00:05:03.052 --> 00:05:04.262
I think it\'s
00:05:05.805 --> 00:05:07.015
speaks to like
00:05:07.015 --> 00:05:08.349
this right here. Yeah, that\'s like,
00:05:08.349 --> 00:05:09.350
that\'s the.
00:05:09.892 --> 00:05:11.561
You got like saying like, it\'s like
00:05:11.561 --> 00:05:13.271
your own computer, like a USB port.
00:05:13.271 --> 00:05:15.315
Right? You get all those back there
00:05:15.315 --> 00:05:16.983
and see all these pins here.
00:05:16.983 --> 00:05:18.151
You can put stuff up to that
00:05:19.610 --> 00:05:20.611
elevator.
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That\'s how we do it. That\'s how we
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got to do it.
00:05:26.200 --> 00:05:27.201
I like it.
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I mean, everything\'s great.
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Next time I see you, man, yo
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yo yo yo.
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Can I just.
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Some RA have
00:05:40.089 --> 00:05:42.050
future projection protocol.
00:05:42.050 --> 00:05:44.427
He said black kids need to learn
00:05:44.427 --> 00:05:45.970
by hieroglyphs.
00:05:45.970 --> 00:05:47.847
You know, they need the statues,
00:05:47.847 --> 00:05:49.057
they learn differently.
00:05:49.057 --> 00:05:50.892
He was saying that back in the 40s
00:05:50.892 --> 00:05:52.852
and 50s, now
00:05:52.852 --> 00:05:53.811
people are starting to pay it
00:05:53.811 --> 00:05:55.229
attention.
00:05:55.229 --> 00:05:57.106
But I mean, for
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instance, I use
00:05:58.941 --> 00:06:01.194
pure data to do my programing
00:06:01.194 --> 00:06:02.320
with.
00:06:02.320 --> 00:06:04.322
It\'s a very low level
00:06:04.322 --> 00:06:06.032
program. You can it\'s it\'s
00:06:06.032 --> 00:06:07.658
graphical, it\'s real time,
00:06:08.701 --> 00:06:10.453
it\'s down to
00:06:11.662 --> 00:06:13.498
numbers and addition.
00:06:13.498 --> 00:06:15.208
If you could do a whole, you could
00:06:15.208 --> 00:06:16.084
do A.I.
00:06:16.084 --> 00:06:18.127
with nothing but no boxes and in
00:06:18.127 --> 00:06:19.253
additions.
00:06:19.253 --> 00:06:20.046
Right?
00:06:20.046 --> 00:06:21.964
So the thing is, if I had
00:06:21.964 --> 00:06:23.925
been introduced to pure data at 10
00:06:23.925 --> 00:06:24.926
years old,
00:06:26.010 --> 00:06:27.512
I would have gravitate to it
00:06:27.512 --> 00:06:29.639
instantly music, especially
00:06:29.639 --> 00:06:30.807
in Africa.
00:06:30.807 --> 00:06:32.975
Most of these, most of the cultures
00:06:32.975 --> 00:06:34.977
there, the drum
00:06:34.977 --> 00:06:36.854
is integral to the
00:06:36.854 --> 00:06:38.815
communication and
00:06:38.815 --> 00:06:41.109
the drum is the basis of binary
00:06:41.109 --> 00:06:42.360
computing.
00:06:42.360 --> 00:06:44.695
It\'s a four bit sequence
00:06:44.695 --> 00:06:46.697
on off, off on, off
00:06:46.697 --> 00:06:49.200
of on off, right?
00:06:49.200 --> 00:06:51.035
So you have the basis
00:06:51.035 --> 00:06:53.746
of binary computing there
00:06:53.746 --> 00:06:55.623
and it has dialect
00:06:55.623 --> 00:06:56.791
and it has,
00:06:58.292 --> 00:06:59.544
you know, intention.
00:06:59.544 --> 00:07:01.337
It has all of these, you know, has
00:07:01.337 --> 00:07:03.631
all of these subtleties of language,
00:07:03.631 --> 00:07:05.967
all the subtleties of each
00:07:05.967 --> 00:07:08.010
villages, drummers,
00:07:08.010 --> 00:07:09.178
voice.
00:07:09.178 --> 00:07:10.888
That\'s what I see Afrofuturism
00:07:10.888 --> 00:07:12.723
needing to be, you know,
00:07:12.723 --> 00:07:14.934
just another entertainment.
00:07:14.934 --> 00:07:16.769
You know, that\'s like I said,
00:07:16.769 --> 00:07:17.812
that\'s one of the reasons why I\'m
00:07:17.812 --> 00:07:19.647
not playing clubs
00:07:19.647 --> 00:07:21.399
and stuff anymore.
