The DJ as Disruptor

This chapter examines the central role of the DJ in contemporary culture. Appropriation, sampling, looping, and other techniques of the DJ are part of what Nicolas Bourriaud calls “postproduction,” a term borrowed from videographic practices used to create finished films from raw footage. These methods in many ways are the antecedents to some of the strategies of social practice art. Using several DJs as examples, this chapter applies the concept of homo ludens or playing man to illustrate the role of the DJ as a disruptor and a transgressive force. DJs such as Deadmau5, Bassnectar, the Black Madonna, and Tala Mortada have become politically and socially important icons of club culture and agents provocateurs for fulfilling Bourriaud’s goal of navigating a “path through culture.”