Architectural Cases

Akai Pro has launched the MPC Sample, an innovative portable DJ sampler that merges retro aesthetics with modern functionality. This device is engineered to provide a comprehensive music production experience on the go, allowing creators to produce and perform tracks anywhere. It encapsulates the essence of the original MPC60 design, while offering advanced capabilities for contemporary music making. Its compact form factor, coupled with robust features, positions it as a versatile tool for both aspiring and seasoned musicians.

The MPC Sample is a compact and versatile music creation tool from Akai Pro, drawing inspiration from the iconic MPC60. This portable device integrates a sampler, sequencer, and effects processor, enabling users to craft and perform music anytime, anywhere. It features a built-in speaker for immediate playback, a microphone for on-the-spot recordings, and a rechargeable battery offering up to five hours of use. The intuitive interface and clear controls ensure that the powerful MPC workflow is accessible to everyone, from beginners exploring music production to experienced DJs needing a portable setup.

The Evolution of Portable Music Production

Akai Pro's MPC Sample marks a significant advancement in portable music production, offering a complete DJ setup in a compact, retrofuturistic design. This device is a descendant of the legendary 1988 MPC60, maintaining its iconic grid of pads, control knobs, and display layout. The MPC Sample integrates a powerful sampler, a flexible sequencer, and a versatile effects processor, making it a comprehensive solution for creating and performing music outside of a traditional studio environment. Its design prioritizes portability and ease of use, ensuring that musicians can capture inspiration and produce tracks wherever they are.

The MPC Sample's hardware is designed for tactile control and creative expression. It features 16 RGB-backlit pads arranged in a four-by-four grid, which respond dynamically to touch intensity and duration, allowing for nuanced sound manipulation. Above the pads, a full-color display provides visual feedback, complemented by three control knobs and a legacy parameter slider for precise adjustment of effects and sound parameters. This combination of traditional and modern controls offers a fluid and engaging user experience. The device also includes a built-in microphone for instant audio capture, expanding the possibilities for unique sound design and on-the-fly sampling.

Unleashing Creative Soundscapes

The MPC Sample is equipped with a rich library of sounds and effects, providing a solid foundation for creative music production. It boasts over 100 factory drum kits and 60 distinct effect types spread across four independent effects engines, including authentic vinyl and tape emulations. This extensive palette allows users to experiment with various textures and sonic characteristics, from vintage warmth to modern crispness. The ability to import and manipulate sounds from multiple sources, combined with advanced audio processing capabilities, makes the MPC Sample a powerful tool for crafting diverse and original soundscapes.

Beyond its extensive sound library, the MPC Sample offers advanced sound manipulation features. Users can record external audio through its built-in microphone, external inputs, or via USB-C from a phone or computer. Once captured, these sounds can be meticulously chopped, looped, and time-stretched, then assigned to individual pads for dynamic playback and performance. The integrated sequencer facilitates the arrangement of these sounds into complex patterns and tracks, enabling the creation of complete musical pieces without the need for a separate computer. This standalone capability, powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, means the full MPC workflow—from sampling and sequencing to effects processing—is available anywhere, empowering musicians to produce high-quality music in any setting, from parks and record stores to skate parks and kitchen tables. The simplified workflow and clearly labeled controls also make it an ideal starting point for beginners entering the world of music production.

Artist Kimsooja from South Korea challenges our usual understanding of reality, illuminating and bringing a sense of hope to existing locations instead of creating new ones. Her artistic practice, which spans more than thirty years, combines performance and installations tailored to specific sites. Throughout these varied formats, she maintains a consistent method: she modifies how current surroundings are perceived by incorporating stillness and illumination.

Her site-specific projects have been showcased in diverse settings, from the famous Venice Biennale to the Bourse de Commerce, extending into underground spaces and expansive deserts. Her contributions have fostered a distinct perspective on space, viewing it as something that can be re-evaluated and adjusted rather than completely redesigned.

A notable aspect of her work is the ongoing series, 'A Needle Woman,' which began in the late 1990s. In major cities like Tokyo, Mexico City, Delhi, and Shanghai, Kimsooja stands immobile with her back to the camera while pedestrians move around her. This simple act dramatically alters the perception of the space. The bustling nature of the street becomes more evident, and movement patterns are highlighted against her static form. She likens herself to a needle weaving through fabric, with the city representing a dynamic canvas of motion. This metaphor grounds the work in physical experience, demonstrating how a small shift in behavior can redefine how a city is understood for both observers and passersby.

Kimsooja extends this concept to architectural spaces with her 'To Breathe' series, transforming interiors using diffraction film and natural light. Windows and surfaces are covered with translucent materials that refract light into shifting colors, subtly altering the environment as visitors move through it. This precise and understated intervention breathes life into the unchanged architecture, creating an atmosphere that responds to movement and time. The work suggests that environments can be recalibrated to foster awareness and shared experiences through minimal means.

Her exhibition, 'Weaving the Light,' at Cisternerne in Copenhagen, a former underground reservoir, further exemplifies her approach. By introducing transparent panels coated with diffraction film, Kimsooja allows light to penetrate and disperse, creating shifting reflections across the water and walls. The structure of the reservoir remains untouched, yet the perception and habitation of the space are profoundly altered. This installation underscores how a fixed environment can be transformed by engaging with light and time.

In 'To Breathe — Coachella Valley' for Desert X 2025, Kimsooja applies her methodology to a vast landscape. A spiraling glass structure wrapped in diffraction film is placed within the desert, refracting sunlight into iridescent colors that tint the surrounding terrain and alter the horizon. This installation does not reshape the desert but instead creates a lightweight system that responds to the sun's movement and the viewer's position, demonstrating that the same principles can operate at a territorial scale.

Across all her projects, Kimsooja maintains a consistent artistic philosophy despite varying contexts. Urban streets, interior rooms, subterranean reservoirs, and open desert landscapes are all treated as sites for subtle modification rather than outright reconstruction. This continuity is fundamental to her conception of utopia as a method, not as a singular ideal but as an adaptable approach that can be applied universally, allowing change to emerge through repetition, variation, and a keen attention to existing conditions.