00:07:21.399 --> 00:07:22.733
I mean, could you imagine how
00:07:23.901 --> 00:07:25.820
how retarded the shit
00:07:25.820 --> 00:07:27.905
could be if I stayed
00:07:27.905 --> 00:07:29.240
in the in the music industry,
00:07:30.658 --> 00:07:31.909
cyber man.
00:07:31.909 --> 00:07:33.286
Hey, cyber man, come
00:07:35.121 --> 00:07:36.831
on. Look, I got lights on my hands.
00:07:36.873 --> 00:07:37.832
No, no, no.
00:07:39.876 --> 00:07:41.878
It has to it has to evolve out
00:07:41.878 --> 00:07:42.879
of that shit.
00:07:44.839 --> 00:07:45.923
That\'s the question.
00:07:45.923 --> 00:07:46.924
Yes.
00:07:48.176 --> 00:07:50.011
What is all this, because
00:07:50.011 --> 00:07:51.179
I think it\'s what I was thinking.
00:07:51.179 --> 00:07:53.431
That\'s what you do exactly,
00:07:53.431 --> 00:07:54.265
right?
00:07:54.265 --> 00:07:55.766
That\'s really awesome.
00:07:55.766 --> 00:07:57.602
I went to design a system that I
00:07:57.602 --> 00:07:59.520
could to, you know, to
00:07:59.520 --> 00:08:01.397
just make music that I don\'t
00:08:01.397 --> 00:08:02.940
know. I think stuff like this.
00:08:04.150 --> 00:08:05.860
I like stuff like this, but I think
00:08:05.860 --> 00:08:06.861
it\'s.
00:08:07.862 --> 00:08:09.322
Music is more powerful than
00:08:09.322 --> 00:08:10.865
than than a stage.
00:08:12.158 --> 00:08:14.410
Because for me, it\'s it\'s so as.
00:08:15.912 --> 00:08:16.913
Surround sound.
00:08:16.913 --> 00:08:18.581
Yeah. Designed to make the rounds
00:08:18.581 --> 00:08:21.042
out, so I use it to program.
00:08:23.461 --> 00:08:25.338
It\'s basically to say, look, we can
00:08:25.338 --> 00:08:27.215
do something else.
00:08:27.215 --> 00:08:28.966
We don\'t have to go to war with each
00:08:28.966 --> 00:08:30.885
other to keep our economies
00:08:30.885 --> 00:08:31.844
afloat.
00:08:31.844 --> 00:08:33.012
You know, that\'s just, you know,
00:08:33.012 --> 00:08:34.764
people are going to, hey, you know,
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that\'s just one of the things that
00:08:36.224 --> 00:08:37.391
we do.
00:08:37.391 --> 00:08:40.102
But we can do some other shit, too.
00:08:40.102 --> 00:08:42.230
You know, we can.
00:08:42.230 --> 00:08:44.148
You know, and that\'s the experiment.
00:08:44.148 --> 00:08:45.942
Can we? Where can we?
00:08:45.942 --> 00:08:46.734
Where the music?
00:08:46.734 --> 00:08:48.986
I mean, our brains, our musical,
00:08:48.986 --> 00:08:51.072
our brains are not verbal.
00:08:51.072 --> 00:08:53.449
You know, our our you know,
00:08:53.449 --> 00:08:55.368
our prefrontal cortex does not
00:08:55.368 --> 00:08:57.411
send words to our occipital lobe
00:08:57.411 --> 00:08:58.913
or to our visual cortex.
00:08:58.913 --> 00:09:00.790
It does that in rhythms
00:09:00.790 --> 00:09:02.625
and brain waves,
00:09:02.625 --> 00:09:04.877
rhythms just going in a wave pattern
00:09:04.877 --> 00:09:06.796
all over this thing.
00:09:06.796 --> 00:09:08.297
Right. We can do some other.
00:09:08.297 --> 00:09:09.507
We can do something else.
00:09:09.507 --> 00:09:10.883
We can do a whole bunch of something
00:09:10.883 --> 00:09:11.884
else.
00:09:12.468 --> 00:09:14.178
And I don\'t know.
00:09:14.178 --> 00:09:15.388
I\'m in my 40s now.
00:09:15.388 --> 00:09:16.681
I\'ve already done the stage and
00:09:16.681 --> 00:09:17.765
redone all that stuff.
00:09:17.765 --> 00:09:19.225
Let\'s do the other things.
00:09:19.225 --> 00:09:20.351
Let\'s do that. Other shit.
00:09:20.351 --> 00:09:21.394
Honestly, let\'s see if we\'re going
00:09:21.394 --> 00:09:23.145
to the Moon. This fucking golden.
00:09:23.145 --> 00:09:25.064
This live underwater,
00:09:25.064 --> 00:09:26.941
let\'s, you know, live this, live
00:09:26.941 --> 00:09:28.693
in balloons in the sky.
00:09:28.693 --> 00:09:30.111
Let\'s make that should happen.
