Reynolds 10-26-10

Initially I was drawn to the actual design of the book, Rhythm Science, because it is a unique work of art on it’s own; a hole for a spindle piercing the CD shaped pages, alternating paper textures, text, quotes, designs and a music CD enclosed. Then I read Paul Miller’s heady and very perceptive text. He is obviously very bright and his educational background in Philosophy and French Literature is evident in his intellectual ruminating in this book; many varied recognizable and some unfamiliar people from history and the present, are quoted, and their thoughts and/or music explored (remixed). He is an artist, writer, producer, and a DJ. As a DJ he goes by Spooky that Subliminal Kid, a name that refers to the combination of “eerie sounds of hip-hop, technology, ambient and other music,” that he recontextualizes. He not only DJs but he uses the concept of DJing in Rhythm Science as a vehicle to present his cultural ideas and issues regarding art in the digital age.

Miller talks about how the artist uses technology to rearrange many of the ideas, art, music, and beliefs to create and convey infinite new and expressive art. Software becomes the tool and the almost limitless information on the web can be altered or added too at the artist discretion. He said that thanks to technology the entire history of music can be remixed, his CD is a true form of sampling and multiplicity. This is accurate for all art as well.

Some of the themes that he purposely expressed disjointedly are: “Who speaks through you?” Miller’s African American heritage sometimes speaks through him. I feel he was connected to his deceased father and DeBois both activists in their own right. “Who owns memory?” Memory is in our cells and genetic makeup. Memory is in the ethers, open for anyone to assimilate. We all own our own memory but maybe we are multiplex selves. “How does property intervene in the flow of information between the material and the ethereal?” Maybe it does and maybe it doesn’t. “In an information economy it’s all about how information creates identity as a scarce resource.” “The method becomes actionary rather than reactionary.” I don’t think he believes there is much originality but that all ideas are recombined and re-”paired”. To me the remixing or recontextualizing of material is really a composite of ownership that loops around back to a point where you don’t really know who owns it, but does that really make a difference anyway?

Who is the controller of your universe?

The question really is “who speaks through you”

Influencing every moment of your existence

I am impacted with every cell of my body by my mother

Her voice resonates with every passing thought

She gave me life and imbedded the seeds of who I am

Speaking

Captivating

Ever guiding me through my journey in this lifetime

My intuition and experiences are the hand that guides me

I own my memory

My looking glass changes with every breath

My memory changes

Drifts

Morphs

And sometimes dissipates with the tick of a clock

Paces into the deeps recesses of my mind

Or it is hiding waiting to be evoked from within

But there are memories that will stand the test of time

Playing and Replying

Forever