Rhythm Science

by Paul D. Miller

Book Overview

The art of the mix creates a new language of creativity.

"Once you get into the flow of things, you're always haunted by the way that things could have turned out. This outcome, that conclusion. You get my drift. The uncertainty is what holds the story together, and that's what I'm going to talk about."--Rhythm Science

The conceptual artist Paul Miller, also known as Dj Spooky that Subliminal Kid, delivers a manifesto for rhythm...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 026263287X
• ISBN13: 9780262632874
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: MIT Press
• Length: 136 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.8" x 7.5"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

5 stars +

Look people: Rhythm Science is about mixing art and sound. The book is totally readable and accessible, and either people have a reading level of a 2nd grade student or something, or they just don't get theory stuff, or maybe they're just stupid. The reason the book is great is that it draws together writing and music like a dj would and should: with rhythm. Spooky mixes words and texts in the book like a mix CD, and the CD that goes with the book is a kind of audio companion. They are both pretty amazing, and they compliment each other nicely. It's annoying to see people always come off conservative and dumb when this is obviously an "avant garde" kind of book. Come on people: it's not Martha Stewart telling you how to dj - but you'd think that alot of the reviews are. People always want something simple, and Spooky never does that. That's why this is an amazing book. Think of the early Dada manifestoes (even Kurt Schwitters is on the mix CD!), think of the early Surrealist manifestoes of Andre Breton or Jean Cocteau, and then fast forward to now. Digital media and cut culture blur all of these things together - art, music, and writing, and Paul D. Miller a.k.a. Dj Spooky gets that. The problem is it seems like he's ahead of alot of people who don't. The book shows why.

Lyricism in the age of the mix

This book is not just a book, it is poetry, music and artwork all rolled into a unique look at copy culture and the mix. DJ Spooky transends the traditional notions of mix by including artists like Boulez and Debussy as well as other DJs typically associated with the genre. Using the words and voices of authors and poets like Gertrude Stein and James Joyce on the CD, Spooky reveals his theory of rhythm science explaned in the book and decodes, deconstructs and creates new through found objects.

mcluhan + heidegger + wutang clan = ahead of its time

after reading the prior reviews of Dj spooky's rhythm science I feel I must voice my opinion. I read rhythm science last august a few months after studying and integrating Marshall Mc Luhan's epic "Understanding Media"....Upon finishing that text I was struck that there was a very obvious missing chapter..namely that on internet and its effects on culture. Rhythm Science is to date the only text that I am aware of that engages this 'unwritten'chapter...furthermore this is only the beginning....the post-heidegarean overtones, coupled with an obvious knowledge of art history, and the dj's place in such a history make this piece vital to anyone engaging this art form as such.....the downfall of the text though, as well miller's lectures, is not in fact the work itself but the context..we are at a place and time in hiphop/electronic music/performance art/ avant garde practice that is rather sad...where to be involved in so many different practices one has to water oneself down to satisfy everyone...The text is vital and not long enough. i do not think Miller is a bad writer but perhaps a very select audience is ready to deal with this work. If you are coming from an 'intelectual' background perhaps the language used and the non-chalance of his style might seem 'below' you..and if you are coming from an 'uneducated' background the ideas might seem lofty....It is an incredible piece of writing that has set the bar for what an artist must do in an age where art history and intelectual discourse are part of the game. Miller draws from a WIDE range of ideas spanning both time and culture and has produced something as provocative as should be expected...sadly i think the culture absorbing this is at a sad state, which is pushing Miller to pigeon hole himself....nonetheless, Miller's work has had a profound impact on myself, ever more apparent with a second read...and later memory jolts that this piece seems to produce....this is an dense and subtle experience which showcases Miller as truly pushing the genre and art in general, and sadly the sorry state of the avant garde at this point....

this book is for poets.

This book is not academia, it is hip hop. By that I mean it is a manifesto encoded into rhythmic, visual passages that don't always make sense right away. Eventually, if the reader is open to it, his consciousness begins to adapt to Miller's, and ideas that once seemed like gibberish begin to make sense. I highly recommend this book. It is short but the knowledge is incredibly dense/intense. It has absolutely changed the way I look at identity and cultural evolution in the information age, and it accomplishes this subtly. Perhaps readers not exposed to hip-hop culture and philosophy will get lost in the mix, but this is their loss. "Check the rhyme as it unfolds in time." This book is about the evolution of human consciousness.

New Wave Scholarship

This is a pathbreaking work; surely a future classic. Using the DJ as a model for new patterns of creativity in our culture, DJ Spooky suggests that "the selection of sound becomes narrative." Creativity is in the mix of old and exisiting texts (written, aural, visual) rather than in the invention of new ones. Paradoxically, in the mix something new IS created. This book shows that theory can be written almost poetically. A rare thing: theory that is as artistic as the art it describes. The accompanying CD of 33 songs is terrific: standout moments include James Joyce reading from Finnegans Wake mixed with Oval vs Yoshihiro Hanno and William S. Burroughs reading from The Five Steps mixed with Scanner Fuse. Patti Smith ain't bad, either.