Ahead of Selections No. 2, MONO SPACE sits down with tinasnow to discuss her multifaceted practice and the importance of collecting and playing Vietnamese music as an act of reclamation and connection.
MONO SPACE
Can you tell us about creative practice and how you blend your experiences across design, music, and community building?
tinasnow
Growing up as a first gen, Vietnamese-American facilitating conversations between different worlds has always been a key part of my personal experience, especially with my family speaking primarily Vietnamese. I grew up speaking English and also expanded my modes of communication through learning and practicing design. Design is a powerful form of communication; it facilitates social commentary between different worlds and to create a common ground for that shared understanding. This has been a core part of my practice and has led me to opportunities to figure out how to build that common ground for different ideas to come to life across both commercial and independent initiatives.
Over time, I found that I'm the happiest when design, music, and community come together, especially with care and intention. Moving to New York seven years ago, the city has allowed me to reconnect with my first love of music, and I've been able to figure out how to integrate music more into my artistic practice through collecting and playing vinyl, DJing either for myself or with friends and learning how to build high fidelity speakers. I think music has that power to facilitate conversations in an impactful way. It’s really exciting to be able to play with both design and music to express things I haven't been able to express with just design.
Pictured: A baby photo of tinasnow digging in her grandfather’s collection of Vietnamese cassettes.
A portion of these archival tapes will be on display during her August 21st event. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Over the past few years, you've been listening to designing and even building your own high fidelity systems. How has high engagement fidelity technology has attuned your appreciation of music recordings?
High fidelity technology has allowed me to listen to music as it's intended–in its most honest form. When I say that, it means being able to hear all these different details that you can't normally perceive while listening through your phone or your laptop or headphones. When we're able to hear all of these details and how dynamic sound really is through a high fidelity system, it makes me feel like I'm in the room with the artists recording the record. That process to me feels very spiritual, like a pure source of energetic connection with the spirits that are being conjured while people are playing music. This has been incredibly healing to me. and has heavily inspired me to dedicate part of my artistic practice to high fidelity sound.
Building on this, you have a project Source AV which aims to make high fidelity sound systems accessible through cultural programming and education. Would you share with us a bit more about this project as a platform for knowledge exchange and sharing?
Source AV was birthed out of developing a deeper interest in collecting vinyl and building my own personal sound system. Through that process, I've gained a greater appreciation for the tools that channel these frequencies for us. I've also noticed that there can be a high barrier to entry when it comes to building either your home sound system or even getting access to a high fidelity sound system. There could be a steep learning curve to DJing as well, especially if you're femme identifying. Growing up, I went to the public library and spent a lot of time at community centers in Portland, like the Blazers Boys and Girls Club, or anytime I would go grocery shopping with my grandpa at Safeway, I would look at magazines while he was grocery shopping. If it wasn't for accessibility to these magazines and books, the internet at the public library or cultural programming through these community centers, I wouldn't be where I am today.
Source AV is born from my personal belief that everyone should be able to listen to music the way that it's intended through a high fidelity sound system, regardless if you own a sound system at home or not. Through the different event formats, I try to create spaces within listening and sound system culture to include more perspectives and to acknowledge different parts of history where I think more reverence needs to be held around both Jamaican and UK sound system culture and how that has informed where we are today alongside the Japanese Kissa as well.
Why is collecting and playing Vietnamese music an important archival act to you?
For me, archiving is a form of resistance and reclamation that answers questions, and raises new questions to explore. Archiving facilitates conversations across a non-linear timeline. As refugees, my family didn’t come to America with much, let alone any semblance of their music collection. A lot of pre-war Vietnamese vinyl is rare because they were destroyed during the war, or now in the hands of private collectors who are not in service of sharing these artifacts with the public. This has heavily inspired me to celebrate my journey through music, and to continue to build upon the conversations that our ancestors started for us.
Part of my practice around archiving Vietnamese music has been extremely cathartic and emotional and has held me through so many stages of unraveling and healing. And it still is. It's an important way that I've been able to connect with my family and communicate nuanced emotions through complex language barriers and cultural barriers. When it comes to music, I would always know how my family was feeling and what they were going through based off of the music they were playing in the house.
VHS cover for "Paris by Night", 1983. Image courtesy of Wikipedia.
My grandpa would play Vietnamese music in the house growing up, or my grandma would play Paris by Night, on VHS–a massive Vietnamese production– almost like MTV for Vietnamese music; where it's a variety show of folk music, pop music, comedy, and everything in between. My mom loves watching music videos and still to this day has them playing all the time in the house. These sounds are a puzzle piece to my family's history–a portal to what life was like without the presence of war or forced relocation to America. It’s really important to reclaim and archive them and share them with the community–and in this way at Mono Space for the first time within my own practice.
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