The term “Datablism” refers to the intersection between digital data and turntablism. Equipment used for turntablism and scratching has been greatly modernized since its inception in the 1970s, giving artists access to technologies such as multi-channel digital audio, MIDI control, and more.

These advancements have enabled further innovations where artists can extend their creativity and control by creating new custom applications or plugins that access their underlying data. Australian DJ and artist Nicholas Caries aka NIKK-C has spent years experimenting with various methods to capture and utilize this data to create new sonic and visual possibilities, such as effects, arrangement tools, and performance visualizers.

Throughout his journey, NIKK-C has discovered other artists exploring very similar paths, including founder of “Artablism” - Mattheiu Crimersmois, who specializes in using turntables and DJ equipment to develop visual art pieces.

In this lecture at Sample Music Festival 2019, NIKK-C describes the concept of Datablism and the processes/software in which modern artists can access and capture turntablist performance data for their own creative projects. From 2020 to 2021, Nicholas Caris worked as part of the company Sxratch on the development of Datablism to create applications and hardware to make it accessible for everyone. The most prominent software is the Scratch Visualizer, which allows scratch DJs to use their DVS vinyl and midi-enabled mixer to view a graphical representation of their vinyl and x-fader movements while they practice, analyze the patterns, and understand where they can improve.