| ARTICLES// |
|
 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 of Nest Magazine.
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 where I'm a contributing editor. There's a lot more to come but during the interim, check out some of the essays below...
|
 Interview with Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
for ZEMOS98 / May 26th, 2009
//READ THE INTERVIEW [english]
//READ THE INTERVIEW [spanish]
Interview made as part of the work of the book Source: The Remix. DJ Spooky is a reference to ZEMOS98. He is a writer, thinker, scientist, philosopher, poet, and above all... remixer and remixable. Long live the remix ...and as Paul says ¡in peace!.
|
 Terry Riley: In C
by Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
//WATCH THE TRAILER / READ THE ESSAY
This is a short description of a remix project I did with The Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble. It's a hommage to one of my favorite composers.
|
 Kino-Glaz/Kino-Pravda: remix
by Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
In November of 2009, I will present a remix of the legendary films "Kino-Glaz" and "Kino-Pravda" at St. Petersburgh's The Hermitage. The curators asked me for an artist statement, and this is what I came up with.
// READ ARTIST STATEMENT
Vertov's films are pretty amazing if you look at the way we use things like youtube in our everyday world, and well, all I can say is that I guess he would have been a good "VJ"
|
| "Paul Miller has grabbed disparate philosophies and references from the past five hundred years and tied them into a neat and interesting narrative on music, sound, and current thought in our time. Sound Unbound is an excellent reference on art–in the popular context–in the twenty-first century." –Branford Marsalis |
Sampling Digital Music and Culture
By Paul D. Miller aka Dj Spooky
// CHAPTER LISTING AND SAMPLES
// PURCHASE AT MIT
// PURCHASE AT AMAZON
// PDF PRESSKIT
// SOUNDUNBOUND.COM
Edited by Paul D. Miller
Foreword by Cory Doctorow
Introduction by Steve Reich
MIT Press May 2008
Includes Audio CD
Contributors:
David Allenby Pierre Boulez,
Catherine Corman,
Chuck D,
Erik Davis,
Scott De Lahunta,
Manuel DeLanda,
Cory Doctorow,
Eveline Domnitch Frances Dyson,
Ron Eglash,
Brian Eno,
Dmitry Gelfand,
Dick Hebdige,
Lee Hirsch,
Vijay Iyer,
Ken Jordan,
Douglas Kahn,
Daphne Keller,
Beryl Korot,
Jaron Lanier,
Joseph Lanza,
Jonathan Lethem,
Carlo McCormick,
Moby, Naeem Mohaiemen,
Alondra Nelson,
Keith and Mendi,
Obadike, Hans Ulrich Obrist,
Pauline Oliveros,
Philippe Parreno,
Ibrahim Quraishi,
Steve Reich,
Simon Reynolds,
Scanner aka Robin Rimbaud,
Nadine Robinson,
Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR),
Alex Steinweiss,
Bruce Sterling,
Lucy Walker,
Saul Williams,
Jeff E. Winner.
|
 PAINTING BY NUMBERS
KEHINDE WILEY'S NEW WORLD PORTRAITURE
By Paul D. Miller aka Dj Spooky
// READ ESSAY
// ART ASIA PACIFIC ARTICLE
// KEHINDE WILEY STUDIO
Shake yourself free from the manikin you create out of a false interpretation of what you do and what you feel, and you'll at once see that the manikin you make yourself is nothing at all like what you really are or what you really can be!
~ LUIGI PIRANDELLO,
Ciascuno a Suo Modo (Each in His Own Way) 1924
Picture this: "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." This quote is often attributed to Sigmund Freud to show that even a famous psychoanalyst can freely admit that not everything has profound meaning – realism has its drawbacks; Some times we just want to experience something for what it is. This is the remix.
|
 Ghost World: A Story in Sound for the Venice Biennal 2007
by Paul D. Miller
// READ THE ESSAY AND LISTEN TO THE MIX
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.
|
 In
The Realms of The Imagination
Harry Smith: American Media Artist
by Paul D. Miller
// READ THE ESSAY
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.
|
 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.
|
 Heel
up, Wheel up, come back, rewind: Trojan Records
by Paul D. Miller
// READ
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!
|
 Gilles
Deleuze and Félix Guattari
Interview with Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky
by Carlo Simula
// READ INTERVIEW
(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. "
|
 Rebirth
of a Nation - Paul D. Miller remixes
D.W. Griffith's 1915 film"Birth
of a Nation"
// READ ESSAY AND VIEW EXCERPT
(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.
|
 Remixing
the Matrix
An Interview with Paul D. Miller, aka Dj Spooky
by Erik Davis
//READ
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.
|
 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
//Errata Erratum at MOCA
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.
|
 Loops
of Perception
Sampling, Memory, and the Semantic Web
by Paul Miller, aka DJ Spooky published in HorizonZero
//READ
"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":
|
 Flip Mode
- a conversation between Paul D. Miller, Ad
Astra, and DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid
//READ
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...
|
 Dialectics
of Entropy: a conversation between Paul D.
Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid
and Matthew Shipp
//READ
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
|
 Music
and Technology: A Roundtable Discussion between
Phillip Glass, Paul D. Miller (Dj Spooky),
Morton Subotnick, John Moran, and Michael
Riesman
//READ
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.
|
 Andy Warhol's
American Dream: A remix by Paul D. Miller
a.k.a. DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid
//READ
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.
|
 Fluid Neon
Bright Shadows: The Music of Iannis Xenakis
//English Version
//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.
|
 Interview
with the Harvard Advocate
//READ
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
|
 Kut Culture
- Blood Simple
//READ
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
|
 Thoughtware
vs Shareware
//READ
Comments on the Elementz: DJ Toolz Series,
An Interview with FAQT MagazineComments on the Elementz: DJ Toolz Series,
An Interview with FAQT Magazine
|
 "Pass
The Mic": Photo Portraits of The Beastie
Boys
by Ari Marcopoulos (Power House Press)
//READ
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.
|
 Across
the Morphic Fields: The Art of Mariko Mori
//READ
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."
|
 Uncanny/Unwoven
Notes towards a New Conceptual Art
by Paul D. Miller
//READ |
 Future
Tense : An Interview with Bruce Sterling
by Paul D. Miller
//READ
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
|
 Web Notes
for The Quick and the Dead
//READ
Comments on a collaboration between Scanner
and Dj Spooky that Subliminal Kid exploring
urban transmission/reception sound patterns
and codes
by Paul D. Miller |
 Dark
Carnival
by Paul D. Miller
//READ
|
 Essay
on and interview with Manuel deLanda
Discussing "One Thousand Years of Non-Linear
History"
by Paul D. Miller
//READ
|
 Notes
from the 4th World
Shirin Neshat's Video Ariller
//READ
|
 Deep Shit
A Conversation with Chris Ofili
//READ
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 in a dynamic context. |
 Material
Memories
// English Version
// 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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DJ Spooky and DMC of RUN DMC at Soul Festival, Jakarta, Indonesia! 10/31/2009
Copyright Criminals - a Documentary by Ben Frantzen and Kembrew Mcleod
ORDER NOW!!! 
OUT NOW! DJ Spooky's "Sound Unbound"
CREATION REBEL MIX CD on Trojan Records
DJ Spooky has produced material on the new Yoko Ono album.
RHYTHM SCIENCE:
DJ Spooky in Berlin 2008
