In my graduate seminar today we took a look at rhythm science, a book by Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid. It's something of a manifesto of sampling, the musical equivalent to open source or copy left models of social organization or distribution. Miller's work is engaging, for me, since it celebrates freedom and creativity within the potentially alienating ebbs and flows of capitalist driven globalization--he claims that "the old notions of left wing-right wing need to be remade, because in an information economy it's all about how information creates identity as a scarce resource." In other words, its a whole new ballgame and a one-dimensional resistance to capitalism as an evil is the wrong political paradigm.
What we need, instead, is a version of an imminent critique, the kind DJ Spooky calls for through a George Clinton quote, which I in turn have sampled for the title of this post. That is to say, we take from the system of information, the sounds and waves, the cultures and identities, in a continually recreative process that is an engagement with those things on their own terms. Capitalism and multinationals, globalization and corporate music are all part of that system and we need to realize it. There's no such thing as authenticity or purity in Miller's logic, only repetition and citation. But, of course, repetition with a difference. Several times in rhythm science he cites the Situationists, not a surprising move, since Situationism was itself a form of imminent, creativity, constructing psycho-space and celebrating indeterminate action.
However, I also had the opportunity this week to attend two discussion sessions and a public lecture offered by Alain Badiou, a philosopher I've mentioned on this blog before and who, I think, would strongly disagree with DJ Spooky. According to Badiou, and against the dominant mantras of critical theory today, philosophy is the thinking of Truths, universal and always applicable. Truths, however, are eternally new--that is to say, they occur in time as newness, new things which philosophy then connects to that which is eternal. The virtue of such thinking is that there is a place for universality and particularity, imminence and the eternal. The event, another key term for Badiou, is that newness breaking into the world, and art is one of the realms which can bring about events.
The reason Badiou would critique Miller's position, I think, is because That Subliminal Kid seems to disavow the possibility of event. Or, in other terms, DJing is an endless series of events, which perhaps results in no real event. It is the same critique Badiou has of capitalism--despite appearances, there is no new in capitalism, simply the repetition of the Same.
And yet, I like both of these thinkers. I sometimes feel like I want to be a sampler of thought, mixing together literature, philosophy, theology, love, the NYTimes, the Simpsons, and Jack Totten into a sweet flow of utltra-conscious grooves since, after all, it ain't illegal yet. And, at other times, I feel like a Badiouian: radical thought don't come easy or cheap and demands the rigorous fidelity to a rupture with the world. But that's probably why I'm neither a DJ nor a French philosopher, and that's pretty good after all.
Posted by pjaussen at February 23, 2006 06:18 PM | TrackBackLet me know if Spooky ever does a lecture series. That would be way cooler than some frog philosopher talking about math. Don't forget Roxanne and Tina.
Posted by: Jack at February 25, 2006 02:59 PM