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Here are a few selected articles from my previous writings on
music, art and technology. I have written for Slate.com, Index
Magazine, Parkett, The Source, Rap Pages, Paper Magazine, The
Village Voice, Artforum, and Raygun in addition to being co-Publisher
of A Gathering
of the Tribes. I was also the first Editor-At-Large of
"Artbyte: The Magazine of Digital Arts" and am currently
in the middle of starting another magazine with many of the more
progressive aspects of what I was doing at Artbyte. The new magazine
is 21C
- stay tuned for further developments. I am also hard at work
on two books; one is called "Flow My Blood the Dj Said"
and focuses on different aspects of intellectual property and
its impact on youth culture, and the other, "And Now A message
from Our Sponsors" - a science fiction novel based on dj
culture. Last but not least, I'm also a "faculty member"
of the European
Graduate School, an experimental environment for discussion
of issues involving contemporary culture outside of a normal academic
environment - it's kind of like a "Black
Mountain College" of the early 21st Century. If that
wasn't enough, check out C-Theory
and Nest
Magazine, two places where I'm a contributing editor.
 My
first book Rhythm
Science is out now on MIT Press.
There's a lot more to come but during the interim, check out some
of the essays below...
Dj Spooky in NYC |
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Ghost World: A Story in Sound
for the Venice Biennal 2007
by Paul D. Miller
Brian Eno once famously remarked that the problem with computers
is that there isn't enough Africa in them. I kind of think that
its the opposite: they're bringing the ideals of Africa: after
all, computers are about connectivity, shareware, a sense of global
discussion about topics and issues, the relentless density of
info overload, and above all the willingness to engage and discuss
it all - that's something you could find on any street corner
in Africa.
I just wanted to highlight the point: Digital Africa is here,
and has been here for a while. This isn't "retro" -
it's about the future.
READ THE ESSAY AND
LISTEN TO THE MIX
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In
The Realms of The Imagination
Harry Smith: American Media Artist
by Paul D. Miller
I first got into Harry Smith in the mid 90’s. It was a different
time: The U.S. wasn’t an occupying power in the Middle East,
the price of gas was reasonable, and people all thought vinyl
was going to be obsolete. How different things are today!
I tend to think that Harry Smith was a walking remixologist –
his memory, as I’m told was legendary: he’d be able
to hear a record that he hadn´t heard in decades and would
be able to tell you who made it and when, plus what edition the
recording came out of. I like stuff like that.
READ THE ESSAY
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Jean
Baudrillard: Philosopher of the mash-up - In Memoriam
by Paul D. Miller
[ English ]
[ Francais ]
Jean Baudrillard passed away on March 6, 2007. I like to think of
him as the philospher of the "mashup" - he created a place
in contemporary thought where uncertainty about analysis became
part of the way we think about all phenomena in the digital era.
As with some of my other favorite thinkers like CLR James, and Marshall
Mcluhan, the response to his writings has always been controversial.
Which is a good thing. Sylvère Lotringer, former head of
Columbia University's French Department, and founder of the legendary
publishing imprint, Semiotext(e), organized a group of writers and
artists to respond to his passing. This is the piece I wrote in
memoriam for Baudrillard for the French newspaper, Le Nouvel
Observateur.
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Heel
up, Wheel up, come back, rewind: Trojan Records
by Paul D. Miller
Trojan Records asked me to do a "selections" mix of their
archive, and these are the liner notes to the project. I spent almost
every summer when I was a kid in Jamaica, and all I can say is that
when I was putting together this compilation, it was kind of like
a time warp back to a different era. Check it!
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Gilles
Deleuze and Félix Guattari
Interview with Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
by Carlo Simula
(excerpt)..."Basically I look at Deleuze/Guattari as two figures
who act as translators of European philosophy and aesthetics into
some kind of exit for people who are concerned with humanism. Think:
Frantz Fanon wrote about this as a kind of update on Existentialism
- the "gaze" that defines the world today is "brown"
- but it is contained in a strange cadence. It's a visual rhythm
that extended the idea of philosophy into spectrums that have yet
to be mapped out. European philosophy has usually been totally eurocentric
for the last several centuries, and Deleuze and Guattari are the
two philosophers who have taken the idea of philosophy past the
limits of previous thinkers. "
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Rebirth
of a Nation - Paul D. Miller remixes D.W. Griffith's 1915 film"Birth
of a Nation"
(excerpt)...Griffith was known as “the Man Who Invented Hollywood,”
and the words he used to describe his style of composition -“intra-frame
narrative” or the “cut-in” the “cross-cut”
– staked out a space in America’s linguistic terrain
that hasn’t really been explored too much. Griffith’s
films were mainly used as propaganda – “Birth of a Nation”
was used as a recruitment film for the Ku Klux Klan at least up
until the mid 1960’s, and other films like “Intolerance”
were commercial failures, and the paradox of his cultural stance
versus the technical expertise that he brought to film, is still
mirrored in Hollywood to this day.
