DJing has become the norm for live performance, to the point where most of the audience no longer tells the difference between someone playing music produced in a studio and someone playing music on instruments.
In my view, though, few DJs have pushed their discipline far enough to claim to belong in the same category as a musician. Today, anyone can become a DJ: often all it takes is buying a simple controller to get into it and impress a small crowd.
Having played parties myself during my studies, I no longer wanted to take part in this phenomenon. That is where a question was born: do turntables make the DJ?
I built a controller with exactly the same functions as standard DJ turntables, but housed in an old sewing machine: a 1974 Singer Starlet.
The audience's reactions to this machine were fascinating.
Some no longer dared to say I was mixing, since the turntables had disappeared. Others felt I was discrediting the “real” DJs, the ones who put in the effort. Others still saw a joyful visual element in it, real added value to the performance.
A project I will surely pick up again one day, so interesting were the discussions it sparked.