Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
The INSIDE/OUT lecture focuses on Kendrick Lamar's track "u" from the LP To Pimp a Butterfly by looking at the way Lamar's fusion of jazz and hip-hop is underpinned by a fusion of two communities specific to the area of Compton he grew up in: the hip-hop of NWA and the nu jazz of Kamasi Washington.
With sonic fusion always premised on cultural fusion, each of the collaborations find musicians using the mixing of genres to explore fusions of generations, eras, philosophies, sensibilities, idioms, histories, and even continents. When the musicians hail from contrasting musical genres.
The Inside Out Lecture Series at Leeds School of Arts, Leeds Beckett University is an incredible opportunity to present international cutting-edge research and arts practice innovation to our research and teaching community here and to the wider national and international public.
Alex Coles is an author and academic drawn to the borders between disciplines and genres.
Coles' current writing is devoted to music. Exploring the archetype of the intimate ballad singer, Crooner was published by Reaktion Books in 2023. Developing an analysis of the twisted love song, Tainted Love: From Nina Simone to Kendrick Lamar (Sternberg Press, 2023) followed and was launched with a roundtable debate at the Whitechapel Gallery and featured on Chris Hawkins' BBC6 breakfast show. Tracing the role of jazz as a catalyst in popular music, Fusion! From Alice Coltrane to Moor Mother is published by Sternberg Press in October 2024.
Coles' earlier writing focussed on design and art. DesignArt (Tate Publishing, 2005) triggered a debate about the interface between the two disciplines, while the edited anthology Design and Art (MIT Press/Whitechapel Publications, 2007) contextualised responses to it. The Transdisciplinary Studio (Sternberg Press, 2012) and the EP series (Sternberg Press 2013-) followed. Reviews of these books appeared in The New York Times, Icon, The Journal of Design History and Design Journal.
