Hip-Hop's Fifth Element: Knowledge, Pedagogy, and Artist-Scholar Collaboration

这个首开先河的项目旨在批判性地研究嘻哈文化的第五个元素：知识。嘻哈文化起源于20世纪70年代的纽约，由dj、主持、涂鸦和舞蹈四个核心元素组成。嘻哈文化除了核心之外还包含其他元素，但世界上许多嘻哈艺术家和粉丝都认为第五要素是知识。它指的是从业者和粉丝超越自己的背景，理解文化的历史、价值和艺术性的重要性。hip-hop的第五元素源于由嘻哈创始人Afrika Bambaataa领导的准宗教团体“祖鲁民族”（Universal Zulu Nation） （Chang 2005），包括自我实现（“自我认识”）、赋权的目标，并包括有关该类型及其主要实践者的历史信息（Gosa 2015）。由于它具有解放的潜力，嘻哈越来越多地被用于学校、大学以及各种青年和社区教育环境中。因此，知识是嘻哈的内在逻辑、全球流行和制度化的核心。该项目旨在填补欧洲新兴嘻哈研究领域的研究空白。虽然第五元素是嘻哈文化中最重要的元素之一，但它在嘻哈研究中却处于某种边缘化的地位。大多数hip-hop研究目前都集中在说唱音乐上，其中第五元素通常被概念化为四个核心元素集的附加元素。本研究项目的目的是创造一种新的嘻哈研究第五元素理论。作为对艺术和学术界的原创干预，该项目促进了德国和英国艺术家、学者和教育工作者之间的合作、平等和参与方式。它将对第五要素的微观政治以及跨大西洋和欧洲的艺术和教育话语进行比较和对比。该项目将包括来自每个国家的驻场艺术家，他们将共同创作一件受委托的嘻哈作品，这将推动知识、艺术和学术界的界限。除了创造新的嘻哈作品和发表第五元素理论外，研究人员还将提供开放的教学和学习工具，以传播嘻哈文化的价值观。

The aim of this first-of-its-kind project is to critically investigate hip-hop culture's fifth element: knowledge. Founded in the 1970s in New York City, hip-hop culture consists of four core elements: DJing, emceeing, graffiti, and dance. While hip-hop culture contains other elements beyond its core, many hip-hop artists and fans worldwide understand the fifth element to be knowledge. It refers to the fact that practitioners and fans understand the importance of the history, values, and artistry of the culture beyond their own background. With roots in the Universal Zulu Nation, a quasi-religious group led by hip-hop founder Afrika Bambaataa (Chang 2005), hip-hop's fifth element includes aims of self-realisation ('knowledge of self'), empowerment, and includes information about the history of the genre and its key practitioners (Gosa 2015). Because of its emancipatory potential, hip-hop is increasingly used in schools, at universities, and in a variety of youth and community education contexts. Knowledge is therefore central to hip-hop's inner logic, global popularity, and institutionalisation. This project wants to close a research gap in the emerging field of hip-hop studies in Europe. While the fifth element is one of the most important elements in hip-hop culture, it has a somewhat marginalised position in hip-hop studies. Most hip-hop studies research currently focuses on rap music where the fifth element is often conceptualised as an additional element to the set of four core elements. The objective of this research project is to create a new hip-hop studies theory of the fifth element. As an original intervention into art and academia, this project promotes a collaborative, egalitarian, and participatory approach between artists, scholars, and educators in Germany and the UK. It will compare and contrast the micro-politics as well as the transatlantic and European artistic and educational discourses of the fifth element. The project will include an artist in residence from each country who will co-create a commissioned hip-hop work that will push the boundaries of knowledge, art, and academia. In addition to creating new pieces of hip-hop and publishing a theory of the fifth element, the researchers will also provide open access teaching and learning tools for disseminating the values of hip-hop culture.