 |   Author : Paul D. Miller aka Dj Spooky that Subliminal Kid Edition : 1st Number of Pages : 130 Publisher : The MIT Press List Price: Our Price: $13.20 You Save: $10.75 (45%) Used Price : $11.75 |
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- ISBN13: 9780262632874
- Condition: New
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"Once you get into the flow of things, you're always haunted by the way that things could have turned out. This outcome, that conclusion. You get my drift. The uncertainty is what holds the story together, and that's what I'm going to talk about." --Rhythm Science The conceptual artist Paul Miller, also known as Dj Spooky that Subliminal Kid, delivers a manifesto for rhythm science--the creation of art from the flow of patterns in sound and culture, "the changing same." Taking the Dj's mix as template, he describes how the artist, navigating the innumerable ways to arrange the mix of cultural ideas and objects that bombard us, uses technology and art to create something new and expressive and endlessly variable. Technology provides the method and model; information on the web, like the elements of a mix, doesn't stay in one place. And technology is the medium, bridging the artist's consciousness and the outside world. Miller constructed his Dj Spooky persona ("spooky" from the eerie sounds of hip-hop, techno, ambient, and the other music that he plays) as a conceptual art project, but then came to see it as the opportunity for "coding a generative syntax for new languages of creativity." For example: "Start with the inspiration of George Herriman's Krazy Kat comic strip. Make a track invoking his absurd landscapes. . .What do tons and tons of air pressure moving in the atmosphere sound like? Make music that acts a metaphor for that kind of immersion or density." Or, for an online "remix" of two works by Marcel Duchamp: "I took a lot of his material written on music and flipped it into a DJ mix of his visual material--with him rhyming!" Tracing the genealogy of rhythm science, Miller cites sources and influences as varied as Ralph Waldo Emerson ("all minds quote"), Grandmaster Flash, W. E. B Dubois, James Joyce, and Eminem. "The story unfolds while the fragments coalesce," he writes.SimilarProduct
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Customer reviews
New Wave Scholarship 
by .. ()
This is a pathbreaking work; surely a future classic. Using the DJ as a model for new patterns of creativity in our culture, DJ Spooky suggests that "the selection of sound becomes narrative." Creativity is in the mix of old and exisiting texts (written, aural, visual) rather than in the invention of new ones. Paradoxically, in the mix something new IS created.
This book shows that theory can be written almost poetically. A rare thing: theory that is as artistic as the art it describes. The accompanying CD of 33 songs is terrific: standout moments include James Joyce reading from Finnegans Wake mixed with Oval vs Yoshihiro Hanno and William S. Burroughs reading from The Five Steps mixed with Scanner Fuse. Patti Smith ain't bad, either.
5 stars + by .. Bitform 5000 (NYC)
Look people: Rhythm Science is about mixing art and sound. The book
is totally readable and accessible, and either people have a reading
level of a 2nd grade student or something, or they just don't get
theory stuff, or maybe they're just stupid. The reason the book is
great is that it draws together writing and music like a dj would and
should: with rhythm. Spooky mixes words and texts in the book like a
mix CD, and the CD that goes with the book is a kind of audio
companion. They are both pretty amazing, and they compliment each
other nicely. It's annoying to see people always come off
conservative and dumb when this is obviously an "avant garde" kind of
book. Come on people: it's not Martha Stewart telling you how to dj -
but you'd think that alot of the reviews are. People always want
something simple, and Spooky never does that. That's why this is an
amazing book. Think of the early Dada manifestoes (even Kurt
Schwitters is on the mix CD!), think of the early Surrealist
manifestoes of Andre Breton or Jean Cocteau, and then fast forward to
now. Digital media and cut culture blur all of these things together
- art, music, and writing, and Paul D. Miller a.k.a. Dj Spooky gets
that. The problem is it seems like he's ahead of alot of people who
don't. The book shows why.
Lyricism in the age of the mix by .. J. Mark Inman (Boston, MA)
This book is not just a book, it is poetry, music and artwork all rolled into a unique look at copy culture and the mix. DJ Spooky transends the traditional notions of mix by including artists like Boulez and Debussy as well as other DJs typically associated with the genre. Using the words and voices of authors and poets like Gertrude Stein and James Joyce on the CD, Spooky reveals his theory of rhythm science explaned in the book and decodes, deconstructs and creates new through found objects.
mcluhan + heidegger + wutang clan = ahead of its time by .. hamstar (planet earth)
after reading the prior reviews of Dj spooky's rhythm science I feel I must voice my opinion. I read rhythm science last august a few months after studying and integrating Marshall Mc Luhan's epic "Understanding Media"....Upon finishing that text I was struck that there was a very obvious missing chapter..namely that on internet and its effects on culture. Rhythm Science is to date the only text that I am aware of that engages this 'unwritten'chapter...furthermore this is only the beginning....the post-heidegarean overtones, coupled with an obvious knowledge of art history, and the dj's place in such a history make this piece vital to anyone engaging this art form as such.....the downfall of the text though, as well miller's lectures, is not in fact the work itself but the context..we are at a place and time in hiphop/electronic music/performance art/ avant garde practice that is rather sad...where to be involved in so many different practices one has to water oneself down to satisfy everyone...The text is vital and not long enough. i do not think Miller is a bad writer but perhaps a very select audience is ready to deal with this work. If you are coming from an 'intelectual' background perhaps the language used and the non-chalance of his style might seem 'below' you..and if you are coming from an 'uneducated' background the ideas might seem lofty....It is an incredible piece of writing that has set the bar for what an artist must do in an age where art history and intelectual discourse are part of the game. Miller draws from a WIDE range of ideas spanning both time and culture and has produced something as provocative as should be expected...sadly i think the culture absorbing this is at a sad state, which is pushing Miller to pigeon hole himself....nonetheless, Miller's work has had a profound impact on myself, ever more apparent with a second read...and later memory jolts that this piece seems to produce....this is an dense and subtle experience which showcases Miller as truly pushing the genre and art in general, and sadly the sorry state of the avant garde at this point....
A day with Paul Miller by .. A. Thielke (Boulder, CO)
If you are an artist, a dj, a writer, a musician or just have the ability to see things creatively you might enjoy this book. Miller gives a glimpse into how he is finding success and describes the history of his influences and alter-egos. I read it in one sitting, but found myself going back through and re-reading sections that were intriguing. Love his invented vocabulary.