Installation, 2007
Details:
"Musical language has an extensive repertoire of punctuation devices but nothing equivalent to literature's " " quotation marks. Jazz musicians do not wiggle two fingers of each hand in the air, as lecturers often do, when cross referencing during their extemporizations, because on most instruments this would present some technical difficulties - plummeting trumpets and such."
The common practice of quoting music (aka sampling) isn't defined by the authenticity of its source material. Instead, it rather relies on the way the sample is being processed or treated, which marks it as a reference.
The installation Zitiermaschine ought to highlight the musical quotation marks: the person in front of it could record a short sample by speaking into a microphone. Thanks to the typical soundscape of a Hip Hop beat and the signature sound of how the sample was then processed (as if being scratched on vinyl) the audio recording would turn into an instant musical quote.
Would this lead to a false impression of time because the sample would have been recorded by the visitors themselves and in real-time while, however, featuring the aesthetics of well-established references in pop music?
Please also check my essay Der Sampler ist tot - lang lebe das Sampling (in German) about this topic, published in Lautsprecherei, Diedrich Diederichsen, Merz & Solitude, 2007.