When Art Experiments Go Big

A few weeks back, my partner Joon and I were on a day trip upstate. Rihanna's song Work came on our "mixtape". Amidst all of the jagged edges of clipped beats and nonsensical sprechstimme, I again had the sense of this being a truly unusual song. So many of the sonic textures were built from what I tend to think of as obscure electronic techniques developed in academic labs. Maybe similar to the one I hung out in during grad. school at Mills College. This little song, like so many others these d...