Miller, Paul D. 1970-

views updated

MILLER, Paul D. 1970-

PERSONAL:

Born 1970, in Washington, DC; father a law school professor and dean, mother a boutique owner. Education: Bowdoin College, degree (philosophy and French literature).

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, MIT Press, Five Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142-1493.

CAREER:

Artist, author, deejay, and musician. In early career, worked as an advertising copy writer; copublisher, A Gathering of the Tribes (magazine); editor, 21c magazine; European Graduate School, New York, NY, professor of music mediated art. Composer for music albums, under stage name DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid, including Necropolis, Knitting Factory Works, 1996, Songs of a Dead Dreamer, Asphodel Records, 1996, Synthetic Fury EP, Asphodel Records, 1998, Haunted Breaks Volumes I and II, Liquid Sky Music, 1998, and Riddim Warfare, Outpost-Geffen, 1998; composer for albums under name Paul D. Miller, including Death in Light of the Phonograph: Excursions into the Pre-linguistic, Asphodel Records, 1996, and The Viral Sonata, Asphodel Records, 1997; composer of musical score for film Slam, 1998; also composer of numerous singles, collaborative records, remixes, and other soundtracks and compilations. Producer, with Diego Cortez, Stuzzicadenti, 2000; appeared in movie Modulations. Exhibitions: Artworks exhibited at Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, PA; Whitney Museum; Paula Cooper Gallery; Ludwig Museum, Cologne, Germany; and Venice Biennale for Architecture; has also curated a show for the Ludwig Museum.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Named to "100 Best People in the World" list, Esquire magazine, 1997; named among ten most important electronic artists by Spin magazine.

WRITINGS:

(With Carlo McCormick) Pass the Mic: Beastie Boys, 1991-1996, photographs by Ari Marcopolous, PowerHouse Books, 2002.

Rhythm Science (includes CD-ROM), MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 2004.

Contributor to print and online periodicals, including Paper, Source, Index, Village Voice, Artforum, Raygun, Rap Pages, and Salon.com. Contributing editor, C-Theory and Nest; editor-at-large, Artbyte.

WORK IN PROGRESS:

Flow My Blood the DJ Said, a book about intellectual property; and a science-fiction novel titled And Now a Message from Our Sponsors.

SIDELIGHTS:

Known to some under his persona DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid, Paul D. Miller is a cutting-edge artist who works in visual, print, and musical media to create high-concept art. A cofounder of the "illbient" movement in New York City, which evolved from hip hop to create ambient music using digital technology, Miller is also involved in what he calls "social sculpture" in his artwork, combining art installations that have been exhibited in the United States and Europe. In an interview for Frontwheeldrive.com, Miller explained to Roy Christopher one of his main motivations: "the basic idea for me is to somehow convey a sense of how conceptual art, language art, and an engagement with some kind of idealism can function in this day and age. Basically, as an artist, my work is an investigation into how culture gets made." Miller also explains his theories about art in his 2004 book, Rhythm Science.

In using the latest digital technology, Miller explains in Rhythm Science, the artist strives to combine cultural ideas with his illbient style of remixes, narrative, and hip-hop rhythms. He tries to challenge cultural preconceptions to get audiences thinking about what is wrong with the status quo. Describing his deejaying style to Christopher, Miller called the approach "a kind of mimetic contagion, a thought storm brought about by my annoyance and frustration with almost all the conventional forms of race, culture, and class hierarchies. Hip-hop is a vehicle for that, and so are almost all forms of electronic music."

Although many of Miller's fans know him for his music, including his score for the hip-hop film Slam, he sees his work as a writer and artist as even more important. Miller's sculptures, which are often displayed in rooms into which his music is piped, were described by Paul Myoda in an Art in America review as "flat-footed Futurist stage design fitted with low-budget Mad Max props." His art, Myoda explained, attempts to elevate the audience's awareness, so that "you felt yourself moving, heard [yourself] hearing." As a writer, Miller contributes to arts and electronic-culture magazines such as Artbyte.

Whether in the studio, on the page, or in the art gallery, Miller creates his art as a reaction to American media. As he concluded to Christopher, "America is so … conflicted, the only way to maintain a 'stay of execution' on your artwork and cultural production if you are a progressive African American in this day and age is to constantly innovate and change your mode of production." Miller helps encourage this type of innovation in others by teaching at the European Graduate School, as well as participating in New York's experimental Soundlab, a digital research facility at Princeton University's Department of Computer Science.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Art in America, February, 1997, Paul Myoda, "Paul D. Miller, a.k.a. DJ Spooky, at Annina Nosei," p. 99.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution, November 13, 1998, Steve Dollar, "Pop Music DJ Spooky's Culture Mix Hits Masquerade," p. P3.

Library Journal, March 15, 2002, Caroline Dadas, review of Pass the Mike: Beastie Boys 1991-1996, p. 84.

San Francisco Chronicle, October 28, 1998, Neva Chonin, "DJ Spooky Brings a Lot to the Table," p. E1.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, February 12, 1999, Gene Stout, "DJ Spooky Bills Mix of Electronic Sounds as the 'Folk Music' for the New Millennium," p. 6.

Washington Post, November 29, 1998, Mark Jenkins, "DJ Spooky, Driven to Abstraction," p. G1.