QUANTOPIA | Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky)

A video collaboration highlighting Article 19 of the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

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As an online-only exhibition, Robischon Gallery presents a timely, collaborative video work by New York-based composer/multimedia artist Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky).  Entitled Quantopia, and defined as the utopia of quantification – the dream that we can count, measure, and weigh everything and reach a perfect understanding of the world despite its paradoxes – compellingly converges with the charged, national dialogue surrounding the 2020 presidential election. With its inventive and complex expression, which highlights Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Miller reflects upon the pressing issues of inclusion and exclusion from a kind of real/unreal otherworldly perspective, through a combination of experimental digital means and choral performance.

Shown in this current virtual excerpt, the TED Salon Talk and original hour-long live performance of Quantopia was conceived by artist Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky), along with data artist Greg Niemeyer. Sponsored by a grant from the Hewlett Foundation, the work in its entirety premiered in 2019 at California’s Yerba Buena Center, in collaboration with the San Francisco Girls Chorus, the Classical Revolution String Quartet, Internet Archive, mathematician Roger Antonsen, and VR studio Medium Labs.

Brief Bio on the artist:

Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky) is a composer, multimedia artist, and writer whose work immerses audiences in a blend of genres, global culture, and environmental and social issues. Miller has collaborated with an array of recording artists, including Metallica, Chuck D, Steve Reich, and Yoko Ono. His 2018 album, DJ Spooky Presents: Phantom Dancehall, debuted at #3 on Billboard Reggae.

Miller's large-scale, multimedia performance pieces include “Rebirth of a Nation,” "Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica", commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Seoul Counterpoint, written during his 2014 residency at Seoul Institute of the Arts. His multimedia project "Sonic Web" premiered at San Francisco’s Internet Archive in 2019. He was the inaugural artist-in-residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s The Met Reframed, 2012-2013.

In 2014, he was named National Geographic Emerging Explorer. He produced Pioneers of African American Cinema, a collection of the earliest films made by African American directors, released in 2015. Miller’s artwork has appeared in the Whitney Biennial, The Venice Biennial for Architecture, the Miami/Art Basel fair, and many other museums and galleries.

His books include the award-winning Rhythm Science, published by MIT Press in 2004; Sound Unbound, an anthology about digital music and media; The Book of Ice, a visual and acoustic portrait of the Antarctic, and; The Imaginary App, on how apps changed the world. His writing has been published by Artforum, The Village Voice and The Source. He was also the first founding Executive Editor of Origin Magazine.