Mix sampling with DJ Spooky
Excuse me if I riff...
The DJ Spooky YouTube video was representative of his topic! He offered so much in such a short time. The points that stuck with me were his concepts of: "The Photoshop imagination," or the "layered sense of collage" that our media culture has become. And media as he describes it is both mass and individualized. Our culture is moving so rapidly. We are now expected to multitask, operating in multiple layers of thought and expression at once. His work is layer upon layer of visual, audio, and text messages, mixed and remixed. The mix sampling that DJs like Spooky are creating have also launched the "conversation between originality and derivative work" and "the tension between art and artifact." Our ability to individually create media -- from art, music, literature, etc. also represents history and beliefs (as he referred to as "playing with fragments of collective memory"). It has also opened the conversation about ownership and economy.
DJ Spooky discussed what he calls "the gift economy" which is the basis of Creative Commons. It has created a firestorm amongst recording executives and the music industry as new legal battles have been raised over how artists "use" other artists' work as well as how it is distributed - gotta love CD burners! The ability to create and recreate art in visual or audio form is what he refers to the "shareware mentality" vs. the "photoshop mentality." What's left to be determined is how these changes will ultimately effect our economic system.
Finally, I was intrigued by his "Birth of a Nation" film and when he asked, "what happens if you don’t break the cycle" as well as the clip where the actor asked, “The truth... what is the truth?” (can't help but hear Jack Nicholson say, "Son, you can't handle the truth!"). I've often heard that history is his- story... and DJ Spooky's take on "text as an unstable reference to history" made that point very clearly. The take-home point for me was that with new technologies and access to both the ability to CREATE the message and SEND the message, regardless of who or where you are is also creating the “globalization of sound” or the "freealization" of sharing ideas and beliefs, and creating a new voice and new creative opportunities of expression today in what will become tomorrow's history.
The DJ Spooky YouTube video was representative of his topic! He offered so much in such a short time. The points that stuck with me were his concepts of: "The Photoshop imagination," or the "layered sense of collage" that our media culture has become. And media as he describes it is both mass and individualized. Our culture is moving so rapidly. We are now expected to multitask, operating in multiple layers of thought and expression at once. His work is layer upon layer of visual, audio, and text messages, mixed and remixed. The mix sampling that DJs like Spooky are creating have also launched the "conversation between originality and derivative work" and "the tension between art and artifact." Our ability to individually create media -- from art, music, literature, etc. also represents history and beliefs (as he referred to as "playing with fragments of collective memory"). It has also opened the conversation about ownership and economy.
DJ Spooky discussed what he calls "the gift economy" which is the basis of Creative Commons. It has created a firestorm amongst recording executives and the music industry as new legal battles have been raised over how artists "use" other artists' work as well as how it is distributed - gotta love CD burners! The ability to create and recreate art in visual or audio form is what he refers to the "shareware mentality" vs. the "photoshop mentality." What's left to be determined is how these changes will ultimately effect our economic system.
Finally, I was intrigued by his "Birth of a Nation" film and when he asked, "what happens if you don’t break the cycle" as well as the clip where the actor asked, “The truth... what is the truth?” (can't help but hear Jack Nicholson say, "Son, you can't handle the truth!"). I've often heard that history is his- story... and DJ Spooky's take on "text as an unstable reference to history" made that point very clearly. The take-home point for me was that with new technologies and access to both the ability to CREATE the message and SEND the message, regardless of who or where you are is also creating the “globalization of sound” or the "freealization" of sharing ideas and beliefs, and creating a new voice and new creative opportunities of expression today in what will become tomorrow's history.
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