How DJ Spooky Transformed D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation"

    “Re-Birth of a Nation” is a multi-media performance produced by artist and musician, DJ Spooky. It is a re-imagining of D.W. Griffith’s controversial and racist 1915 film, “The Birth of a Nation.” In "Re-Birth of a Nation", DJ Spooky uses a range of audiovisual elements to create a new narrative that challenges the racist and oppressive themes of Griffith's original film. He uses clips from the original film and combines them with new music, spoken word, and electronic effects to create a collage-like audiovisual experience. During the 2nd part is where the prime process of remixing and recontextualization comes in. He also draws connections between the themes of Griffith's film and other forms of cultural appropriation, including the sampling of music and other creative works. This approach draws on the idea of "hacking" existing media and repurposing it for new creative and political purposes, a key aspect of Afrofuturist aesthetics.

    The project features a range of abstract and surreal images, including glitch art, sci-fi landscapes, and cosmic patterns, that suggest new possibilities for Black creativity and imagination. Similarly, the music incorporates a range of electronic and experimental sounds that draw on Afrofuturist traditions of using technology to create new sonic worlds. In “Birth of a Nation,” black face is regularly used throughout the film. That element along with DJ Spooky’s reverberation creates an intense and sinister production in the Re-Birth version. DJ Spooky takes the racist atrocities performed by white people in the original film and highlights them in an intense way to instill an understanding of how these insane things truly happened that were normalized all across America during this time.