DJ Spooky
Birth of a Nation
Friday, 9/9/2005
posted by Gavin Shettler
Wow, that was incredible! Mesmerizing. Such sensory over load. Paul D. Miller a.k.a. DJ Spooky, takes us on an audio and visual tour of this silent film classic, Birth of a Nation. “The first movie ever viewed in the White House,” Miller tells us before his performance. Everything is live: Miller composes and improvises both music and video through a bank of wires and monitors, as a tryptic of video screens whirl the night mares of The Civil War and Reconstruction behind him. The film is cut and spliced, some times drifting into nonlinear patterns. But don’t worry, DJ Spooky is in total control. With haunting beats and eery mixes, Miller pounds the audience with racist images of Clansmen on horses and statements like “I wanted to marry a white woman.” Through out the film, Miller also employs iconography. First, of semi chip circuits continually growing, becoming complete. The machine of slavery and racism is growing, thriving, even today. Another reoccurring image is of a dancer, continually taking a bow, continually ending, yet the dance is inescapable. It goes on and on.
DJ Spooky hits us hard with the lessons of the foundations that this nation has been built on–the machine that was honed by greed and selfishness. Its result is the racism that still infects our country today. DJ Spooky is one of the great artists of our time. Pushing the ideas of musical composition, club dance and video, video art and performance. Spooky is not afraid to bare his teeth and produce work with real depth and relevance. Particularly to our lily white city. Hypnotic and engaging, DJ Spooky is not to be missed, except by the two girls sitting next to me (I think they thought they were going to a dance party).
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It is breathtaking to be in a lily-white town (thanks Gavin), and have two stunningly competent non-lily-white artists ram a different world into my face. DJ Spooky proved that raucousness tells a story extremely well – through the way he mixed and sampled life, perceptions and those sensitive and raw parts of us sitting in the audience. It felt like a train wreck and I didn’t want to pull away – even as a ‘very non-American’ I could understand the references, and then some. I didn’t want to leave.
DBR wove himself into his instrument and equally mesmerizing video so seamlessly that when he stopped playing, I stopped too – until he said ‘wot nothing?!’ Take it as a compliment DBR – symptoms of being shell-shocked were at play. Your sheer audacity of talent and comment kept me glued to the seat until well after the lights came up.
What then unfolded was simply amazing. Dressed in casual threads and barefoot, DBR walked across the stage to be encircled by a group from the audience. The hugs and exchanges bespoke of humility borne of a genuine experience somewhere else. This is the dimension that will drive TBA even further forward; through these encounters that build upon themselves, creating the next event. This is also what ‘this’ is all about.
‘Thank-you’ to both artists and to PICA. Oftentimes this lily-white place gets a little too pat. I needed the rush.
Another show that I’m in pain over missing. Literally nauseous. Is there some sort of support group on PICA’s site for people who miss incredible performances and need to be reassured that life will still go on?
I need help!
I need T:BA:05.
Thank you so much to the writers of this blog who bring me little touch of the drug I’m craving so badly.