Monday, 24 February 2014

Week 8: Remixing Story

Read more on the site here: http://www.remixmylit.com/



Week 8: Remixing Story
Required and Recommended Readings

Guest Lecture by Carolyn Guertin
n  Carolyn Guertin, “Handholding, Remixing and the Instant Replay: New Narratives I a Postnarrative World,” A Companion to Digital Literary Studies, ed. Susan Schreibman and Ray Siemens. Oxford: Blackwell, 2008.
http://www.digitalhumanities.org/companionDLS/
n  Carolyn Guertin, "From Karaoke Culture to Vernacular Video," Excerpt available in our e-class Moodle.



Watch this Learning without Frontiers talk by Malcolm McLaren which Carolyn mentions in her chapter.



Take a look at this poster presentation from Carolyn which sums up her key ideas:



Digital Prohibition: Piracy and Authorship in New Media Art from Carolyn Guertin


This week, rather than having several key questions for you to mull over as you read and interact with the week's content, I would like to present one idea from Marsha Kinder:

"Narrative is a cognitive mode in all human societies that we use to contextualize experiences. Cultures are kept alive through open-ended narratives. Each remix of a narrative opens space for the unknown, filters out the unimportant and determines new priorities."








8 comments:

  1. I agree with Kinder’s statement. This is highlighted in the “Digital Prohibition reading where Guertin quotes Bourriaud (2002a, 9), “Where we are now, in a postproduction period, is “beyond what we call the ‘art of appropriate,’ which naturally infers an ideology of ownership, and moving towards a culture of the use of forms, a culture of constant activity of signs based on a collective ideal: sharing” (p. 124).
    Perhaps I may be so bold as to suggest that the new priorities in digital media are remixing/parodying/commenting on narratives, creating new types of narratives that wouldn’t have gotten through the ‘gatekeepers’ (publishers) before, and being able to share/interact/be part of the narrative as produsers (producers + users, Axel Bruns). There is also the old adage: “There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combinations. We keep on turning and making new combinations indefinitely; but they are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.” 
- Mark Twain, a Biography via http://www.twainquotes.com/Ideas.html

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  2. Interesting Nicole. I wonder about the word "priority" and how that aligns with the ideas of openness, democracy, access and social - other keys words of *now*. Perhaps with driving factor is the sharing - all of the remixing and parodying and commenting is really about public sharing. We don't simply change information for our own use; we change it and then publish it. somewhere. online.

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    1. I agree, which is what I meant by noting that we are now sharing and interacting as produsers instead of the former consumers.

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  3. When it comes to creation, remix, appropriation, originality, content sharing, authorship and creativity, it is easy to relate to the arguments of the different people involved. For example, as a visual artist I can understand that musicians want to protect their work from unauthorized use (the same way companies might protect their brands, their products, their services), but at the same time I agree that almost all creations are based on something that already exists.

    Guetin (2012) points out that in contemporary art almost everything is product of “spheres of influence across centuries of art history”(p.121). Contemporary art tends to address the issues of the moment and often refers to existing artwork to create another statement that is relevant to the period we are living on or to question our previous beliefs (like Sherrie Levine did). This creative spiral has been happening for decades and it’s similar to when contemporary philosophers use and elaborate on the theories of their predecessors.

    In my opinion, the word “remix” has a rebellious connotation, as it seems to have debunked the status of the artist that comes up with original ideas. It has made the creative process accessible to all and the Internet social media have made the results shareable in ways that original art work was never shared before.

    I partly agree with Marsha Kinder’s statement "Narrative is a cognitive mode in all human societies that we use to contextualize experiences. Cultures are kept alive through open-ended narratives. Each remix of a narrative opens space for the unknown, filters out the unimportant and determines new priorities." I absolutely agree that narratives keep cultures alive and that when they are open-ended they question and open doors. However, I don’t fully comprehend how it “filters out the unimportant and determines new priorities.” Does this relate to Bourriaud (as quoted by Guetin) comment that art is no longer the “termination point of a creative process” but more like a portal for other work and thoughts?

    Considering all manifestations of thought and art have been inspired and influenced by other people’s work, I personally believe in remix and appropriation, as long as it acknowledges the origin of the work. Sherrie Levine’s titles did it beautifully by putting “After xxx” (the name of the artists whose work she is using). Using Creative Commons licenses although not perfect are great option.

    Jean-Luc Godard said it nicely “It’s not where you take things from- it’s where you take them to.”

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  4. I think everyone has made excellent and valid points so far!

    Andrea, I especially like your comparison of artists protecting their work to companies protecting their brand image from unauthorized use. This example makes a lot of sense to me and many brand managers would agree that brand protection is of utmost importance, as artists would say the same of their work, however whose best interests are placed first in both of these circumstances? Is what’s most important the company or individual whose work is vulnerable, or is what’s most important society at large and creative freedoms established through remix culture?

