Remix Culture

“Nowadays It’s Like Remix World”: The Hidden Demography of New Media Ethics

by Aram Sinnreich

In submission at "Information, Communication & Society". Coauthored by Mark Latonero, Marissa Gluck and Nadia Riley.

The past decade has seen an explosion of new “configurable” cultural forms and practices, such as mashups, remixes and... more The past decade has seen an explosion of new “configurable” cultural forms and practices, such as mashups, remixes and machinima, enabled by rapidly proliferating global digital network technologies. While these new cultural forms, which blur the distinctions between traditional production and consumption, have come increasingly into contrast with the letter of copyright law, people around the globe have been developing their own ethical criteria to distinguish legitimate and illegitimate configurable practices. In the present article, we share longitudinal data from surveys fielded in 2006 and 2010, showing that not only have these practices become more prevalent, the ethical frameworks people employ to make sense of these practices have also become more complex. Finally, we analyze the demographic profiles of respondents employing each ethical framework, revealing hidden national, class and ethnic distinctions between the communities that employ these ethical frameworks.

Ethics Reconfigured: How Today's Media Consumers Evaluate the Role of Creative Reappropriation

by Aram Sinnreich

Published in "Information, Communication & Society," 2009. Coauthored with Mark Latonero and Marissa Gluck.

In recent years, ‘configurable’ technologies such as the Internet-connected PC, cheap and accessible media-editing... more In recent years, ‘configurable’ technologies such as the Internet-connected PC, cheap and accessible media-editing software, and writeable media drives have enabled a profound shift in the agency of media consumers, opening up a vast grey area between traditional production and consumption. This shift has given rise to a host of new media practices and products, such as mash-ups, remixes, mods, and machinima. However, the cultural discourse about media practices are still mired in the ‘black and white’ ethics of the twentieth century media distribution, evidenced by ‘piracy’ and ‘theft’ debates. In this paper, we examine the self-reported attitudes of nearly 1,800 American adults and draw on the personal interviews with dozens of configurable music practitioners to discover what a new, and more appropriate, ethical discourse of configurability might look like. Data suggest that the new practices of cultural appropriation are both reaffirming and challenging the age- old evaluative criteria.

Fake and fan film trailers as incarnations of audience anticipation and desire

by Kathleen (Amy) Williams

published in 'Transformative Works and Cultures', 2012.

In the lead-up to the release of some feature films, fake and fan trailers are created by users and uploaded to... more In the lead-up to the release of some feature films, fake and fan trailers are created by users and uploaded to YouTube and other Web sites. These trailers demonstrate that users are literate not only in the form of the trailer itself, but also in the Hollywood system and how it markets products to audiences. Circulating in a networked environment online, these texts, which play with the form of the trailer, perform and embody users' and fans' desire to see not just the feature film but also the official trailer itself. I discuss these fake and fan trailers in relation to cinematic anticipation and describe how they navigate both spatial and temporal bounds. Using the architectural concept of the desire line, I argue that spatial frameworks can be usefully employed to consider how users navigate online spaces, media, and concepts through the form of the trailer.

Opening up to a Digital Space of Emergence in Art Pedagogy (2011)

by Heidi May

Co-authored with Jody Baker.
Published in Media N - the Journal of the New Media Caucus, 7(2), 20-25

Networked art practices share conceptual overlaps with current discussions about pedagogy, particularly those that... more Networked art practices share conceptual overlaps with current discussions about pedagogy, particularly those that encourage interactive and collaborative methods of meaning-making in response to contemporary digital culture. Decentralized processes of learning, which exist in participatory artworks and nonhierarchal art education, are embraced by the open source movement. In this paper, we argue that open source media can be used to demonstrate a quest for knowledge that is not representational but rather performative-based - a temporal epistemology that is about critical inquiry of media and the ongoing discovery of creative ways of interacting with, and remixing, our reality. This paper incorporates the above ideas into a proposal for a team-taught digital studio/theory course that explores the “remix” phenomenon, operating online and utilizing open source culture. Drawing upon previous online teaching experience, the pedagogical intentions and anticipations for this course will be discussed.

