Karaoke Practice!
An invited work presented as part of Hopes and Fears Assembly
Created and produced by Prem Krishnamurthy / Department of Transformation
Karaoke Practice! takes a familiar format — karaoke — and treats it as a space for practising how we participate together.
The project begins not by asking people what they would like to sing, but with a slightly different question:
What is a song you would like to hear sung in karaoke?
Participants submit their requests and, over the course of the gathering, songs move from individual choices into a shared public experience.
Karaoke can produce everything from pleasure and enthusiasm to embarrassment, nervousness and outright refusal. Some people want the microphone. Some are happier cheering someone else on. Others prefer simply to watch.
Karaoke Practice! makes room for all of those positions.
The familiar structure of karaoke creates a situation in which artistic skill is only part of what matters. A polished performance may sit beside a hesitant one. Someone may take a risk in front of strangers. A room may unexpectedly rally around a singer. Familiar songs become a way for people who may not know one another to share attention, vulnerability and support.
The word practice is important. The project treats karaoke not simply as entertainment, but as a way of practising participation: stepping forward, listening, encouraging someone else, taking up space, giving space, and being together without everyone having to participate in the same way.
How it works
Choose — think of a song you would like to hear sung.
Request — add your choice to the collection of karaoke requests.
Listen — hear what other people have chosen.
Participate — sing, cheer someone on, or simply stay and watch.
There is no single correct way to take part.
Prem Krishnamurthy runs Department of Transformation, an artist-organized group that explores art as an agent of transformation for individuals, communities, and institutions. His multidisciplinary work manifests itself in books, exhibitions, images, performances, publications, systems, talks, texts, and workshops (+ karaoke!). He received the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Communications Design in 2015 and KW Institute for Contemporary Art’s “A Year With…” residency fellowship in 2018. He has curated several large-scale exhibitions including FRONT International 2022: Oh, Gods of Dust and Rainbows. His book-length epistolary essay, On Letters, was published in 2022. Having previously founded Project Projects and P!, he is currently a partner in the design studio Wkshps.
Department of Transformation (D🌍T) is an artist-organized group that prototypes new formats for togetherness and mutual learning. Through workshops, events, publications, and consulting (+ karaoke!), D🌏T supports individuals, communities, and institutions in their own processes of change. D🌎T is transforming art & design in order to transform the world.
Recent projects include the Spring 2023 Teaching Tour to art schools, museums, and non-profits across the US to share collaborative tools for listening, feedback, and conflict; artistic direction of the interdisciplinary symposium How can we gather now? with Washington Project for the Arts (2023); experimental public events at festivals such as Fusebox 2023 and Centre Pompidou/Villa Albertine’s Night of Ideas Jersey City 2024, featuring a participatory talk, soil-making workshop, sound healing bath, and vocal workshop (+ karaoke!); as well as ongoing creative consulting to individuals and institutions. More information: dept-of-transformation.org
Credits
Created and produced by Prem Krishnamurthy / Department of Transformation
Presented by STO Union as part of Hopes and Fears Assembly
Photos
Photos by David Irvine (for STO Union) and Nila Varzhevska (for Harbourfront)
Headshot of Prem Krishnamurthy by Sebastian Bach