Paul Mann: Hip Hop Innovator DJ Spooky Goes Classical with ‘Sinfonia Antarctica’

By L. Paul Mann, Noozhawk Contributor | Published on 04.08.2009

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There is a great debate over the legendary belief that the Eskimo language contains hundreds of words to describe snow. Some linguists would argue that there are many of the same words in English, and that the various dialects of Eskimo are difficult to translate. But Tuesday night, at UCSB’s Campbell Hall, there was little debate that multimedia artist DJ Spooky presented infinitely more ways to see and even hear snow.

Paul D. Miller creates his own classic film.
Paul D. Miller creates his own classic film.

Paul D. Miller, aka DJ Spooky, is probably most famous for his remix of D.W. Griffith’s silent film classic, The Birth of a Nation. I first saw the shocking original film, as a requirement for a history class, at the University of South Florida in the 1970s. Being a naïve freshman, I was particularly perplexed at how the popular old southern professor, who taught the class, defended this blatantly racist film, ripe with revisionist history.

DJ Spooky’s Rebirth of a Nation, on the other hand, is a brilliant examination of how black Americans have been portrayed historically, in the media. Masterfully mixing hip hop beats with the old footage and new choreography, Miller created his own classic film.

Miller is famous for many other accomplishments, as well, including author, film score composer, music professor and virtual inventor of a type of DJ mixing called “illbient.”

Miller brought his latest multimedia work, Terra Nova: Sinfona Antarctica to Santa Barbara. The production came complete with a classical musical ensemble, featuring UCSB student musicians Katie Waltman, on violin; Dimitry Olevsky, on violin; Kate Mendenhall, on cello; and Sonia Tripathi, on piano. Miller traveled to the Antarctic to record the natural sounds of ice and snow, blowing, cracking and melting. He mixes live natural sounds with electronic music and the live classical ensemble, and synchronizes the sounds with a 70-minute multiscreen visual orgy of ice. The visuals include spectacular arctic landscapes, ultra magnified scientific film, 3-D graphs and charts, and old black-and-white documentary film of a 1959 Soviet expedition to the heart of the Arctic circle. The result is a multimedia orgy of evocative images, that challenges viewers to create their own linear conclusions about the meaning and significance of the piece.

Click here for Jeff Moehlis’ review.

— L. Paul Mann is a Noozhawk contributor.

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