00:09:30.111 --> 00:09:31.320
Actually, let\'s just do it right
00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:32.154
now. We\'ve got all the fucking
00:09:32.154 --> 00:09:33.656
information. It\'s all right there.
00:09:35.324 --> 00:09:36.492
I mean, I don\'t want to, you know,
00:09:36.492 --> 00:09:37.660
all the other stuff. I don\'t even
00:09:37.660 --> 00:09:38.911
want to give that shit.
00:09:38.911 --> 00:09:40.955
I don\'t even want to think about
00:09:40.955 --> 00:09:43.124
fighting the good fight and all that
00:09:43.124 --> 00:09:46.085
stupid shit for aggressive people.
00:09:46.085 --> 00:09:47.503
We can do something else.
00:10:03.352 --> 00:10:05.479
Once you start using sound to change
00:10:05.479 --> 00:10:06.981
your own neurology people,
00:10:08.107 --> 00:10:09.859
you start tying together brain
00:10:09.859 --> 00:10:12.278
regions that weren\'t necessarily
00:10:12.278 --> 00:10:14.322
tied together before
00:10:14.322 --> 00:10:16.449
so closely and so easily,
00:10:16.449 --> 00:10:17.617
which changes
00:10:18.659 --> 00:10:20.995
the reality that you project.
00:10:20.995 --> 00:10:22.163
I\'m not the only one.
00:10:23.289 --> 00:10:24.790
You know, it\'s just that,
00:10:25.916 --> 00:10:28.502
you know, I\'ve given myself time
00:10:28.502 --> 00:10:30.421
and space, and I can live
00:10:30.421 --> 00:10:32.381
in a basement with an extension cord
00:10:32.381 --> 00:10:33.716
and be completely happy, which
00:10:33.716 --> 00:10:35.343
allows me to explore what I want to
00:10:35.343 --> 00:10:36.344
explore.
00:11:04.580 --> 00:11:05.581
This version.
00:11:06.749 --> 00:11:08.876
You know, it\'s bulky, and I
00:11:08.876 --> 00:11:10.086
because I tell you one thing I have
00:11:10.086 --> 00:11:12.088
noticed in the last year of wearing
00:11:12.088 --> 00:11:14.131
this and all of that is the number
00:11:14.131 --> 00:11:15.925
of people who want it to be so.
00:11:15.925 --> 00:11:17.468
Want it to be cute.
00:11:17.468 --> 00:11:18.928
They want Oh, can you make that less
00:11:18.928 --> 00:11:20.346
bulky, less, you know?
00:11:20.346 --> 00:11:21.347
And I\'m like.
00:11:22.973 --> 00:11:24.892
Neither you nor I even know
00:11:24.892 --> 00:11:26.811
what it is yet.
00:11:26.811 --> 00:11:28.604
We don\'t know what it is.
00:11:28.604 --> 00:11:30.564
Why? Why does it have to be cute
00:11:30.564 --> 00:11:31.565
now?
00:11:32.358 --> 00:11:33.734
I know I\'m just kind of at that age
00:11:33.734 --> 00:11:36.570
where it\'s like, not much really
00:11:36.570 --> 00:11:37.488
does it for me anymore.
00:11:37.488 --> 00:11:38.531
So I don\'t go out.
00:11:38.531 --> 00:11:39.532
I just work on my shit.
00:11:40.991 --> 00:11:42.952
I used to have dreams as a, as a,
00:11:42.952 --> 00:11:45.162
as a child.
00:11:45.162 --> 00:11:47.039
I have I\'ve always had crazy
00:11:47.039 --> 00:11:48.416
dreams that usually come true.
00:11:50.084 --> 00:11:51.919
But one of them was that I
00:11:51.919 --> 00:11:54.171
was not going to
00:11:54.171 --> 00:11:56.966
die in that way,
00:11:56.966 --> 00:11:57.967
but
00:11:59.218 --> 00:12:01.137
I always looked at this as kind
00:12:01.137 --> 00:12:02.930
of a chrysalis state.
00:12:02.930 --> 00:12:05.433
Somehow I will dissolve
00:12:05.433 --> 00:12:07.101
into one of my constructs.
00:12:07.101 --> 00:12:08.602
I don\'t understand that process yet,
00:12:10.020 --> 00:12:11.021
but if ever
00:12:12.106 --> 00:12:13.274
there was a
00:12:14.650 --> 00:12:16.026
if ever there was a
00:12:17.361 --> 00:12:19.488
an era to be alive
00:12:19.488 --> 00:12:22.575
in that that is a possibility.
00:12:22.575 --> 00:12:23.576
It\'s right now.
Distributor: Means TV
Length: 13 minutes
Date: 2018
Genre: Expository
Language: English
Grade: 10-12, College, Adults
Color/BW:
Closed Captioning: Available
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