Keith Rocka Knittel presents... Authenticity

Authenticity
A multi-media performance by Keith Rocka Knittel
With choreography by Andrew Wojtal

Authenticity examines issues of authenticity, appropriation, re-enactment, and re-presentation.
Key scenes from the 1984 teen exploitation film Breakin' are reinterpreted through video, dance, and music, creating a multi-media environment in which larger issues of artistic integrity are examined. Authenticity confronts the philosophical and artistic ideas of authenticity by questioning the role of art and artist as both a contributor to and product of external societal values such as history and commercialism.

Thursday, December 3, 2009
7PM & 10PM.
Coffee House Theater
CalArts
24700 McBean Pkwy
Valencia, CA, 91355

photo by Rena Kosnett

photo by Rena Kosnett

LEGACY

Keith Rocka Knittel: "Legacy," 2009 (installation view, detail)
CalArts 2010 MFA Mid-Residency Show

October 18th - 26th, 2009

Multi-media installation consisting of scenic flats, painted Styrofoam, hand-made red canvas "sandbags" stuffed with polyester fiber-fill, clip lamps with red-clay bulbs, viewing ramp, and a single channel video projection.

Keith Rocka Knittel Presents: September!

Keith Rocka Knittel: "Septembr9," 2009
Digital audio file™

Here's a mix I made last week, inspired by the "Pomposelli x Party People" installation and performance in Carl Pomposelli and my adjoining studios.  I was closed in Carl's studio where I djed for an audience in my studio, whom I could not see.  The audience could view into Carl's studio via a live video feed projected onto the wall in my studio.  The audio from my dj set was playing through a p.a. also in my studio, which was installed amongst mini-installations and a projected animation by Carl.  Peep holes (or glory holes) and a pin hole camera were cut in the walls between the two studios for direct contact.

The mix consists of loops of songs, overlapped and sculpted to mimic the arcs and dips of a dj club mix but with no apex or nethermost floor. No song plays in its entirety- only in chopped up pieces, some times more recognizable than others. Versions of some emerge, disappear, and revisit the mix in an attempt to represent the fuzziness of time and memory.

It's a roughly thirty minute mix.  Sometimes up to five loops are playing at a time.

Tracks I Took From:
Destroy Wendy Williams - Keith Rocka
Birthday Sex - Jeremih
My Melody - Stu
Apache - Incredible Bongo Band
Windows Media Player - Charles Hamilton
Monsters - Kid 606
Fuck Off - Yerzmyey
Blow Ya Head - The JBs
Tokyo Boy - Sabrepulse
Emerge (DFA Remix) - Fischerspooner
What's A Girl To Do (remix) - Cristina
The Other Woman - Ray Parker, Jr.
Spooks in Space - Aural Exciters
Hot Chick - Uffie
I'm in Love With a Ripper (Party Mix) - Yacht
Busta v. Mario - Stolen From YouTube
Losing My Edge - LCD Soundsystem
Mutant Wisdom - Richard Bone
Woof Woof - Dan Deacon
Beach Culture - The Thompson Twins
Triumph of a Heart (Video Mix) - Bjork
Charlie Brown (DJ Technics Remix) - Debonair Samir
Deli - Delorean
Mario's HA (Bonus Beat) - Bama Bounce
Playmate (feat. Roxy Cottontail & Lacole "Tigga" Campbell) - Armand Van Helden
PPXCP- Keith Rocka
I Hold The Crown (Gigi Barocco Remix) - Redman
Pop Champagne - The Clipse
Freaky Tales - Too $hort

As always, best on headphones, in a car, or loud on decent speakers. Pass it on, but give me credit please.

Download it for a week here:
Keith Rocka September Mix

I Buried Paul

Keith Rocka Knittel: "Keith Rocka Meets The Beatles / Magical Mystery Tour Re-Edit," 2009
Digital audio file™

You can download the first in a new series of work where I re-edit significant works by other artists here.

Keith Rocka Meets The Beatles / Magical Mystery Tour Re-Edit
Track List:
1. The Magical Mystery Tour 9:23
2. The Fool On The Hill 4:31
3. Flying 10:10
4. Blue Jay Way 7:11
5. I Am The Walrus 7:21
6. Your Mother Should Know 3:21
7. Baby You're A Rich Man (Bonus Track on US Release) 6:52

There are only 100 available downloads from this link, so please download, repost and share.

Re-present.

"If you heard we were celebratin' that's a worldwide lie!"

Keith Rocka Knittel: "7-4-09," 2009
Digital audio file™ 

I just made a 30 minute rap mix for the Fourth of July.

