Remix PowerPoint Outline

We did a presentation on remix. This was our outline. 

Remix PowerPoint Explanation

Slide One:

Nothing is new, everything is old elements used to create new ideas.

(picture of a wheel to a carriage to a car)

Slide two: A remix is simply something that takes an idea or concept and augments or changes such an idea for better or worse.

Slide three: However, a modern definition of Remix culture simply goes beyond changing old ideas.

In todays world, creation and publication have never been easier. (youtube, blogger, etc.)

We’ll use an example to explain: The example of the Hope Obama poster (I’ll explain this)

Slide Four:

Where copyright was once mainly exercised on corporations, meant as a means to protect rather than imped individual creativity, today the amateur creator finds themselves under attack.

Slide Five:

Remix Culture realizes that society can either go two ways, a “read/only” society where things are created by a few elite then simply viewed by the public with no more effort than admiration. OR

A “read/write” culture where people are encouraged to add on to ideas and develop their own branches based on an idea. This perspective is remix culture.

Slide Six:

So why not Creativity?

Copyright infringements

Misdirection

Graphic Material

A complete strain on the economic system

Slide Seven:

So, can remix actually serve a good purpose?

(explain the basis of our idea and show our prototype)

Here is the Prezi:

Remix on Prezi

Curtis explains:

As Author Jack Foster explained, every original idea has already been thought up. Now we simply combine or augment elements of ideas. This, of course, makes explaining a simple definition of remix culture almost impossible. The wagon was a reinvention of the wheel, the car a reinvention of the wagon. Cultural in general has fundamentally survived on remix values. So why the hell are we wasting so much time and effort on explaining a remix culture everyone already lives in. Ah, now there is the catch. In essence, remix culture is not defined by what it is, but by its limitations. In other words, remix culture is largely defined as a piece of work that uses other elements to present a fresh take or new perspective on something in a manner that is generally considered breaking copyright. Lawrence Lessig wrote the book on modern remix (I mean, he literally wrote the book called Remix). He explained that cultures are divided in two categories “Read/Only” or “Read/Write.” In other words, cultures that encourage people to simply look at things others have created like a museum, or ones that encourage them to view and then create things themselves. His argument is that the internet has brought our society into a “Read/Write” culture on an amateur level, meaning that copyright laws that once were only practiced on corporations are now being exercised on individuals.

After once again diving into the actual text of Frankenstein, the connections between the two elements have become even clearer. The true difference between Frankenstein the literature and Frankenstein the movie is the actual purpose of the works. In cinematic form, the movie was meant as little more than a horror movie to help guys get girls to cuddle with them. The actual novel is significantly less focused on the horror aspects as focusing on the relationship of the creature with humanity. While originally it was meant to represent an analogue between Mary Shelley’s world and literature (the rights of women, the French Revolution, etc.), such an analogue can still be used today. “Remix Culture” as defined by Lessig is a creation brought into this world where it finds humanity hostile to it. In certain light it appears destructive and illegal. But in essence it has the potential to inspire and create, to push society on an individual level past a “Read/Only” culture.

Jalena's Thoughts on Frankenstein

The professor stared. "Have you," he said, "really spent your time in studying such nonsense?"

(Haha, no, I don't actually think this is entirely nonsense; I was looking as I read for a good quote about study and research from Frankenstein that I could use as the title, and I found this one somewhat comical.)

In my revisiting of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, (I've only reached the letters and beginning chapters thus far) one thing that particularly stood out to me in the terms of remix was the use of the captain's letters at the beginning. These letters don't necessarily pertain to remix in the sense of remaking something already done into a new version, but rather in the sense that it pieces together different media to tell a story, something which remix also does. Having the two different perspectives of the captain's letters and then Dr. Frankenstein's firsthand account adds a greater depth and texture and meaning to the story than it would if it was just Dr. Frankenstein's perspective or just the captain's letters. I think remix has a similar effect in that combining multiple pieces of media together give a new and different feel and meaning to the combined piece than any of the pieces have on their own.

