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The British Society of Aesthetics have awarded their annual New Horizons Prize to one of the philosophy department’s current MRes students, James Rowley. The prize is awarded to the two best papers submitted to the BSA’s annual conference by members of groups traditionally underrepresented in philosophical aesthetics. The winners of this award both receive a £500 honorarium and a grant of up to £1000 to attend the conference in September, and they will be encouraged to review their papers for submission to the British Journal of Aesthetics.
James’s paper is entitled, ‘Digital Sampling: Towards a Hip-Hop Ontology’, and the abstract is included below:
Digital sampling, the reuse of one part of a previous recording within another, has received little to no attention in philosophical aesthetics, alongside little interest in the ontology of hip-hop. The Ontology of popular music has largely focused on rock and jazz. I propose to remedy this through showing how one could use digital sampling as a way towards constructing a hip-hop ontology. I argue that sampling can be of great interest to a hip-hop ontology, as it is a distinctive feature that can shed light on how hip-hop generates meaning. Then, I offer a brief ontological analysis of sampling, rejecting the view that digital sampling is purely the application of formal techniques. Instead, I argue that digital sampling is an artform that valorises the process of reappropriation, and that this is best shown through the extensive critical appreciation of this process.