Rhythm Science

Paul D. Miller's writing covers the creation of art from the flow of patterns in culture. He takes as his model the DJ, who hijacks the images, sounds and technologies that bombard us daily and makes them his own. Sampling autobiography and theory, Spooky demonstrates how conceptual art, popular culture and idealism can activate one another in this era of multiplex consciousness. Our approach to this book was to work with the images, ideas, and music that Paul gave us and to deliver something as much us as him, as much assembled as brand new, a translation of his thoughts, images and rhythms into our medium. Our work is based on the clear presentation of concepts through design; all of our decisions come from the content before us. The look of the thing you're holding is derived from the requirements of the book series and Paul's own needs. As Paul has an A side and a B side on his 12-inch records and in this book, so the paper the book's printed on is two-sided: rough and slick, each containing its own pleasures. We had to hold a CD (our own C side to the book), but we didn't want to hide it. So we decided to both emphasize it physically and deploy it as a conceptual tool. The button used to hold the disc appears as a hole in the cover and then through the entire book-an uninterrupted depth in the middle of an otherwise solid object. It is embedded in that ever-shifting circular form, which revolves as you read, perhaps as a mute soundtrack or simply foreshadowing the one soon to play out loud.