Actually, I thought he was really well-spoken, and his music is pretty interesting.
-How is the mix a metaphor for pluralism? You need to know what pluralism is to answer this question.
I think this relates to when DJ Spooky is talking about copyright. The mix, for Spooky, is a way of subverting and re-purposing the stuff of mass culture, the advertisements, the slogans, the tv shows, the world of information that surrounds us. We're living in a community of information, it's, "the new natural environment," and with this raw environment, we can each reshape it according to our will to express our own unique ideas and visions. It's like, "kids building sandcastles, who owns the grains of the sand? It's the natural environment. The new natural environment is information." When we let something go into this environment, even if it is "copyrighted," it's loose, and there's no telling where it will end up.
-What is DJ culture?
Spooky talks about DJ culture as the new folk culture. It's the music of the people, reflecting the environment of media exposure that we've been subjected to for most/all of our lives. I think this is why his music is so enjoyable - it comes in a package we're used to, but has been rearranged to create a new message.
-DJ Spooky wonders "Who's in control of how people think?" The announcer asks DJ Spooky to clarify his thoughts on that question. What is Spooky's perspective on control and mass media? Do you agree or disagree? Explain.
Spooky doesn't think anyone is in control of mass media, even if they're making enormous profits from it - "You can make money, but that doesn't mean you're in control." I agree with him to some degree, but I don't think it's a black & white issue. Media is kind of like this huge snowball rolling downhill, gaining mass and momentum, unable to be halted by any one person. However, aspects of this media snowball can be changed by the individual seemingly "in control," the one making the money - they choose what won't be aired, they bar things that are offensive to them and promote the things that they value. Fox News is perhaps a good example of this type of biased broadcasting because it is so transparent (but of course everything has some kind of bias to some degree).
-How does the notion or even perhaps the ideology of the mix change or characterize our identity? Be sure to include what your definition of what the mix is when you answer this question?
The mix, to me, is a combination of disparate elements of sound to create a cohesive sound experience or message. Our identity is made up of various disparate experiences that we've synthesized into our record of memory to create how we think about ourselves and the world. I think the mix is an expression of freedom, however, while identity is necessarily shackled by experiences that one cannot just pick and choose.
-How does DJ Spooky feel about copyright? What do you think about his perspective on this?
I inadvertently discussed this in the first question, but he feels that copyright is somewhat useless; when something is created, it's set loose in the world. He said that some people will still of course always pay for copyrighted items that could be obtained for free, but that copyright is kind of in opposition to the natural way of things. As in the first question, I think he envisions a world where people create and share.
-The broadcast that you listened to is radio format on the internet. What does DJ Spooky think about radio? What does he compare radio to? What are your habits and thoughts about the medium of radio?
He doesn't think radio is dead, but that there are many grassroots radio programs, that maybe only reach people in a 2 block radius, that are really valuable. He doesn't think much of mainstream (garlic pill infomercials and right wing talk show hosts) radio, however. He compares radio to the gallery, and even to the internet. He says that with radio, as with the gallery, a certain group of people chooses what will air. I really never listen to radio, except at work, where it's the same group of songs played every single day. Radio may not be dead, it's a medium with a lot of possibility, but in its current state it sure is pretty stale.
-Listen to 5-10 minutes of the Satyagraha Mix from the sounds section of DJ Spooky's website. What aspects of the mix reflect the themes that DJ Spooky spoke about in his work?
It really does feel like a new form of folk expression to me. In the US, we just really aren't living in little villages anymore, churning butter or herding goats. We're connected on a mass level, and DJ Spooky's work reflects this, "impact of mass culture and information." It really reaches a level of beauty that the disparate elements of this sometimes annoying and affronting cultural experience, that of living in the US, cannot achieve when they are separate. By weaving in popular songs into his new composition, I think it allows many people to connect to the work and will keep them listening.
A side note - DJ Spooky spoke about Burroughs and the "cut-up," which I thought was neat because we were talking about that in Hypermedia last Thursday. Everything really is connected!
Another note, I looked up the meaning of
Satyagraha: "a philosophy and practice of nonviolent resistance developed by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (also known as "Mahatma" Gandhi). Gandhi deployed satyagraha in campaigns for Indian independence and also during his earlier struggles in South Africa. Satyagraha theory also influenced Martin Luther King, Jr. during the campaigns he led during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States." This relates well to the spoken voice parts of the track that I heard. It certainly has an Indian flavor underlying it as well - it's like a melding of the American Civil Rights movement with the movement towards independence in India.
Items used to construct the book:
Here's the guts of the book after the sound modules have been installed.
