On a very rare occasion, I'll see a book in a bookstore that will
scream to me 'buy me'. This book is one of those .. edited by Dj
Spooky, with a forward by Cory Doctorow, and from MIT Press I knew I
couldn't pass this book up.
Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture The back cover blurb:
If
Rhythm Science was about the flow of things, Sound Unbound is about the
remix--how music, art, and literature have blurred the lines between
what an artist can do and what a composer can create. In Sound Unbound,
Rhythm Science author Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid asks
artists to describe their work and compositional strategies in their
own words. These are reports from the front lines on the role of sound
and digital media in an information-based society. The topics are as
diverse as the contributors: composer Steve Reich offers a memoir of his
life with technology, from tape loops to video opera; Miller himself
considers sampling and civilization; novelist Jonathan Lethem writes
about appropriation and plagiarism; science fiction writer Bruce
Sterling looks at dead media; Ron Eglash examines racial signifiers in
electrical engineering; media activist Naeem Mohaiemen explores the
influence of Islam on hip hop; rapper Chuck D contributes "Three
Pieces"; musician Brian Eno explores the sound and history of bells;
Hans Ulrich Obrist and Philippe Parreno interview composer-conductor
Pierre Boulez; and much more. "Press 'play,'" Miller writes, "and this
anthology says 'here goes.'".