Speaker Bio
DJ Sniff holds a B.A. from Keio University Department of Aesthetics and Science of Arts, M.P.S. from NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program, and Ph.D. from De Montfort University Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Media. From 2007-2012, he was Artistic Director of STEIM – Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music, where he led and curated the institution’s research, artist in residency program, and concert series. Between 2012-2017, he was Visiting Assistant Professor at City University of Hong Kong School of Creative Media and served as Associate Professor at Kyoto Seika University Department of Global Studies from 2020 to 2022. Currently sniff is based in both LA and Tokyo, where he serves as the Co-Director of Asian Meeting Festival (AMF) - an international music festival that brings together experimental musicians from Asia since 2005, part-time lecturer at Kyoto Seika. During 2025-26 he was Assistant Professor at Tokyo University of the Arts Center for Curatorial Studies.
Taku Mizuta Lippit, AKA DJ Sniff
Organised by Pete Bennett
Tuesday 20th October 2026. 13:00-14:00 GMT. 5.214 Sloane Robinson Building (hybrid available).
Pete's guest speaker Taku Mizuta Lippit, a.k.a DJ Sniff will be giving a talk next week!
DJ Sniff is a musician and curator in the field of experimental electronic arts and improvised music. His work builds upon a distinct practice that combines DJing, instrument design, and free improvisation. Over the years, he has collaborated with Evan Parker, Otomo Yoshihide, Koichi Makigami, Jaap Blonk, ErikM, Paul Hubweber, Tarek Atoui, Ken Ueno, and Senyawa. Numerous festivals have featured his work including: CTM Berlin, Warsaw Autumn, Flow Festival Helsinki, March Meeting Sharjah, Jazz em Agosto Lisbon, REWIRE Den Haag, Taipei Arts Festival, LACMA, and Taipei Biennial. Musical compositions and recordings by DJ Sniff have been released on various media formats from labels in Lebanon, U.K., France, Germany, Slovakia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Japan.
He will be speaking about some recent work he has done including Parallel Traces of the Jewel Voice and The Inverted Listening of Explosive Enemy Aircraft Sounds which examine the critical roles that phonograph records played during WWII Japan and its colonized territories. Real / Fake Japanese Music from 1914~1980 (2022) and Japanese Pop Natures 1934~1985 (2023) are DJ mixes commissioned by the Global Pop Culture Magazine which are made in collaboration with musicologists from Japan. Sound installation Transformer (2023) is constructed by reinterpreting narratives and actual equipment associated with Grandmaster Flash. His most recent release Turntable Solos (2025) is a document of his continued effort to find a unique musical voice through self-made DJ tools.