Toward an ecology of vidding

by Tisha Turk

Co-authored with Joshua Johnson.

Despite the fan studies emphasis on participatory culture, much of the current work on vids (and in fan studies... more Despite the fan studies emphasis on participatory culture, much of the current work on vids (and in fan studies broadly) treats fans more as readers than as producers. To help us examine the relationships between fannish reading practices and fannish creative processes, we turn to composition studies and Marilyn Cooper's concept of an ecology of writing. We argue for an ecological model of vidding, an approach that enables us to explore the collaborative nature of vidding without erasing individual authorship; to investigate the relationships not only between vids and media texts but also between vidders and their audiences; and to treat fan conversations both as responses to mass media and as sites for the generation and circulation of interpretive conventions that guide both the creation and reception of vids.

“Spells Out The Word of Itself, and Then Dispelling Itself”: The Chaotics of Memory and The Ghost of the Novel in Jeff Noon’s Falling out of Cars

by Andrew Wenaus

Forthcoming: Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts

This article is a study of British author Jeff Noon’s most recent novel Falling out of Cars (2002) as a literary... more This article is a study of British author Jeff Noon’s most recent novel Falling out of Cars (2002) as a literary experiment engaged in raising the ghost of the modern novel, long hailed as dead.  Here, Noon samples canonic literature then transforms, manipulates, and reconfigures it in much the same way a message is transformed when being passed through a communication circuit. The result is a kind of poetic prose Noon terms “metamorphiction”: an elegant experimental mode of fantasy in which signs mutate within certain systemic parameters.  In metamorphiction, the textual past literally haunts the textual present.  This formal experiment is mirrored in the content: the novel concerns a middle aged woman mourning the death of her daughter.  Ultimately, Falling out of Cars is both a virtuosic piece of fantastic fiction and a serious meditation on the contemporary state of the novel.     

An Email To A Ghost [Object : Art History As A Remix]

by Paule Mackrous

Dear Aby Warburg,

I’ve read your Essais Florentins some years ago. I was struck to discover what I believe... more Dear Aby Warburg,

I’ve read your Essais Florentins some years ago. I was struck to discover what I believe is a genuine quest by an art historian. An imaginary breeze puzzled you in Sandro Botticelli’s Birth of Venus (1482). I, for one, was also intrigued by Venus’ hair. Nevertheless, you were pretty convinced that the movement, fixed by Botticelli in a Quattrocento painting, did, indeed, have an external cause.

Remixing Cultures and the Imagining of Alternative Intellectual Property Policies

by Martin Zeilinger

Based on a presentation at ISEA 2011 in Istanbul

In theory, legal taxonomies acknowledge how creative, productive, and beneficial remixing practices can be. This does... more In theory, legal taxonomies acknowledge how creative, productive, and beneficial remixing practices can be. This does not reflect the realities of how such law is enforced, however. This paper is concerned with how creative practitioners and users deal with this problem. I argue that it is in the lived praxis of remixing communities that ‘para-legal’ contexts which challenge traditional intellectual property policies are established.

Metaphrames and Interaction: This is "How it Goes"

by Joel Flynn

Presented at the OurMedia 6 Conference in Sydney Australia (April 2007)

Emerging from Travels in Intertextuality: the autopoetic identity of remix culture (2006), this paper explores the use... more Emerging from Travels in Intertextuality: the autopoetic identity of remix culture (2006), this paper explores the use of metaphors as framing devices for interactive environments. Working with the term “metaphrame”, the paper discusses a model for digital culture featuring tertiary (third-level) cultural obects and their relationship to arrangements of lower-order “building block” objects. Following Michael Cole’s work in Cultural Psychology (1996), the paper summarizes key theoretical elements while briefly providing a practical example of the cultural model in action, specifically, the use of metaphrames and building block objects in the creation of an “enhanced podcast”. This recently developed digital media object started out as a “rough mix” that was authored using an iPod media player, then eventually returned to the iPod as a finished work. The podcast is discussed in terms of “levels” of objects and the interactive processes taking place within such cultural dynamics.

