“Chopped & Screwed“ — Practices & Problems of Appropriation
Prof. Lukas Feireiss & Prof. Dr. Brigitte Weingart  (Transdisciplinary Artistic Education & Media Theory)
English, 2 SWS, 2 ECTS
Starts: 8.1.2024, 10 h, Hardenbergstr. 33, Raum 101

The art of chopping, screwing, cutting, mixing and sampling appropriated content to create new artefacts and storylines out of the reconfigured and re-contextualized materials lies at the heart of the five-day workshop conducted by Prof. Dr. Brigitte Weingart and Prof. Lukas Feireiss during Kollisionen 2024 at Berlin University of the Arts. Chopped & Screwed invites its transdisciplinary participants to create novel works by creatively altering and transforming existing everyday objects and devices. These can range from media such as text, image, film and sound to more sculptural pieces, as well as tools and instruments all the way to furniture and garments – to mention but a few of the possibilities.

The phrase “Chopped & Screwed” is itself borrowed, referring to a remix practice that came up in the 1990s Houston hip hop scene. Given that practices of appropriation in culture are now understood to include the theft of black ideas by white musicians and audiences (who, in the words of the late Greg Tate, appropriate “everything but the burden”), we use the phrase self-reflexively and to trigger a discussion of the problems of appropriation. What we hope for is both an exchange about and some hands-on experiences of what “appropriation” might imply in different contexts (and why some practices might be more appropriate than others). Participants are encouraged to work in small teams across and beyond disciplinary boundaries.

Lukas Feireiss works as a curator, writer and educator in the international mediation of knowledge and culture production at the intersection of arts and science. He’s author and curator of numerous books and exhibitions and teaches worldwide. Since 2021 he’s visiting professor for transdisciplinary artistic education at Berlin University of the Arts. 

Brigitte Weingart is Professor for Media Theory at the Institute for Communciation Theory and Practice at Berlin University of the Arts since 2020. Recently she is a principal investigator at the Collaborative Research Center Intervening Arts where she directs a study group on internet memes.