31 Oct 2011

Ishac Bertran

Ishac Bertran - a portrait of the artist

It takes a special kind of creative to take one of the most beloved artistic vehicles of all time, vinyl, and not only modernize it, but make it even cooler too. But that’s what Ishac Bertran, a Barcelona-born artist who works in Copenhagen, has managed.

He recently blogged about creating music samples with vinyl records and his process amazed us.

Basically, he takes a vinyl record and cuts a section of it out with a laser:

He then replaces the removed section with a sample from another record:

By doing so, he creates a brand new record:

To see more of this process and hear the resulting music go to the artist’s Vimeo page.

Mixing analog and digital fascinates us. The analog process involves cutting and pasting audiotape to join pieces of sound, while the digital aspect employs a computer driven laser-cutter. We caught up with the artist to discuss how creativity can evolve from combining these seemingly opposite technologies.

HUGO Create: Can you give us some background to your history as a creative?

Ishac Bertran: My background is in engineering and design, and since I was a kid I always experimented with technology. That playing around developed into seeing how that process could affect aesthetics. Experimenting allows me to explore without boundaries. I have lots of fun, I learn a lot and it has a positive impact on my daily work.

HC: What did you get into first: working creatively or with technology?

IB: It was many years ago so I don’t remember precisely. I do remember playing with a remote controlled car and attaching a pen to it to let it draw on the floor whilst it moved. I like to use technology to create something new, or invent a piece of 'technology' that creates something beautiful.

HC: You recently created an invention that flips the classic concept of vinyl on its head, and allows you to sample it. What inspired you to do this?

IB: There was this process of cut-and-paste for creating mixtapes from audiotapes. One day I saw a broken vinyl and I thought it would be interesting to stick some pieces together and play them using a vinyl player. From there I thought about the idea of sampling, using the cut-and-paste process.

HC: Do you DJ with this system now?

IB: No, I don't. First of all, the sound that comes out of it is quite unpredictable so it's difficult to match it with a constant beat. In every revolution you have a new beat so it doesn’t quite work for mixing live. The second reason is I've barely touched a mixer in my life. I did it for fun, and although I love to learn, I'm still far from being any good at mixing!

HC: You work combining analog and digital techniques. What excites you about analog, and what excites you about digital?

IB: I'm very inspired by analog processes for its tangibility and lack of repetition that adds this random component to the outcome. Tools like the old video-editing table or a printing press did one single thing as well as it possibly could. And it required an expert to operate them - to take care of it to keep it precise. It has some beauty in it. Maybe it’s just nostalgia for processes away from computers and screens.

Of course digital processes increase precision, repetition and speed. They are predictable and reliable so when you combine this technology with analog you can make something special.

HC: Can you tell us a little about any projects you're working on now?

IB: I'm interested in bringing aspects of the digital media to paper books. The way we read content like blogs on the internet has transformed the way we navigate text. Digital platforms offer you ways to filter information and we can now find what we need very quickly indeed. But this has led to our attention span decreasing and we’ve lost the unique feeling of holding books in our hands. I’d like to bring some of the digital content aspects to paper books.