I see this for example in my personal favorite remix, which I know I've mentioned in class before, but have never actually posted or showed to you. Here it is, the U2 music video to "Window in the Skies" which remixes countless examples of other music video footage to make something completely new and wonderful. I never get tired of it:

In combining each of these videos together, we get a completely different story and feel than each of the other music videos would have separately. Frankenstein does the exact same thing. Furthermore, this video shows that remix can be used for things beyond often stupid parodies, but rather can be used for beautiful art.

As I branched out further in my research, I encountered another remix video which I also really like and which fits in quite well with our theme of remixing classic literature. This is a beautifully done remix combining footage from the PBS TV mini-series called "The Dust Bowl" with text from Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath.

It helps to bring Steinbeck's words to life and makes the text more accessible to a wider audience, and in turn his text adds greater meaning to the images that it's juxtaposed with. Again, this shows how remix can be used for something positive, useful, and even educational instead of just for comic entertainment.

Gwen's Frankenstein/Remix Thoughts

Originally posted here. Please see original post for linked videos. 


(Because if it has a pretty picture, you'll read it, right? Also because this is what my brain is currently doing with Frankenstein and Remix)

In the spirit of RERO I am going to record my thoughts on Frankenstein as I have them and hopefully glean something coherent from them in a later draft or post. So this is less of a post and more of a research log I guess. I put my most coherent thought at the top.

One thing that we do when we study literature is make connections between texts. We highlight how they are similar, how they are different, and how they matter. Remix is one way of drawing connections between digital "texts." A visual (or auditory) demonstration of connections.

This thought was inspire by this video, titled "Inception-FRANKENSTEIN: Mashup trailer 2011"




When I saw the description I was interested in watching it because I wondered how the creators were going to connect these two stories. As it turns out it was just the Inception music laid over the famous creation scene, but it got me thinking.



A Frankenstein Rap:





Really not my thing. But, from the little that I was able to listen to without sticking sharp objects in my ears, it is clear that this guy read the book and isn't just rapping about the pop culture version. I don't much like it, but this guy has remixed the story in a way this is (apparently) fun and meaningful for him.


So, what? The usefulness of remix doesn't just have to lie with the end user. It can be useful for the creator, who can explore a topic in a way that is meaningful to them, rather than just dry or forced academia which might not be useful or interesting to them.


Remix supports Web 2.0: " In a Read Only culture, a small professional group produces all the culture that is then consumed by the masses. The public can only absorb and take in the culture, but it leaves no room to interact with the culture. " (Wikipedia). So, remix allows us to engage in the conversation rather than just viewing boring, non dynamic Web. 1.0 pages, as it were.

Other Assorted Thoughts
The R. Walton (the explorer guy) goes looking for one thing in the arctic, but finds quite another. Similarly, sometimes we go into the digital world looking for one thing and find another.

"...I shall certainly find no friend on the wide ocean, nor even here in Archangel, among merchants and seamen. Yet some feelings, unallied to the dross of human nature, beat even in these rugged bosoms," (5).



"One man's life or death were but a small
price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought, for
the dominion I should acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of
our race. As I spoke, a dark gloom spread over my listener's
countenance. At first I perceived that he tried to suppress his
emotion; he placed his hands before his eyes, and my voice quivered and
failed me as I beheld tears trickle fast from between his fingers; a
groan burst from his heaving breast. I paused; at length he spoke, in
broken accents: "Unhappy man! Do you share my madness? Have youdrunk also of the intoxicating draught?" (13)

-Two views on the sanctity of life


"I spoke of my desire of finding a friend, of my

thirst for a more intimate sympathy with a fellow mind than had ever
fallen to my lot, and expressed my conviction that a man could boast of
little happiness who did not enjoy this blessing. "I agree with you,"
replied the stranger; "we are unfashioned creatures, but half made up,
if one wiser, better, dearer than ourselves--such a friend ought tobe--do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty natures," (13)

