DJ Spooky

DJ Spooky introduces his new iPhone Application.

via subliminalspooky:

DJ Player has teamed up with DJ Spooky and Thirsty Ear Recordings to bring you the next-generation mixable DJ Album format for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The App is using the same technology behind DJ Player to allow you to play a smooth mix of tracks from the album and to mix the tracks yourself using the built-in mixer.

The App includes 7 tracks of songs and remixes from The Secret Song album, and exclusive DJ Spooky sound effects.

The App is going to be available soon in iTunes App Store.

DJ Spooky (Paul Miller) talks about the history of media and thoughts about media in culture.

He discusses and demonstrates the unexpected side effects of free speech, law, and copyright while showing the power of remixed art.

Miller always has interesting ideas and is a great advocate of free culture, but don’t expect him to connect all the dots!

via UNCChapelHill

Haverford College, in suburban Philadelphia, plays host this coming week to electronic and experimental hip hop musician DJ Spooky, virtual reality guru and composer Jaron Lanier, and Living Colour percussionist Will Calhoun as they gather for an event called “The Sound of Sci(l)ence.” The conference takes place June 15 – 17.

“The Sound of Sci(l)ence: Listening to Quantum Mechanics, the Big Bang, and Nanotechnology,” is a three-day series of conversations, workshops, and performances exploring the intersection of music and quantum mechanics. Supported by a Mellon Arts Residency Planning Grant from Haverford College’s Hurford Humanities Center, the event pairs visiting artists Will Calhoun, Jaron Lanier, and Paul Miller (aka DJ Spooky) with Haverford faculty and students in an effort to widen the scope of quantum mechanics pedagogy through the study of sound, as well locate synergies with courses across the academic disciplines.

Organized by Chemistry professor Joshua Schreier and Physics professor Stephon Alexander, who describe the idea behind the workshop this way:

“Mathematically, quantum mechanics (QM) has many analogies with the classical wave phenomena of sound, and yet the pedagogy of QM is almost entirely visual. This series of conversations and performances will explore how to ‘listen to’ the simple systems used to teach QM, how this can increase student comprehension, reach out to non-technical audiences, and for its own inherently aesthetic benefits. In addition, we would like to explore how this could be used to explore/comprehend our research interests in cosmology and nanoscience. “

The event is FREE, but registration is required. Attendees can register for tickets at this link. Read more…

The Nauru Elegies

A Portrait in Sound and Hypsographic Architecture
Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky in collaboration with Annie Kwon

Read more…

This is the trailer for DJ Spooky/Paul D. Miller’s large scale multimedia performance work: an acoustic portrait of a rapidly changing continent.

Description:

The Antarctic Suite transforms Miller’s first person encounter with the harsh, dynamic landscape into multimedia portraits with music composed from the different geographies that make up the land mass. Miller’s field recordings from a portable studio, set up to capture the acoustic qualities of Antarctic ice forms, reflect a changing and even vanishing environment under duress.

Coupled with visual material from Getty Images’ vast collection, The Antarctic Suite is a seventy minute multimedia performance.

The first review I’ve seen of this ambitious DJ work comes from SkyNoise:

Though the publicity heavily emphasised the piece was “conceived, composed and performed by Paul D Miller, aka DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid”, the bulk of performance involves the trio of AlterEgo relentlessly and admirably ploughing through a minimal and repetitive composition. Closing my eyes, all I can think of is how much it reminds me of Philip Glass, and how little it seems to conjure up any antarctic atmosphere. 15-20 minutes into the piece, I start wondering what Spooky is actually doing on stage.

He seems perpetually to be cueing up tracks, adjusting his headphones, adjusting knobs, but nothing can be heard as a result of this, only the ongoing violin, piano and cello riffs, all generously soaked in reverb or delay.

There are a few nice musical moments, a few nice transitions, but it’s only close to the end that I can actually hear some sounds other than the instruments, short loops dropped into the mix by Spooky, that replicate the fast repetitive instrument playing. I suppose they are ‘the sounds of ice’, albeit cropped and toned with some cookie cutter template to suit the composition. Where were the sounds of creaking icebergs? Of ice and water? Of wind and vast landscape? So much for sounds of the ice continent. Or engaging with the musicians on stage. Or for interplay with the video.

I thought “Philip Glass” immediately, on seeing the promo video, too. 

If you’ve had a chance to see this performed, let me know what you think of it.