Katasonix on 18 Jul 2000 04:34:19 -0000 |
[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
<nettime> Hyperdub Update |
Following the media panic regarding South London’s bosozoku, this interview was conducted with Hyperdub crew insider, mc Epi, by Dr.Demic of the Institute of Cultural Epidemiology. For further information go to www.hyperdub.com Dr.Demic: What is Hyperdub ? Mc Epi: a virus Dr.Demic: What do you mean it’s a virus ? Mc Epi: it’s a cultural virus ? Dr.Demic: What are you talking about ? Mc Epi: We encountered infection early nineties but as far as we can tell it had been brewing for quite some time. Maybe. We have a feeling that this isn ’t correct. Our feeling is that it has come out of the future to take us somewhere. Dr.Demic: Where to ? Mc Epi: Not sure that matters. It’s more like being led through darkness. Still not exactly sure what you’re talking about. Lets talk about music. What is Hyperdub ? Mc Epi: What does it sound like it is ? Dr.Demic: Well it sounds like a paradox, doesn’t it ? Hyper is, well, hyper. . .it sounds like speed. And dub, well its for kickin back, kind of mellow. Mc Epi: So you see some kind of tension here ? Dr.Demic: I’m supposed to be asking the questions. Yes, I see a tension here. Mc Epi: That’s not a problem. Hyperdub is that tension. Without that tension it would not exist. Tension is its innovation. Dr.Demic: OK. So let’s go back to this virus thing. It’s a cultural virus, yeah ? Are you suggesting that this virus manifests itself as a tension in music ? Mc Epi: Partly. More accurately, its more like a tension between the music and its hearers. Our bodies have developed a need, practically an addiction to this tension. Dr.Demic: So this virus manifests itself in human carriers as an addiction ? If I am H.Y.B. positive then the symptoms of my disease are my cravings for sound ? Mc Epi: It’s like a drug. It alters the chemistry of your body and encourages certain behavioural patterns. Dr.Demic: Such as ? Mc Epi: The most infected, those in whom the H.Y.B virus has developed, tend to serve as incubators among the surrounding human population. Dr.Demic: Where is the virus coming from ? Mc Epi: Machines. Dr.Demic: But I thought you said it was a cultural virus. So you are saying it’s a computer virus now as well ? Mc Epi: We said it was a cultural virus. Machine and human culture. We’re both swimming in informational fluid. Code is flowing in through every pore. Things are growing in us now that you wouldn’t even dare to imagine. Dr.Demic: Hmm. You didn’t answer my question. What kind of behavioural patterns are induced by the virus ? Mc Epi: Well, the sticky zone of infection is usually populated by sound producers. The virus comes through their software platforms and frames their activity within this virtual space. By framing this area of cyberspace, the virus code instructs the production of sound, leading to distinct outputs. A certain sound. Dr.Demic: So it’s the machines fault ? Mc Epi: ‘Fault’ has got nothing to do with it. Dr.Demic: So what is the virus ? Mc Epi: A certain sound. Dr.Demic: How do you know when you’re infected ? Mc Epi: One symptom of those who have full blown H.Y.B. is delirious record buying activity. Generally, an epidemic can be identified by turbulent and compulsive consumer patterns, commodity loyalties and virtual idol worship. Incubation is no longer concentrated in pools of producers. A tipping point was reached in the late 1990s with consumers downloading music off the internet. In the matrix the spread of Hyperdub has been ferocious. Offline it has taken on new shapes and seems to learning more intelligent tactics in its proliferation. Hyperdub’s more aggressive tendencies have been synthesized into an accelerated lush, seductive sheen. Hyperdub has synthesized soul. Vocal science. Dr.Demic: So the virus makes copies of human characteristics and reassembles them ? Mc Epi: Of course. Dr.Demic: What else does it do ? Mc Epi: It transforms the kinesthetics of humanoid motion. It is constantly modelling, replicating and steering the dancing body. The transformations often take place at imperceptible speeds. We have come to know this face of the Hyperdub virus as breakbeat science. Dr.Demic: Does Hyperdub also suggest crucial phase in the evolution of dub ? Mc Epi: Yes, but not dub as a genre of music. Rather Hyperdub is a phase in the proliferation of a set of abstract processes activated and applied in that genre of music. The spread of Hyperdub escalates hugely when the dub plate is complemented by the V-plate. . .mp3s are hyperdub plates. Or the abstract process of dubbing is translated into code. Hyperdub in this sense is dub phase 3. Phase 1 involved the application of analogue fx to sound and subtraction of vocal lines. Phase 2 relates to the impact of digital sampling and fx, and Phase 3 corresponds to the global ubiquity of this sample bank as what we used to term the internet. Dr.Demic: How did Hyperdub spread through ‘what we used to call’ the internet ? Mc Epi: Dense nodes on the internet started to form towards the end of the millennium. Here the virus was reentering the matrix, building a series of Hyperdub KoloniesTM as incubators and delivery mechanisms of planetary scale. Dr.Demic: What activity would occur among the inhabitants of these Hyperdub KoloniesTM ? Mc Epi: Listen . . . # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net