Travels in Intertextuality: the autopoetic identity of remix culture

by Joel Flynn

Travels in Intertextuality aims for what John Berger would call “ways of seeing” digital media artifacts and... more Travels in Intertextuality aims for what John Berger would call “ways of seeing” digital media artifacts and interacting cultural texts. Using Lev Manovich’s Language of New Media, these “new media objects” are seen through the metaphorical “coordinated set of lenses” of Michael Cole’s Cultural Psychology. In addressing issues of “writing” and identity in the digital age at the intersection of technology, art, and commerce, this highly exploratory work looks for ways to perceive “value” in remix culture through ecological models of sociocultural systems. The thesis “follows the problem” of remix through “pioneering research”, “reflective practice”, and shifting contexts for expansive learning. Emerging from significant pools of digital media, “remix value” is analysed through cultural-historical perspectives, as well as through the autopoietic perspectives of “self-making” biological and sociolinguistic systems.

"You are cordially invited to a / CHEMICAL WEDDING": Metamorphiction and Experimentation in Jeff Noon's Cobralingus

by Andrew Wenaus

Electronic Book Review
January 2012

This paper is a study of British author Jeff Noon’s writing game, the Cobralingus Engine, from his experimental novel,... more This paper is a study of British author Jeff Noon’s writing game, the Cobralingus Engine, from his experimental novel, Cobralingus (2001).  The aesthetic process of this game whimsically engages with information theory and the remix techniques of electronic music.  In the game, a sample of canonic literature is imaginatively sent through a communication circuit, transformed, manipulated, and finally reconfigured.  The result is a kind poetic prose Noon terms metamorphiction: an amusing and elegant experimental mode in which signs metamorphose and mutate within certain systemic parameters; in short, it is a narrative, not of deconstruction, but of reconstruction. 

Audible Transgressions: Art and Aesthetics after the Mashup

by David Gunkel

Published in "Transgression 2.0: Media, Culture and the Politics of a Digital Age." Edited by Ted Gournelos and David J. Gunkel. New York: Continuum, 2011 (pp. 42-56)

During a recent conference panel on mashups, remixes, and bootlegs (NCA 2009), one of the attendees asked what was... more During a recent conference panel on mashups, remixes, and bootlegs (NCA 2009), one of the attendees asked what was initially termed an "innocent question."  Although I cannot remember the exact wording, the gist of the inquiry concerned aesthetics: How can we decide whether a particular audio mashup is any good or not?  What is it that separates a good mashup from a bad one?  Or more pointedly, how can you tell whether something is a well-designed mashup as opposed to an accidental concatenation of materials simply thrown together?  This line of questioning is, despite how it was initially presented, anything but "innocent."  It is a crucial and insightful inquiry that asks us to reconsider long-standing assumptions about art, artistry, and aesthetic judgment....

Rethinking the Digital Remix: Mash-ups and the Metaphysics of Sound Recording

by David Gunkel

Popular Music & Society 31(4), October 2008, pp. 489-510

Critical evaluations of audio mash-ups and remixes tend to congregate around two poles. On the one hand, these often... more Critical evaluations of audio mash-ups and remixes tend to congregate around two poles. On the one hand, these often clever recombinations of recorded music are celebrated as innovative and creative interventions in the material of bland commodity culture. On the other hand, they are often reviled as derivative, inauthentic, and illegal because they do nothing more than appropriate and reconfigure the intellectual property of others. This essay does not side with either position but identifies and critiques the common understanding and fundamental assumptions that make these two, opposed positions possible in the first place. The investigation of this matter is divided into two main parts. The first considers the traditional understanding of technologically enabled reproduction and the often unquestioned value it invests in the concept of originality. It does so by beginning with a somewhat unlikely source, Plato's Phaedrus—a dialogue that, it is argued, originally articulates the original concept of originality that both determines and is reproduced in the theories and practices of sound recording. The second part of the essay demonstrates how the audio mash-up deliberately intervenes in this tradition, advancing a fundamental challenge to the original understanding and privilege of originality. In making this argument, however, the essay does not endeavor to position the mash-up as anything unique or innovative. Instead, it demonstrates how mash-ups, true to their thoroughly derivative nature, plunder, reuse, and remix anomalies that are already available in and constitutive of
recorded music.