-Walton had expressed earlier his desire and inability to find a friend on his voyage. By travelling into this Brave New World, he finds one-just like the long tail (right way to describe it?) of social groups


Frankensteinia-a blog dedicated to Frankenstein

Looking into some Frankenstein Remixes:
I, Frankenstein.A new Frankenstein movie (with some pretty big names) Imdb's description reads thus: "Frankenstein's creature finds himself caught in an all-out, centuries old war between two immortal clans." I'm wondering why it is useful to have the creature as the one getting caught up in the war as opposed to someone else.


Thoughts:All of the pop culture versions seem to portray Dr. Frankenstein as the quintessential mad scientist type. However, he does not seem to be a mad scientist in the book. He's tormented certainly, but not mad. Why the differences?

A Little Break

Quote for Segment 1

Ok, segment 1 is about the captain finding Dr. Frankenstein. Here's a potential quote for this section:

I went upon deck and found all the sailors busy on one side of the vessel, apparently talking to someone in the sea. It was, in fact, a sledge, like that we had seen before, which had drifted towards us in the night on a large fragment of ice. Only one dog remained alive; but there was a human being within it whom the sailors were persuading to enter the vessel. He was not, as the other traveller seemed to be, a savage inhabitant of some undiscovered island, but a European.

What do you all think? Is this enough? Or should I expand it so it explains a little bit more?

Prototype For Frankenstein Flash

This is the first preview of the conceptualized rough art form for the Frankenstien Flash. This particular scene depicts dr. Frankenstein (which is portrayed in a modern version as Steve Jobs). Users can click different headstones they think make up the digital-culture monster.

Storyboard

Mikhaela make some awesome storyboard drawings for the project:

The FINAL Plans...

After many revamps and almost group divorces, we present!

Frankenstein FLASH!

Audience:
Those reading Frankenstein
Those who are questioning remix

Objective:
Show the power and importance of remix- both the negative (copyright issues) and positive (educational benefits?)

Plan
Create an interactive flash video and blog site using the story of Frankenstein to comment on the position of remix. This will be our “thing.” We imagine using lines from the story to actually narrate the story yet keeping with a theme of a modern Frankenstein. The Dr could be “Steve Jobs.” When we have the part for the the Dr picking the body parts, the end user can choose which grave to rob. This could then lead to the different types of remix (parody, etc). For the blog, we could then have other “so-what” pages explaining the power of remix and it’s place in education.

Scenes:

1) Intro- you are the captain and you find this dying Dr. (portrayed as Steve Jobs- too soon?) who begins to tell you his story of his life
what if this is in color?

2) Dr decides to go grave robbing to create something
three types of remix with the predecessor as the grave
I Think this part should stay with the di
3) Dr creates the monster
dependant on which predecessor  you robbed determines what is created

perhaps morphs into a generic monster from the remix

choose your own monster

4) both the Dr and monster become scared and flee
5) the monster kills something representing copyright (aligned with the killing of the boy)
6) the monster then does good -maybe teach a class? (aligned with saving girl)
7) the monster and Dr are reunited and chase each other to where (you) the captain are
8) the Dr then dies and (you) the captain have to choose to let the monster escape or kill him
also in color?
if you kill him, your computer pops up saying itll reboot into safe mode

Jalena asks: Don't kill the messenger...

Jalena:

Don't kill the messenger...

So yesterday in my interview with Dr. Burton, he was commenting on how our group seems to lack motivation, excitement, and/or passion behind our project. Perhaps it's just me, but I think I have to agree. (Or is it just me? What do you guys think?)

He posed the question to me, "If you could start over from the beginning and you were in charge of picking the project, what would you do?" I thought this was an interesting question, and would like to pose the same question to all of you group members. What would you do?

