Définition générale
Artablism désigne les pratiques qui :
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utilisent les techniques du turntablism (scratch, beat juggling, manipulation du sillon),
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considèrent le geste du DJ comme forme, comme écriture possible,
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articulent son, mouvement, image et dispositif technique,
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produisent des formes hybrides : partitions graphiques, installations sonores, performances, dessins mécaniques, enregistrements spectrogrammiques, écritures gestuelles.
Origines du projet (perspectives personnelles)
Mon propre travail autour de l’Artablism commence au début des années 2000, avec les expérimentations du Phonoptique : capter les gestes du scratch pour en produire des formes visuelles.
Ces recherches se sont prolongées par :
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l’étude des notations du scratch (TTM, partitions graphiques, relevés gestuels),
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la transformation du son en image (spectrogrammes, tracés temporels),
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la création de dispositifs où dessin et son sont produits simultanément,
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la stéganographie audio et l’écriture cachée dans le spectre sonore,
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la fabrication de machines, moteurs, platines modifiées et systèmes de capture gestuelle.
À propos des images générées par IA (depuis 2023)
Méthodologie ouverte
L’Artablism se déploie selon plusieurs axes, qui peuvent être combinés :
| Axe | Description |
|---|---|
| Geste | Manipulation du disque, aiguille, crossfader, vitesse, pression, micro-mouvement. |
| Traduction | Passage du son vers l’image, du mouvement vers l’écriture, de la vibration vers la forme. |
| Dispositif | Construction ou adaptation d’outils : mécanique, électronique, numérique. |
| Transmission | Ateliers, partitions, documentation, oralité, pédagogie par le geste. |
| Situation | Performance, improvisation, installation, espace partagé ou collectif. |
Aucun axe n’est obligatoire. Tous peuvent se combiner.
Figures Artablist (constellation ouverte)
Turntablism : geste, vitesse, langage
Ce qui articule la platine à l’art contemporain
Ce qui a rendu le son manipulable
Geste / Image / Machine
Extensions actuelles et contemporaines
Ces noms forment un continuum, non des cases séparées.
À ceux qui disent « à quoi ça sert ? »
Or, tout dans le DJing contemporain est né de l’expérimentation.
le DJ « qui fait danser » n’existerait pas.
Artablism: A Living Practice of Gesture, Sound, and Image
Artablism is a word that names a practice that already existed.
It grows out of turntablism, performance, experimentation, and the ways sound can be transformed into gesture, and gesture into form.
The term describes a field in which the DJ is no longer limited to making people dance, but instead composes, analyzes, draws, records, and transmits through the manipulation of the record and the turntable.
Artablism is not a genre or a singular scene.
It is an open territory, an expanding library of approaches and gestures.
General Definition
Artablism refers to practices that:
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use turntablist techniques (scratch, beat juggling, groove manipulation),
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consider the DJ gesture as form, as a possible writing system,
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connect sound, movement, image, and technical device,
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produce hybrid forms: graphic scores, sound installations, performances, mechanical drawings, spectrographic inscriptions, gestural scripts.
The record spins, the hand acts, the ear guides, the image emerges.
Scratching becomes a method of thinking.
Origins of the Project (Personal Perspective)
My own work related to Artablism begins in the early 2000s with the Phonoptique experiments: capturing scratch gestures to produce visual forms.
This research continued through:
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the study of scratch notation systems (TTM, graphic scores, gesture diagrams),
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the transformation of sound into image (spectrograms, temporal lines),
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the construction of devices that produce drawing and sound simultaneously,
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audio steganography and hidden writing in the sound spectrum,
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the building of machines, motors, modified turntables, and gesture sensors.
But Artablism is not limited to my work.
It is neither signature nor personal territory, but a shared field.
About the AI-Generated Images (Since 2023)
The images published here are not the origin of Artablism.
They are visual extensions—a way to think in images about gesture, sound, memory, and form.
They do not replace the real gesture.
They function as translations, hypotheses, visual reflections.
Open Methodology
Artablism unfolds across multiple axes, which may be combined:
| Axis | Description |
|---|---|
| Gesture | Manipulation of record, needle, crossfader, speed, pressure, micro-movements. |
| Translation | Converting sound into image, movement into writing, vibration into form. |
| Device | Constructing or adapting tools: mechanical, electronic, digital. |
| Transmission | Workshops, scores, documentation, oral knowledge, embodied pedagogy. |
| Situation | Performance, improvisation, installation, shared listening spaces. |
No axis is mandatory.
All may overlap and evolve.
Artablist Figures (An Open Constellation)
This is not a hierarchy or canon.
It is a living cartography.
Turntablism: Gesture, Speed, Language
Grand Wizard Theodore
Grandmaster Flash
DJ Q-Bert
DJ Babu
D-Styles
Mixmaster Mike
Craze
Ritchie Ruftone
Netik
Teebee
Trix
A-Trak
K-Swift
Where the Turntable Meets Contemporary Art
Christian Marclay
Maria Chavez
eRikm
Philip Jeck
Janek Schaefer
Mika Vainio
Those Who Made Sound a Material
Pierre Schaeffer
Pierre Henry
Éliane Radigue
Luc Ferrari
Gesture / Image / Machine
RAMMΣLLZΣΣ
Ryoji Ikeda
Norman McLaren
Jean Tinguely
Haroon Mirza
Contemporary Extensions
Michaël Sellam
DJ Raedawn (TTM Academy)
DJ Claim
DJ Focus
Laurent Burte
These names form a continuum, not separate compartments.
To Those Who Say “What’s the Point?”
Some say:
“This isn’t real DJing.”
“The point is to make people dance.”
“Experimentation is useless.”
Yet everything in modern DJing was born from experimentation.
Without Thomas Edison and Émile Berliner, there would be no record.
Without record → no DJ.
Without Grandmaster Flash’s homemade turntable modifications,
without the DMC era of scratch research,
without the sound labs of Schaeffer, Henry, Radigue, Ferrari,
without tinkering, error, obsession:
The DJ “who makes people dance” would not exist.
Invention always comes before convention.
Experimentation always precedes the norm.
Those who innovate are not the margin.
They are the origin of the future.
Artablism is a practice rooted in reality:
a way of thinking through gesture,
listening through touch,
writing through friction,
transmitting through action.
It is not a matter of adding “art” to DJing.
It is a matter of recognizing that DJing is already an art whenever one observes the movement that constitutes it.
Artablism continues.
Through the hands that invent,
through gestures that persist,
through forms that shift,
through machines that adapt.
Cette suite d’images est accompagnée de leurs prompts en français et en anglais.
This series of images is accompanied by their prompts in French and in English.
*some prompt are cut...
2023, Matthieu Crimersmois
on the left, the Parisian suburbs with grey buildings and colorful graffiti;
on the right, fine arts students.
In the center of the image, a DJ-painter holding a vinyl record.
Droits d’images et d’utilisation
Toutes les images présentes sur cette page sont protégées.
Toute reproduction, utilisation, diffusion, publication, modification ou entraînement de modèles d’IA à partir de ces images est strictement interdite sans autorisation écrite préalable.
Tous droits réservés.
Pour toute demande d’utilisation :
matthieu.crimersmois@gmail.com
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Image Rights and Usage Notice
All images on this page are protected.
Any reproduction, use, distribution, publication, modification, or training of AI models from these images is strictly prohibited without prior written permission.
All rights reserved.
For usage requests, please contact:
matthieu.crimersmois@gmail.com
