An ethnography on Less Talking
An ethnographic research entry by Mario Edwards on the ethos behind Gabriel Dedji's Less Talking event series
On the 30th April 2023, I held Less Talking Roundhouse, the 4th event in my arts and culture series. Whilst there, I met Mario Edwards, a DJ and producer currently studying at the University of the Arts, London (UAL). He approached me to ask if he could write his university assignment, an ethnography, on the event and the ethos behind the series. So of course I obliged.
An ethnography is a form of research which relies on observation of cultures, customs and behaviours to form narratives and conclusive judgments.
I’m massively grateful to Mario for the work he undertook to observe the work that I put into Less Talking. It makes me massively excited for its 6th installment this evening at 180 Strand’s Reference.Point venue!
Mario’s Ethnography:
Gabriel Dedji, a writer, DJ and a former youth parliament member, whose works are usually within politics, hosted Less Talking Roundhouse. A few days after this event, I contacted Gabriel, for some more insight into the event. I asked for his opinion on what the event is and he described it as an arts and culture event series he hosts to facilitate moments of togetherness and self-reflection. “I usually create art pieces in response to the events that reflect those findings” I asked about the history and it dates back to 2021 where Gabriel “began thinking about the idea of emotions not being ours but being a reflection of an interconnected human experience… a response to my reinvigorated interest into the idea of community and collectivism: the complex philosophies of the Black Panther party being my initial inspiration for that” After going to a club night by Henry Wu at Little Portland Street in Mayfair and Dele Sosimi and Lokkhi Terra’s Cubafrobeat night at the jazz café, Gabriel decided to create Less Talking due to what he experienced there.
By July of 2022, Less Talking was in the works. Gabriel had an internship in the city of Brighton where Soho house had a new venue. He connected with artists and decided to do Less Talking Brighton. The second event in the series was a week later in Crouch End Soho House with his friend Tamilore Awosile, a jazz musician. This event was curated with the intention for him to share his music. The third was in December 2022 where another friend, Abazz Njeri, had an art collection, and Gabriel wanted a place for her to share. Apart from the performances, Gabriel has games for people to play at the events. Jenga is a staple. Instead of playing the intended way, breaking down the tower, those at Less Talking 3 chose to use the parts to build their own structures, and in that way they won.
Gabriel says the goal of Less Talking is for “people to understand the benefit of togetherness and I want them to experience that practically through sharing in experiences together. In the Bible, the apostle Paul converted to Christianity through being shown a vision of Jesus whilst traveling. Less Talking is just the same. I want the shows to be a journey and all the games and performances to be a revelatory vision that transforms all”.
Less Talking was described as something that is about ‘Togetherness, community, and the arts’. Hosted at the Roundhouse in Camden, a prestigious performing arts venue that has housed talents from the likes of George Michael to Lady Gaga (Wikipedia, 2021) and now a young creative in Gabriel Dedji the show was something I was not expecting. When I arrived, a DJ was performing a set through which, he played various genres from afrobeats to UK rap and jazz with religious messages in between. After the DJ set, there was a short talk from Gabriel about the event. That is where he explained the order of events for the evening.
Then there was a group. Aloisius, Abi and Amber. I believe their performance was one of the best of the night. They played cello, keyboard, drums, and there were also vocals. The group’s performance was a rollercoaster. It started out very cinematic, Wes Anderson-esque; a spoken word piece accompanied by occasional instrument stabs. The person was talking about being someone who goes to an aquarium and sees an octopus or squid and falls in love with it. The subject was quite interesting and unexpected. Regardless, it still was within the space of arts. After this piece, the group performed a more lyrical one. I do not remember much about it, but it really showed the diverse skillset and talent of the performers, changing instruments and styles respectively to give the audience another impressive performance. The group did one last performance where they involved the audience. It was a very intriguing. It was about being something you could have been. So, the artist would say; ‘I could have been’ and the person with respond with whatever they could have been. They said that the song was not complete, so basically it was being finished in real time with the audience’s input. If they had come to me, I would have said ‘I could’ve been a painting’. Personally, I think the last song they performed fit well with the whole audience as we were all creatives, and in my experience, being a creative is difficult as you normally have people around you, usually family, that do not necessarily agree with your studies or line of work.
