Vanessa Chang

I first met DiViNCi while conducting my doctoral research on gesture, digital media, and different artistic practices. I came upon an article in the New York Times describing an emerging pantheon of performers using MPCs and other controllers in live performance, of which DiViNCi was described as the one of the most florid. Struck by the physical intelligence and creative ferocity in his performance videos, I reached out to him to request an interview. He met me with expansive generosity, inviting me to observe and interview him over several days at his home studio in Orlando. Throughout the time I spent with him, DiViNCi shared his creative philosophy with me in words and in practice. Though not classically trained in music, he arrives as a musician through profound experiences of flow. Informed by his martial arts experience, DiViNCi sustains an intense physical presence in composition and performance. This is manifest in his live performances, but it is also clear in his playful approach to technical experimentation. His embodied creativity also animates his approach as a teacher. While I came to him as a researcher, full of questions, DiViNCi insisted that I really had to practice what he preached in order to grasp what he was talking about. With his guidance, and the license he gave me to play on his controller, I made my first song. Within hours, what was once purely in the realm of the ideas for me became a joyful reality.