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Remixing
the Matrix
An Interview with Paul D. Miller, aka Dj Spooky
by Erik Davis
This is a conversation between myself and Erik Davis (Author of
the book "Techgnosis: Myth, Magic and Mysticism in the Age
of Information," http://www.techgnosis.com).
Davis - sometimes editor of Wired and other journals of strange
culture, sometimes journalist, and dabbler in what I like to call
"consciousness retro-engineering modifiers," did the piece
for Trip Magazine. It's about a lot of different themes in contemporary
art and media - but most of all it's a dialog about the different
worlds of aesthetics and technology seen through the prism of psychedelic
culture. Trip
Magazine - a web-zine/journal that focuses on - yep, you guessed
it - psychedelic culture, commissioned the piece.
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Errata
Erratum - Paul D. Miller remixes Marcel Duchamp's music composition
sculptures and visual artworks at L.A.'s Museum of Contemporary
Art Digital Gallery
[English]
[Francais] [Japanese]
The Duchamp remix was all about dub. I took alot of his material
written on music and flipped it into a dj mix of his visual material
- with him rhyming! Needless to say it was a fun project. These
are the notes for the project, and if you want to check out the
actual project go to Errata
Erratum on the Museum's website. The website was coded by
the San Francisco based web guru Andrew Enoch a.k.a. aenoch
who has hooked up cool graphics for alot of record labels, and
I provided all visual material and remix stuff.
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Loops
of Perception
Sampling, Memory, and the Semantic Web
by Paul Miller, aka DJ Spooky published in HorizonZero
"free content fuels innovation"
- Lawrence Lessig, The Future of Ideas
I get asked what I think about sampling a lot, and I've always
wanted to have a short term to describe the process. Stuff like
"collective ownership", "systems of memory",
and "database logics" never really seem to cut it on
the lecture circuit, so I guess you can think of this essay as
a soundbite for the sonically-perplexed. This is an essay about
memory as a vast playhouse where any sound can be you. Press "play"
and this essay says "here goes":
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Flip
Mode - a conversation between Paul D. Miller, Ad Astra, and Dj Spooky
that Subliminal Kid
This was an interview between Paul D. Miller, Dj Spooky that Subliminal
Kid, and Ad Astra (an alternate persona of Paul's...) that was commisioned
by Russel Simmon's "One World" Magazine for their art issue. Basically
they asked me to dialog about my last mix CD "Modern Mantra" - yes,
there's a sense of humor going on here...
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Dialectics
of Entropy: a conversation between Paul D. Miller a.k.a. Dj Spooky
that Subliminal Kid and Matthew Shipp
There's a funny convergence going on these days in the electronic
music scene. I like to call it "the artist as shareware" or something
like that. Think about when Duke Ellington used to talk about Marshall
Mcluhan and flip it into Anthony Braxton's jazz symbol systems,
and voila! Welcome to 21st century "Nu-Bop." Jazz, after all, is
derived from the French verb "jazzer" - which translates simply
as "to have a conversation." This dialog took place in NYC and basically,
this is a conversation between the jazz composer Matthew Shipp and
me about compositional strategies in digital media and contemporary
sound art. Shipp is working on a series of jazz projects incorporating
electronic media into a jazz context. He's considered to be one
of the premier young jazz composers in New York. More info on him
can be found at www.matthewshipp.com
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Music
and Technology: A Roundtable Discussion between Phillip Glass, Paul
D. Miller (Dj Spooky), Morton Subotnick, John Moran, and Michael
Riesman
This is an online discussion on music and technology Phillip Glass
set up - it's an open ended scenario between a couple of my favorite
philosophers of music and digital culture... if you have a moment,
check it out! The dialog is for the start a magazine on classical
music and sound art and the first issue is under Philip Glass' guest
editorship, which kicks off the series. Carte Blanche will be sort
of a calling card for andante's online magazine. Future editors
will include choreographer Mark Morris, composer John Adams, writer
Susan Sontag and director Jonathan Miller.
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Andy
Warhol's American Dream: A remix by Paul D. Miller a.k.a. Dj Spooky
that Subliminal Kid
This is an essay I wrote as a performance statement for my show
at the Andy Warhol museum in Pittsburgh. To me Warhol was one of
those artists who touched on so many nerve points of modern culture
that he's almost like an exact mirror held up to a world gone completely
blind - its eyes have been replaced by the lens, the computer screen,
the random ad in Times Square, the constantly updated website...
or whatever central focal point you want to focus on. You name it,
he's echoed it. Almost no other artist can compare. Yes, Duchamp
made room for the found object in the fine arts. Yes, all manner
of painters and artists changed the way we percieve reality - but
Warhol was a figure who towered over them all in his ability to
absorb it all... that's why I consider him to be the first truly
21st century artist: he lived by osmosis. When I did my show at
the Museum the room was decked out in all of his camouflage paitings
and some of his "Christ" last supper paintings (a pun
on the word Mass in "mass culture"). There's an image
of me playing in front of his paintings in the "photos"
section.