After these initial performances, Gabriel came up and said his bit about the event. He was impressed with the turn out and frankly, I was too. It was nice to be in a place surrounded by people in all sorts of stages of their creative journey, but in that moment, all focused on witnessing great performances, sharing drinks, stories, and contacts alike in the name of all things creative. Fashion designers, music artists, producers, painters, DJs and so on. After the talk, there were more DJ sets. During that, there was also a lot of socializing. People were exchanging their knowledge in certain skills, talking about recent and previous events and so on, just general conversations. I managed to catch up with a friend of mine, a man of many skills but I know him as a fashion designer. We discussed the event and my studies, as well as his next clothing collection he is currently working on, and how he wants to focus on creatives with different crafts, quite like Less Talking if you think about it. I also spoke with another friend of mine who has done many things, from music, clothing and even a magazine. We discussed some of the performances of the night, and even the idea of hosting our own event, focusing on DJs and fashion. I think it is interesting that I could have spoken to anyone in the room, and they would have been able to discuss something that they are working on. Personally, I am currently working on building a DJing career and utilize the connections I make at events like Less Talking to build my network in the creative industry.
Gabriel then discussed his artwork that was displayed at the front of the stage for the whole night. The piece itself was a dark canvas with a rectangular or circular red construct surrounding a small multi coloured circle in the middle. There were various interpretations of it; someone said it looked like a tunnel, another person said a menstrual cycle. I personally believed that it was Earth, or even a person- their perception of earth (or even their own earth). The point is most people had a perception, but no one was right or wrong. That is the beautiful thing about life and particularly the creative arts, someone can create something, and there will be millions, if not billions of opinions on it. Someone else could then take said thing and put their own spin on it. For example, when Whitney Houston created ‘I will always love you’ in 1992, it was a rendition of Dolly Parton’s song by the same name in 1973 (www.youtube.com, 2015) or how the famous street artist Banksy is inspired by the French street artist, Blek Le Rat, who is considered ‘’one of the pioneers of street art’’ (Artsper Magazine, 2018). However, renditions or even inspiration can lead to misinterpreting the origin.
The BBC young musician finalist Luke Bacchus and his band were up next, performing a few tracks. Luke said his songs were inspired by his heritage and he did not disappoint, introducing us into said heritage through sound. While researching him, I came across his bio on the BBC young musician site where it says: “Bacchus has been exploring his identity as a Caribbean person and has developed a keen interest in Caribbean music, history and culture” (BBC, 2022). As someone who is also from the Caribbean, I too am interested at looking into my heritage as I believe exploring the past is a wonderful way to find inspiration for modern projects, as well as sharing where you come from creatively. Back to the performances though, Luke and his band had many impressive songs that they performed, from rapid and erratic piano and drum ensembles to more calming and gentle keys, strings, and sequential cymbal hits, which both sounds equally had the audience listening attentively. Keeping with the idea of culture, Gabriel’s interest in the Black Panther Party and sharing the work of people of colour is similar to another group, the Black Audio Film Collective. Founded in 1982 and based in London, “the collective created a series of defiantly experimental works that engaged with black popular and political culture in Britain. The group were also instrumental in bringing an awareness of avant-garde film from Africa, India and South America to the UK”. (Tate, n.d.)
Closing out the night, Gabriel took to the stage once again to engage with the audience. He did the common maths trick where everyone gets the same answer. Although it was a bit of light humour, the point of it was an attempt to show everyone that there are similarities between us. Even though it did not come out great, I still feel as if the point he was making was still valid, as no matter who you were in that room, realistically we were all there for the same reason and as similar people: creatives. Less Talking brought people together, and even had me inspired to create and do just as those beside me have either done, will do or plan to do.
All photographs in this piece were taken by Joshua Dedji
Wikipedia. (2021). Roundhouse (venue). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roundhouse_(venue) [Accessed 15 May 2023].
www.youtube.com. (2015). 10 Songs You Didn’t Know Were Covers/Remakes. [online][Accessed 14 May 2023].
Artsper Magazine. (2018). 8 Things You Need To Know About Banksy. [online] Available at: https://blog.artsper.com/en/a-closer-look/8-things-need-know-banksy/#:~:text=His%20inspirations&text=Banksy%20has%20drawn%20much%20of [Accessed 14 May 2023].
BBC. (2022). BBC Four - BBC Young Musician, 2022, Jazz Final - Luke Bacchus. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/qg8vNMzjzdmVsXL61KG0nF/luke-bacchus [Accessed 15 May 2023].
Tate (n.d.). Black Audio Film Collective – Art Term. [online] Tate. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/b/black-audio-film-collective [Accessed 15 May 2023].