New Media: A Remix of Mark Amerika's remixthebook

by David Gunkel

published at http://remixthebook.com 2011

In remixthebook, Mark Amerika develops a model of contemporary theoretical writing that mashes up the rhetorical... more In remixthebook, Mark Amerika develops a model of contemporary theoretical writing that mashes up the rhetorical styles of performance art, poetry, and the vernacular associated with 21st century social media and networking culture.

As part of this project, Amerika, along with co-curator and artist Rick Silva, invited over 25 contributing international artists, poets, and critical theorists, all of them interdisciplinary in their own practice-based research, to sample from remixthebook and manipulate the selected source material through their own artistic and theoretical filters.

My remix takes-up and investigates the following questions: Can one write remix theory by using the tools, techniques, and media of remix? Could I “write” theory following the example of what I was attempting to theorize? Would it be possible to use and deploy the very concepts that were to be the target of the investigation? Could the object of the remix also become its subject? “New Media: A Remix of Mark Amerika’s remixthebook” is not so much an answer to these questions as it is their articulation, elaboration, and examination. It is, in other words, an investigation of remix theory in other words and by other means.

Doctor Who Fan Videos, YouTube, and the Public Sphere

by Jeremy Sarachan

Twenty years ago it was great fun to watch Doctor Who on a Saturday night with friends in the comfort of your living... more Twenty years ago it was great fun to watch Doctor Who on a Saturday night with friends in the comfort of your living room.  This weekly bonding experience was perhaps the only occasion to share the joy of Doctor Who fandom.  A few fans might engage in writing fan fiction or creating fan videos (fanvids), but sharing these creative endeavors was difficult, with the occasional science fiction convention serving as the primary distribution hub.

Now, with the growth of Web 2.0 and content sharing sites like YouTube, anyone can contribute, view and comment on fan-created works, establishing a global forum for narrative exploration and the redefinition of what it means to be a fan of a fictional program.  The ability of fans to engage the content of a program through their own creations magnifies their interest and dedication, satisfying the needs of a show’s creators by increasing ratings.  More significantly, fan interactions reflect the revival of public discourse missing since the development and growth of electronic mass communication in the last century.

Obama? Norway killings? London riots? You can has a meme for that …

by Sean Rintel

News publication - TheConversation.edu.au - 15 August 2011

Alongside serious reportage of bad news, you’ve probably come across at least one crisis meme that treats that bad... more Alongside serious reportage of bad news, you’ve probably come across at least one crisis meme that treats that bad news with a dose of ghoulish humour. Just hours after the Daily Mail printed the image of a London looter the version above appeared. It’s funny, timely, and was rapidly shared online. Similar images can be found for other recent bad news, such as the Norwegian mass killings or the US debt crisis. Why does internet social commentary take these precise forms? And why does that matter?

Rethinking the Rhetoric of Remix

by Margie Borschke

Borschke, M 2011, "Rethinking the rhetoric of remix" in Media International Australia, No. 141, pp. 17-25

How did 'remix' a post-production technique and compositional form in dance music, come to describe digital culture?... more How did 'remix' a post-production technique and compositional form in dance music, come to describe digital culture? Is it an apt metaphor? In this article I consider the rhetorical use of remix in Lawrence Lessig’s case for copyright reform in Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy (2008). I argue that Lessig’s understanding of remix is problematic as it seems unable to accommodate its musical namesake and obscures the particular history of media use in recent music culture. Drawing on qualitative analysis of popular music cultures, I argue that the conceptualization of remix as any media made from pre-existing media is problematic. The origins of remix, I argue, provides a lens for thinking critically about the rhetorical uses of the term in current discourse and forces us to ponder materialities. My aim is not to dispute the word’s contemporary meaning or attempt to establish a correct usage of the term—clearly a wide variety of creators call their work remix—instead, this article considers the rhetorical work that remix is asked to perform as a way to probe the assumptions and aspirations that lurk behind behind Lessig’s argument.