Here's the track list:
Louder Than A Bomb (intro) – Public Enemy
No Justice No Peace – Lakim Shabazz
Verbal Milk – X Clan
American Way – Nas
Dollar Day (Surprise Surprise) – Mos Def
America (feat. Mos Def & Chali 2Na)- K’Naan
The Beast – The Fugees

download it here!

Michael Jackson Memorial Mix

Keith Rocka Knittel: "P4RT33P33PL3_JACKSON_MEGA_MEMORIAL_MIX," 2009
Digital audio file™

So Michael Jackson died yesterday. Frankly, I haven't had any interest in his music since [some of the songs on] "Bad," but as a human spectacle he was fascinating. To prove my point I just needed to watch "Larry King Live" on CNN the past two nights, which at different times had Corey Feldman, Liza Minelli, and Miko Brando on the panel.

Michael Jackson and The Jacksons have released some of the most important and influential pop music in the last 40 or so years, so I decided to make a short little dj mix to commemorate. You can download it free here.

Enjoy!

CalArts MFA Open Studios, April 26, 2009

The CalArts MFA Open Studios are coming up. Now's your chance to peek and poke into my studio and see what I've been up to this year. I'll have snacks! Oh, and I'll be playing the after-party with Party People at 7PM. Be there.

Info here:
http://alum.calarts.edu/~studio/

Keith Rocka Knittel: "Low Frequency Amplification Unit 1," 2009

(studio view)
MDF pyramid bass bin tombs playing a modified audio track, amplifier, paint, audio cables
CalArts MFA Open Studios, Valencia, CA



Keith Rocka Knittel: "Unappeased Ghost Incessantly Circling," 2009 (video still)
Multi-media installation
CalArts MFA Open Studios, Valencia, CA

View a slideshow of visitors exiting "Unappeased Ghost Incessantly Circling" at the MFA Open Studios by clicking here.

FROGHOLLOW:METH:MTN

Keith Rocka Knittel: "FROGHOLLOW:METH:MTN," 2009
Multi-media installation
CalArts MFA Exhibition, CalArts Lime Gallery, Valencia, CA
January 12-17, 2009

Analytic of Da Bootyful

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November 09, 2008
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Category: Entertainment
Tags:
booty clap cognition stripper dance art kant aesthetics shaking thong kantian free play http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyTcX7MprGc

Keith Rocka Knittel: "Analytic of da Bootyful," 2009
YouTube video

Many-worlds Interpretation

Keith Rocka Knittel: "Many-worlds Interpretation," 2009 (video still)

For this video piece, I filmed myself on two separate occasions dancing for 45 minutes straight to a mix tape by DJ Red Alert from 1988. Then I superimposed the two videos onto one background. And then, I isolated a series of animated freeze-frames, capturing parallel moments that had occurred simultaneously.

I once saw a documentary that illustrated the theory of parallel universes with a good animation of a cat experiencing two outcomes at once, alive and dead, dead and alive. Somehow, it wasn't as sad as it sounds.

Nipplegate

Keith Rocka Knittel: "Nipplegate," 2009
Multi-media installation

Inspired by the aftermath of the Nipplegate incident during the Superbowl XXXVIII halftime show in which Janet Jackson's star-shaped nipple shield was revealed when her wardrobe "malfunctioned," I made a star-shaped sculpture out of radios that were all tuned to play an FM broadcast of remixes I'd made of a dozen or so songs that were censored by the FCC post-Nipplegate.

Nipplegate led to a crackdown on perceived indecency in broadcasting and resulted in a record half-million dollar fine levied by the FCC against CBS. The FCC also increased its fine per indecency violation from $27,500 to $325,000, resulting in widespread censorship by radio stations of music containing lyrics now dubbed "indecent" by Michael Powell, then-chairman of the FCC.

My new "Nipplegate" mixes contain only these "offensive" parts of the songs, the parts now bleeped or completely edited out of radio play. The songs include "Jet Airliner" by The Steve Miller Band, "Legs" by ZZ Top, "Genius of Love" by Tom Tom Club, "Start Me Up" by the Rolling Stones, "Money" by Pink Floyd, "Whole Lotta Love" by Led Zeppelin, "Erotic City" by Prince, "White Horse" by Laid Back, and "Rich Girl" by Hall and Oates, all of which have been self-censored by radio or television program directors since Nipplegate.

Pete Rock of Gibraltar continued...

These are a few more drawings from the Pete Rock series of endangered animals, commissioned by a good friend/very savvy collector.