Art Basel: Miami Beach x VICE / Group Creative Director, Creative and Design / 2022
Kicking off a first-of-its-kind opportunity at Art Base: Miami Beach in December 2023 as the international fair’s first media partner, Vice launched a three-day experiential program, Not A Test, celebrating Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary.
The first 50 years of Hip-Hop was defined by unbridled creative expression and innovation, so we asked what's next? VICE, in collaboration with emerging creators, artists and partners looked ahead to the next fifty years of this boundary-pushing art form, with a 72-hour takeover of the iconic Carl Fisher Clubhouse.
Our program included evening performances from some of those most inciting up-and-coming Hip-Hop acts including JPEGMafia and Sudan Archives, daytime programming co-curated with Black Futures’ Kimberly Drew and an AI-enhanced multimedia installation meets time-machine that journeyed into the past and future inflection points of Hip-Hop culture.
Not A Test delivered 3.2K Attendees, 14x Live Programming Sessions, Performances and Roundtables, 47x Collaborators, Artists, Musicians and Technologists and 6x sponsors incl. Cashapp, Expedia and Hip-Hop Public Health
Core Team: Design Director: Hannah Smith / Sr. Environmental: Maria Aguiar / Designer: Hunter Reed / Creative Strategist: Troi-Jackson Conn, Derrick Cheung, and Zach Solomon / Photography: Elliot Ashby /+ many more
Immersive Projection, Lighting, Haze, Surround Sound, Tactile-enhanced Audio, AI + ML
Created as a “teaching machine”, Inflection, from LA-based visual artist, composer and VJ John King a.k.a. Timeboy explored the concept of pressure; how it’s impacted Hip Hop’s originators and the Black community and then results in moments of innovation in Hip-Hop’s culture.
Across five experience chapters, the projection imagery, spatial audio and tactile-enhanced seating of Inflection immersed attendees in past moments of “pressure” - from suppression to liberation - and forecasted ahead to future moments - from climate change to machine learning - that will undeniably result in the evolution of Black creativity and emerging global scenes in Hip-Hop and beyond.
Graphics Snapshot