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"Pass
The Mic": Photo Portraits of The Beastie Boys by Ari Marcopoulos
(Power House Press)
The Beastie Boys are one of those groups that have become the basic
fabric of the hip-hop medium. From b-boys to Buddhists, from Punk
to ska to dub - these gents have done their thing since I was back
in Washington D.C. listening to go-go groups like Trouble Funk and
Rare Essence (late 80's to mid 90's D.C. had a pretty diverse scene
that included bands, dj's etc etc it was mad a mad fun time....).
Ari is a friend of mine who does cool photos for alot of different
situations - sports, music, you name it.... Anyway, he asked me
to do this piece for the Beastie Boys book, so here it is... The
Raw Uncut.
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Fluid
Neon Bright Shadows: The Music of Iannis Xenakis
*
Espagnol Version
Xenakis spoke back in 1955 of a kind of "social turbulence"
that informs his creative strategies, and these liner notes to Krannerg
(performed by Dj Spooky and the ST-X Ensemble) give you a sense
of what forces drove this composer to create a milieu where math,
music, and high science were all seamlessly blended to create some
of the most haunting music of the 20th century.
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Across
the Morphic Fields: The Art of Mariko Mori
I wrote this catalog essay back in 1996 for an group exhibit at
the Harvard ICA that included Mariko Mori. She also sang a Buddhist
mantra called "Mono Ni Kami" (a chant that invokes the
idea of spiritual and psychological recycling, a kind of Eastern
invocation of loops in identity) on my album Riddim Warfare. Basically,
she is one of my favorite artists. Her aesthetic is a complex and
incredibly well researched foray into Japanese culture. Japan -
it's a land of intense paradoxes, and considering that it's a place
that's given us and artforms as diverse as karakuri (a mime dance
in which the actors are mechanical dolls that musicians perform
for), and Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka (who developed the prototype
of the "walkman" cassette players that essentially created
personalized sound environments) - it's one of the few places on
the planet that truly embraces the future while holding respectfully
holding the past firmly in place - in the present. Mariko's work
stands as a filament in a web of situations and environments - it
is truly "ambient" (not in the Brian Eno/ Western European
sense, but more in the immersive aspects of repetition from forms
as diverse as Japanese "gagokou" or court music, or West
and Central African nmbira music) - and by playing off of our sense
of time unfolding in sound, she shows us how to navigate the striated
realms of the digital present. I like to think of her work as an
investigation into what I like to call "the prolonged present."
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Interview
with the Harvard Advocate
An interview of Paul D. Miller by Eva Marie Pinon for the Harvard
Advocate. The Advocate dedicated an entire issue to exploring contemporary
African American intellectual culture and its relationship to electronic
music. |
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Kut
Culture - Blood Simple
Repohistory's Recombinant art of transfusions and truisms on the
Web takes aim at the core of the world market for blood in Manhattan.
Check the flow. www.Repohistory.org |
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Thoughtware
vs Shareware
Comments on the Elementz: DJ Toolz Series, An Interview with FAQT
Magazine |
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Uncanny/Unwoven
Notes towards a New Conceptual Art
by Paul D. Miller |
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Future
Tense
An Interview with Bruce Sterling
by Paul D. Miller
Bruce Sterling is one of the seminal figures of the "cyberpunk"
sci-fi literary genre, and he's also a gifted critic, theorist,
and all around essayist. This conversation is about his style
of mirroring contemporary digital media culture, graphic design,
and industrial design in his writings. More can be found at The
Mirrorshades Postmodern Archive and at his WIRED
Magazine Blog
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Web
Notes for The Quick and the Dead
Comments on a collaboration between Scanner and Dj Spooky that Subliminal
Kid exploring urban transmission/reception sound patterns and codes
by Paul D. Miller
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Essay
on and interview with Manuel deLanda
Discussing "One Thousand Years of Non-Linear History"
by Paul D. Miller |
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Dark
Carnival
by Paul D. Miller |
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Notes
from the 4th World
Shirin Neshat's Video Art |
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Deep
Shit
Due to the controvery that surrounds almost any dynamic critique
of Afro-Diasporic Culture, Chris doesn't normally do interviews.
This is a peek into the mind of an intense and interesting painter
- one whose work "The Virgin Mary" caused such a culture
storm in New York that our beloved Mayor Guiliani called for an
entire museum show to be cancelled. I like to think of these conversations
as templates for a more progressive view of Afro-Diasporic culture
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"Material
Memories"
*Espagnol
Version
*Deutsch
Version
Time and sound, memory and matter - for me, it's all a mix. I look
at film as the central myth processing site for the 20th century's
subconscious, and if there's anything dj'ing brings home it's how
much our memories and lives have been inundated with media culture
from the very beginnings of consciousness. We're probably the first
generation to grown up with electronic media at every angle. Satellites,
cell phones, t.v. telephones, fiber optic cables etc etc You name
it, we remember it. Call it the archeaology of the viral virtual
or whatever. Film was just the beginning. The nextsituation - vj's
& dj's net mixes etc etc... check the situation.... - we're
just getting started.
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