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DJ Spooky Witnesses a "Rebirth," continued
By Aaron Hillis
on 06/22/2009
A scene from DJ Spooky's "Rebirth of a Nation," Starz Productions, 2007
During a Girl Talk show last week, I was thinking about our increasingly litigious world. Has it become easier or harder to be an artist who samples, or do the laws of fair use cover your ass?
I've never been sued. In fact, me and Girl Talk did a conversation on NPR a little while ago. It's hilarious to think, "Who owns memory?" Is your memory as a citizen of the media state commodified and sold back to you, or are you a participant in the democratic process? Most of these corporations that are still basing themselves on ownership issues are going to go the way of the record store. That kind of market economy is rapidly shifting. The shareware, freeware aesthetic is part and parcel of how you can think of every aspect of what it means to be a digital media participant economy.
Two of my favorite economists are [Joe] Pine and [Jim] Gilmore, who have a great book called "The Experience Economy." Their whole critique is that these corporations still looking at the shifting of physical goods, [it's] planned obsolescence, basically. My film has more of an elusive quality. Every time we've presented it -- it was meant to be a live concert -- I'd remix the film live, and change it every night. I wanted to present it as an art piece. It's not in any way, shape or form, a normal thing: "Let's go and watch 'Terminator.' " [laughs] Reality TV is Web 2.0, where people's lives are turned inside out. They don't want privacy. They want to put every aspect of their life online and share it with their Facebook group or Twitter followers. That kind of appropriation and expropriation is what's driving "Birth of the Nation"/"Rebirth of a Nation." It's not about history, it's about now.
There's definitely an academic tenor to the piece, and you sculpt young minds at the European Graduate School. Did teaching as a career path ever cross your mind when you were younger?
Oh god, no. I'd be the worst teacher. I do the European Graduate School as a fun, bohemian [activity]. I'm shielded enough that I can be like, "Okay, everybody. We're way in the middle of the Swiss Alps, let's watch a KKK film and think about it." [laughs] I read a lot, I can talk to you in coherent phrases and write reasonably coherent essays, but when I see somebody who's an amazing teacher like Brian Greene -- he wrote "The Elegant Universe," and we're collaborating in the near future -- he teaches physics and knows every aspect of the atomic particle he just discussed. He was like, "Paul, I haven't actually assigned homework in 15 years." What are [students] going to be doing in the 21st century? Are they going to be on their computer and the professor will just be a software algorithm? The only reason you need to physically be some place is if you want to see people around you. Beyond that, just get the Kindle version of the course. [laughs]
Speaking of collaborating, you've worked with everybody -- from Arto Lindsay to Thurston Moore, Chuck D to Slayer's Dave Lombardo. Who would you like to work with that might surprise me?
This is a twisted kind of thought: Right now, I'm interested in the Republican manipulation of media, and this frothing, bitter anger that they vent. They're super-testosterone. I'm very interested in people like Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly. I'd like to do a happening, a Republican anger venting session as a crazy art thing. White people going crazy. It'd be a popular TV show, I'm sure. [laughs]
When you say unexpected, I'd say some disgraced Republican senator. I want to sit across from them and do a Nuremberg trial, and ask them what they were thinking the last eight years. Actually, Bush. Let's think of the most unexpected. He's riding a bicycle around Dallas now, he's in shape and working out. I'd like to get his take on things, sit across from the guy and do a kind of psychoanalysis, but Will Ferrell already did that on Broadway.
True, but he didn't share the stage with Bush.
[laughs] I don't even think Bush is aware. Dick Cheney is more evil, probably. Bush is just an idiot. Cheney was evil, and then you have Bush Sr. and the puppet masters. I'm always drawn to slightly more extreme stuff: maybe the Dick Cheney Sessions? We should put him through some enhanced interrogation techniques, as he likes to call it. The waterboarding art happening, where we have Cheney turned upside down and put into water.
Until that Dick says yes, when does your next album drop?
October. It's called "The Secret Song." I'm having it narrated by a Chinese economist, in Mandarin, and an economic analyst for the Shanghai Times. There's going to be hip-hop on it, and we got in touch with Radiohead -- I'm playing dub versions of Radiohead. The album is made by tracks other than [mine], but it's still being appropriated. "The Secret Song" is a pun for this notion that we all make music and share it. Goodbye to all the normal record stores telling you what to buy. Goodbye to all the normal corporations telling you what to read. It's now your song, your moment, your time, and it's just the beginning.
“Rebirth of a Nation” opens in New York on June 22nd. It is currently also available on DVD through the film’s official site.
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Jupe
Rebirth is ruined by the constant narration. I kept wondering when the narration was going to end and the project start. 20 minutes or so in, the narration was still going. Just images and music would have been so much better.
This is not his latest project. I saw he perform this at the High in ATL five years ago. Yr. a little behind the times here, IFC.
Richard
Saw him perform this in NYC back in 2004. I was not impressed at all.
Lulu
I saw him do this at the Spoletto Festival in Charleston in 2004. I thought it would have been cooler. Alas, I was not so impressed. But the tickets were free, so I didn't complain. Until now.
Eric
the last thing i'll ever be is a god damn minority......
"It doesn't stop with the Republicans, they're like characters straight out of "Birth of a Nation.""
Except the KKK were all Democrats. Just like former KKK member, Robert Byrd, former sworn enemy of Martin Luther King, then Coretta Scott King. The guy who can't seem to stop saying N*gger. the guy the Democrats have voted into the position of President Pro Tempore at every single opportunity in the last 30 years. FUNNY how that ALWAYS seems to get overlooked.
loptop
"Blatantly racist"is used to characterize the 1915 movie.Let this recent sign of his drugged times and environment do his own thing and leave it to the ticketpayer to tell the difference.Like a parasite which kills its host.