    I don’t have an answer to this BIG question, however I think that the main driver of remixing in today’s world is accessibility. The average person has vastly more accessibility to creative works that were once reserved only for museums, galleries and churches, as Guertin points out in her work Digital Prohibition: Piracy and Authorship in New Media Art. Furthermore, as Kinder articulates, “each remix of a narrative opens space for the unknown, filters out the unimportant and determines new priorities”. Because of the overwhelmingly accessible global repository of creative works available to every individual with a computer and an Internet connection, “filtering out the unimportant” becomes a more fundamental aspect of remixing in the 21st century. There is so much content available to remix that cultural narratives once told through a siloed lense, now lean on other lenses for influence. It will be interesting to see how cultural narratives change in the future, as a direct result of globalization.

    My final thought is that as long as remix artists are giving credit where credit is due (as with anyone using another individual’s work or ideas - students and plagiarism, for example) then I am absolutely on board with remix culture. As Guertin explains on page 120 of Digital Prohibition: “Reflexive remixing creates a unique and original work from pre-existing parts”. The parts of the original work are left in tact to be recognizable on purpose, therefore this is not “stealing” or plagiarism. I feel that the act of creating something new out of pre-existing works takes just as much creativity (albeit, a different type of creative thinking) than starting from scratch. Although, is anything ever really “from scratch”?

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  5. I too generally agree with Marsha Kinder’s statement. As referenced by Carolyn Guertin, “the idea of seeing again or revisiting the place of known moments is integral to storytelling as much as it is to the new kinds of narrative that are emerging within digital culture” (p. 1). Stories are continually being told, retold, transformed, and referenced…the old gets reworked into the new, further changing “the nature of storytelling space and our expectations of it” (p. 1). The boundary between the original and the unoriginal is becoming ever so blurry and the concept of copying has become a way for people to learn and understand the language of their domain. Knowledge gained through emulation can serve to challenge the status quo further progressing new unexplored areas of creativity. Guertin further goes onto note that, “professional standards of production are within reach of anyone who has access to the tools of creation” (p. 3). Advancements in technology have enhanced the ability to collect, combine, and transform material, all key components of creativity at any level. In many ways, creativity is no longer just about original thought; rather it has become more about connecting ideas and applying original tools of thought to existing materials. It is through this process that our culture continues to advance and our stories are kept alive.

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  6. I think there is agreement regarding cultures being kept alive through storytelling and open-ended narratives. Remix is one of the new kinds of narrative that is emerging in our digital culture. Digitization in itself is a huge topic that encompasses everything we do today.

    I thought Owen Gallagher’s quote touched a key issue. He notes that for every work, remix artists build on the works of others done before; whereas remixed video are original works where “the finished piece is more than the sum of its parts.”

    I looked for some remix video examples and could not pass up these 3 Rob Ford Remix videos: Canadian DJ Steve porter, Animal New York and Huffington Post Canada. Each remixed video is unique to its individual story line priority; Huffington Post is a collection of videos. Authors are acknowledged. To me they look and feel like they are original. (links are below)

    New media digital technologies give so many different opportunities for individuals to tell and publish their stories. It’s a new age for digital storytelling that really only began since Google and social media so less than 15 years.

    Remix artists are creating using formats of expression that are centuries old and more linear in progression so their work might feel less creative and more of a familiar format; but, they are still creating something that presents a new priority or storyline focus.

    1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7Jy312JCUQ
    2. http://animalnewyork.com/2014/rob-ford-dancehall-remix/
    3. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/01/22/reggae-remix-rob-ford-patois-video-dreadlocks_n_4645175.html

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  7. I agree with Kinder’s statement that “Each remix of a narrative opens space for the unknown, filters out the unimportant and determines new priorities". We’re never really inventing the wheel every time we ‘create’ something new to us, the inspiration comes from somewhere else, something we have seen or read or heard, and is built upon by our own experiences.
    I thought it was interesting in the Malcom McLaren video that he feels that remix culture is really a karaoke culture – he feels that today life is lived by proxy because people are not truly creating original art (or thoughts). He states that because of this we are “unencumbered by creativity…free from responsibility”. Apparently he sees no value in sharing creation, or a participatory culture. Carolyn Guertin states that “It is the experience of the act of sharing creation – the process of circulating – that has become the aesthetic of production for the multitude in a digital age…”(p. 124). She feels that film director Godard has greater insight into this new Web culture than McLaren as he describes the shift from a visual culture to the current social culture. Godard states that “people make films on the Internet to show they exist, not in order to look at things” (p.124). This statement seems very apt in describing Web culture – on that is participatory – where anyone can participate, share, and create something through social media.

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