I had a great time presenting my work and the new project ActualFact to the Faculty-Graduate Seminar at the Center for African American Studies at Princeton University. Now in its eighth year, the seminar brings leading thinkers to share work in progress in an intimate setting of graduate students and faculty working across disciplines.
Scenes From February’s Workshop In Honolulu, Hawaii: Participants conducted research, made data visualisations & reported their findings. After voting, we then made a physical version of MappersDelight.net charting all of the songs in Tupac’s body of work using thread and map pins. Mad Fun!
This recent Summer I didn’t have time for a much of a vacation because from April to August, I’d been playing the roles of facilities manager, director of technology, principal and teacher.
I recently graduated my first cohort from the Rap Research Lab, a school that I started in the South Bronx focussed on teaching art, design, cultural analysis, media criticism, data mining and data visualization to teens using my project based curriculum that visualizes Hip Hop as a cultural indicator.
Student research projects included: a rapper net worth calculator, a comparison of actual crime rates versus the rate of crime appearing in lyrics, 8 types of definitions found in rap of the “N-word” and the comparison of the sentiment analysis of lyrics from Brooklyn and Compton.
The link to the student research Tumblr with final projects is here.
The assessment of the pilot program is complete and I’m now formalizing what I taught while forming partnerships with organizations that will help make the classroom workflow a more seamless and enriching experience. Next steps are to implement the Rap Research Lab this Spring as a 10 week after school program with an additional instructor in order to begin the process of teacher training. I’m doing all of this with the goal of scaling up and rolling out the curriculum to other institutions.
I’m looking to be connected with people that are receptive to the work I’m doing based at institutions that can provide support.
The student projects were covered on Gawker.
Let me know what you think.
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The Rap Research Lab is a school we started in the South Bronx focussed on teaching art, design, cultural analysis, media criticism, data mining and data visualization to teens using a project based curriculum that visualizes Hip Hop as a cultural indicator.
Student research projects included: a rapper net worth calculator, a comparison of actual crime rates versus the rate of crime appearing in lyrics, 8 types of definitions found in rap of the “N-word” and the comparison of the sentiment analysis of lyrics from Brooklyn and Compton.
Here’s the link to the student research Tumblr with final projects.
Here’s the link to the Gawker feature.
Congratulations To The Rap Research Lab’s First Cohort For The Excellent Presentations! Thank You To Every Guest For Offering My Students Your Critique And Encouragement. Thank You DJ Kool Herc For Baring Witness & Adding To Yesterday’s Cypher.
This Friday 3-5pm. The Rap Research Lab’s Student Research Project Presentations. South Bronx, NY. Come Through. #WuTangIsForTheChildren
Mother’s Day Edition.
Inspired by Pablo Picasso’s light pen drawings Maximum Distance. Minimum Displacement. uses abstracted semantic rap data to create sculptural forms with light. The forms represent the distance travelled by the lyrics in each song.
(Brief) Methodology: I used the Hip Hop Word Count’s new semantic analysis results to extract all geographic mentions from the complete bodies of work of 12 rappers. These locations were translated into geo coordinates which were then made into points that plotted the robot arm’s movements. The robot arm drew each path while holding a light pen.
Nas is commonly characterized as the consummate storyteller. In order to tell a story you need a location. Which would explain why Nas has some of the most geo-location points contained in the raps of the 12 artists analyzed.
Inspired by Pablo Picasso’s light pen drawings Maximum Distance. Minimum Displacement. uses abstracted semantic rap data to create sculptural forms with light. The forms represent the distance travelled by the lyrics in each song.
(Brief) Methodology: I used the Hip Hop Word Count’s new semantic analysis results to extract all geographic mentions from the complete bodies of work of 12 rappers. These locations were translated into geo coordinates which were then made into points that plotted the robot arm’s movements. The robot arm drew each path while holding a light pen.
The Rap Research Lab is a creative studio for ongoing projects and a lab to impart the knowledge of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math to students via the Hip Hop Word Count. We are located on the Grand Concourse, in the Andrew Freedman Complex, in the South Bronx.
We are currently taking applications for both studio assistants and Bronx based H.S. students to fill our first cohort.
#WuTangIsForTheChildren
Inspired by Pablo Picasso’s light pen drawings Maximum Distance. Minimum Displacement. uses abstracted semantic rap data to create sculptural forms with light. The forms represent the distance travelled by the lyrics in each song.
(Brief) Methodology: I used the Hip Hop Word Count’s new semantic analysis results to extract all geographic mentions from the complete bodies of work of 12 rappers. These locations were translated into geo coordinates which were then made into points that plotted the robot arm’s movements. The robot arm drew each path while holding a light pen.
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