viz.

Image Credit:  DJ Spooky, "Manifesto for a People's Republic of Antarctica," 2008

Via Robert Miller Gallery  H/T Sean McCarthy

Last year, at about this time, I was writing my very first viz. blog post.  In 2009, the series of photographs that had caught my attention were about ice fishing in the northern United States.  The ice of the northern lakes, it seemed, had begun to diminish. New York-based photographer Maureen Drennan had been featured in the Times DotEarth Blog for the work of photos she called Thin Ice. I loved Maureen's shots of the fishing shacks and the people there, because they seemed potentially transformative, depicting the intimate textures of human life affected by climate change.  My first post this year again returns to imagery of ice.   Over dinner this weekend, one of my friends described DJ Spooky's latest performances on Antarctica, replete, he said, with stunning images. (The penguins above do have a point, after all.  See after the break). 

Image Credit: Screenshot of DJ Spooky  performing Terra Nova:  Sinfonia Antarctica

The iconic, militarized penguins with bomber planes above them in formation are part of a series of ink jet posters by Spooky, who  visited Antarctica in 2007 and returned to create rich multi-media formats about the world's largest, and most threatened, mass of ice.  One part of the project was recording and then remixing the sounds of ice, penguins, artic waves, etc.  Other parts of the project included creating original art work, collaging Getty images of Antarctica, sampling 'ephemera' of Artic explorers, and revisiting a 20th century symphony on Antarctica, complete with a collaboration with a pianist, cellist, and violinist.  Many who have heard of D.J. Spooky (aka Paul Miller) associate him with innovative, genre-bending turn-tabling, much of which he creates in collaboration with heavy hitters in a variety of musical fields, such as jazz and hip hop.  Spooky has been performing, writing, and recording music since the 1990’s.  But increasingly Spooky has become known for creations that stretch beyond the work of acoustics (his initial emphasis and the origin of the first part of his moniker“DJ”); he also becoming more widely recognized for his artistic multi-media formats and, as well, for scholarly writings.

Image Credit:  subliminalspooky

Terra Nova:  Sinfonia Antarctica

In October—sponsored by the Digital Writing and Research Lab and others here at UT-Austin—Spooky will be giving one of the large scale performances he has become known for as of late.  The DWRL and Spooky have dubbed  it a “Rip, Mix, Burn” event, a lecture that will highlight Spooky’s multi-media work, as well as his latest academic writing.   Sound UnBound, a 2008 imprint of MIT features Spooky as editor with multitude of voices on sound, intellectual property, and the economics of 21st century media.  The themes of Spooky's late work resonate with those of us invested in theorizing media, and also in those of us invested in crossing disciplines. Like us, Spooky wants the disciplines to start talking to each other. 

Image Credit:  subliminalspooky

'DJ Spooky on Secret Song

Spooky's work attempts to blur the supposed boundaries between art and economics, for example.  As he says in the interview below on Secret Song, an album that was a work of film and music, "The album was inspired by philosophers, economists, and, above all, a will to bring them all together.” Spooky's art itself is premised on the "juxtaposition of radically different materials."  I'll end with one of my favorite quotes from the Secret Song interview, a quote that justifies writing about a musician on my first viz. post of the year: “Art and music are compellingly connected," Spooky said."There is nothing that separates them.  Nothing[...]The world is a complex and compellingly linked place.” '