We catch up with selector extraordinaire Vladimir Ivkovic and Making Time founder Dave P. to hear more about Friday’s 36-hour livestream.
The 20th anniversary of the Philadelphia-based festival Making Time festival takes place this Friday, October 2nd, with an all-star cast of underground tastemakers set to livestream across 36 hours.
The bill of artists, many of whom will be turned into holograms for the event (see a preview here), includes Axel Boman, Citizen Boy, DJ Tennis, DJ Python, Hieroglyphic Being (live), Hot Chip, JASSS, John Talabot, Optimo’s Jonnie Wilkes , Josh Wink, Lena Willikens & Sarah Szczesny present: Phantom Holo Ballett, Lovefingers, Mary Lattimore (live), Otik, Perel, Rebolledo, Red Axes, Sapphire Slows (live), Silent Servant, Vladimir Ivkovic, and Zillas on Acid.
The event will cost $5.00, of which $1.00 will be donated to PLSE and the Plus 1 for Black Lives Fund. The rest of the funds will be used to pay the artists.
To find out more about this incredible event, which is in collaboration with Beatport, we caught up with longtime Salon Des Amateurs resident, Vladimir Ivkovic.
Vladimir Ivkovic
Will you be playing live or have you recorded a set?
I recorded a set without preparations and safety nets, and I sent it to Dave days before I listened to the recording. Dave and I should have played together in Philadelphia on 19/03, and the recording is as close as possible to the live situation that didn’t happen then.
Can you tell us a little about what you have in store? What time does it start, and how long will you be playing, for instance?
No, I can’t tell you that. It’s an event that happens in the near future, and everyone is welcome to attend it. There are two hours of music, and Dave P. will figure out what to do with it.
Livestreaming a DJ set is playing in front of an audience without being able to read it. How does this influence your track selection?
Livestreaming is for me not “playing in front of an audience.” It’s basically playing in front of a camera, which is much closer to the idea of a radio than a club. It most likely influences my track selection in a way that I would be embarrassed if I‘d imagine that there are hundreds of people on the other side losing their minds to explicit club tracks.
We understand the event will be using TRANSCENDENTAL Holographic Technology™ (THT), which will essentially turn DJs into holograms. Did you ever think you’d be turned into a hologram? What does that feel like?
No, I never thought about it and if it wasn’t for Dave‘s 29 Years Celebration, the hologram thing wouldn’t happen. It feels like celebrating Dave‘s anniversary in a funny way.
Do you think technology like this (and the pandemic in general) will reshape how we experience festivals even after we’ve moved on from COVID? If so, how?
Through such technology we won’t experience festivals. If festivals die, they are dead. Technology can offer something else — not a festival experience or any other experience comparable to a physical encounter with people.
This event costs $5.00, making it somewhat of a rarity in online event streaming, which is usually either free to watch or strictly for charity. Instead, $1.00 of the ticket fee for Making Time will be donated to charity, and the rest will go to pay DJs. Are you hopeful that this could help set a precedent for artists to receive a fee for their online sets, and help artists earn a living until events resume in full?
It’s great what Dave is doing, but I don’t think that it will set a precedent for anything. It’s Dave enthusiasm, love, probably the idea that essential things shouldn’t be devalued, manifestation of having a heart in the right place…. Everyone could have done it before and can do it in the future. We’ll see if it’s going to happen.
