Hunting Vibes. The Multi-Layered Structure of Artistic Research in DJing

In this essay am focusing on “defining”, in a non-traditional way, the idea of artistic research, starting from a “hunting game” metaphor which lays at the Indo-European etymological foundation of the words we use today to designate the process of research in various modern languages. But this way of understanding the process of artistic research leaves open the question about the “object” of artistic research. What is that which artists in general and DJs, in particular, “hunt” for? To answer this question, I will analize the multi-layered structure of research in DJing, thought as a form of art born at the intersection of visual, musical and performative arts with technology. This analysis leads me to the idea of “vibe”, “vibration” or “affective resonance”, which was briefly mentioned in the history of philosophy by thinkers like Immanuel Kant, Arthur Schopenhauer and Maurice Merleau-Ponty.