Shanice is politically engaged in her artwork. She mentioned that, for example, she plays a lot of artists that are politically engaged and that talk about the oppression they face in their music. She is going so with the aim of spearing awareness regarding these inequalities. She put an emphasis on playing music that derives from the western standards as a powerful tool to share her message. Moreover, the sounds she uses are heavy on low frequencies and vibrations, coming from traditional music and African spirituality, as a way to move emotionally the audience by tickling the sensitivity of the human body to this sort of sonic stimulation.
Shanice defined by herself Activism Artistic as the combination of art and activism to bring about social change that helps to get to an agreement on a level of understanding. This definition is, based on the theoretical framework previously established, pretty accurate and shows a level of grasp of the concept that incorporate the basis. In addition, although taking only into consideration the framework of music, she defined her engaged artistic practice as a different approach to address some sort of issues, in which she feels more comfortable. She conceptualise Artistic Activism as a “less aggressive” form of activism that can be beneficial to trigger older generations, for example. Shanice acknowledge the power of music as an universal language and common ground for people to communicate and understand each other.
When it comes to her audience, Shanice does not have any expectations. Although she often gets positive feedbacks, she is aware that she is playing mostly in white spaces in Maastricht and that most of the songs she plays are not in English which can create biases and misunderstanding within the audience. However, she trusts music to speak for itself and encourage her audience to concentrate on the instruments and feelings of the sounds to evoke something within their interpretation of it.
After her interview, Shanice played a set of an hour showing me in practice her music and what genres she gets her inspiration from. The soundscape captures the type of music as well as the low frequencies and vibrations she described in the interview. As mentioned, most of the music are not in English and thus, are being listened and understood by the energy it spreads rather than a proper content understanding.
Shanice, alias Scotch Bonnet, is an emergent Dj in Maastricht. Born in German from Nigerian parents, and having spend most of her life in Ireland, diasporic feelings shaped her identity as a Black woman which now is reflected through her artistic practice; music. Her passion for music started very young, encouraged by the Black community she grew up in, to play multiple instrument and experience multiple genres. Today, Shanice has a particular interest into African music, specifically Afrobeats and Amapiano. Music that she plays with the aim of being a voice to spread this type of music that has been still burden by werstern standards.
Belonging to a marginalised community i.a. Black people, her identity as Black woman inspires her into doing her artistic practice nowadays with the goal of bringing diversity and more inclusivity in the Dj industry. She finds inspiration in the music of Nigerian artists that talks about oppression and wishes to rectify the segregation imposed to this type of music under western perspectives.
Moreover, she wants to bring her contribution into the male-dominated field of dj, representing voices that tends to be disregarded in this sphere. In her interview, Shanice brings her perspective as a Black woman to the assessment of Artistic with an interdisciplinary approach, full of energy, to the topic. Enjoy the discovery!