He suggested that perhaps we should start over and could perhaps even break up into different groups. Now, I know this might sound extremely painful to have to start over completely, but don't kill the messenger, I'm just relaying what he said to me. And it's not necessarily saying it will happen. But just think hypothetically, and ask yourself what would be something you really want to do if you could do it from the beginning?

What if we all just post on our blogs individually and hypothetically what we each would do if we could do a project that we were really excited about and actually want to do. That way we can see what really truly interests all of us, and see if we want to take a different route.

I have my own idea, but don't want to impose it on anyone, so I'll wait to post until later. So let's just all see what each of our personal interests really are, even if it's not something we're going to end up doing. Just so we can get a better idea of what would motivate each of us.

It just seems like we need something that we all care a little bit more about to help get everyone more motivated and excited about the project. Perhaps I'm just speaking for myself, but right now it kind of feels like we're lacking in that area and aren't making much progress because of it.

If you're all just completely in love with our current project, that's fine too, and we can keep going on it if we all want. Like I said, don't shoot me, I'm just the messenger.

Relaunch: Gwen's Vision

Gwen's Vision: 3 Videos and a Challenge

So this is the vision I had for our project yesterday (Click to enlarge):



And this is a more refined version:



So, like webisodes. I see it as being similar to this site, with all three videos embedded on one web page. If we get ambitious we can include more information on the site that doesn't fit easily into our "narrative," perhaps links to blogs or more information or whatever.

I think it's important that we end with something like "Look, we redeemed remix. What will YOU redeem?"

Jalena's Mashup Mocumentary

Jalena's Mashup Mocumentary

I mentioned in a post on Google+ a few days ago the concept of doing our mashup project somewhat like a mocumentary in which we can show the process of creating our mashup project and then show the final mashup project at the end, in a similar manner as the mocumentary, The Five Obstructions .

The Five Obstructions is a very sophisticated mashup. Back in 1967, Jørgen Leth directed a short film called "The Perfect Human."

Then 36 years later in 2003 Leth along with another renowned Danish director, Lars von Trier did an interesting project to remix "The Pefect Human." In this mocumentawry, von Trier challenges Leth to remix his original short film five different times, each time based on a certain set of restrictions. For example, in the first obstruction, von Trier sends Leth to Cuba and sets his first seemingly impossible rule: to make a film with shots that are no longer than twelve frames at a time.

we see the mocumentary portion, but then also the actual products that Leth makes. Meanwhile, in the process of showing this film-making process, the film actually tells a story with a point and meaning behind it, bringing you to realize that this film isn't actually a straight-out documentary but rather a scripted mocumentary. Here's the trailer for the film to get more of the general idea:

Now, how does this relate to the Monster Mashup?

Dr. Burton suggested the notion that our project of mashing up Frankenstein is in a way like the monster of Frankenstein itself: it's taken from various sources and put together in a new way to give it new life. Thus, we, in a way, are like Dr. Frankenstein and could potentially do a mocumentary of our process of creating Frankenstein (i.e. our project/video) in order to show the same themes and principles that Dr. Frankenstein learns and that we learn from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, applied to our modern audience.

This would allow us to be true to the themes of the original Frankenstein while additionally presenting our own mashed up monster video of Frankenstein, however we decided to do it.

I'm not saying that this is necessarily what we need to do, but it's just a thought.

Project Proposal 1

  


Project Title Monster Mash-Up

Description Without remixed projects of literary classics, our digital society, that is growing away from the time old tradition of reading, faces the chance of losing the value and worth of literary classics in our new culture of computer based interactions and technology. However, by the creation and lasting impression of remixed literary classics, the second life and existence of masterpieces in these new remixes will bring further importance and renewed interest to the great works of our* time and society.

Project Members Tara Pina (I don’t know how to make that accent), Mikhaela Tait, Gwendolyn Hammer, Curtis Jenkins, Jalena Reschke

Social Proof
Evidence of informal social proof (from classmates, peers)

Greg Williams:


Great idea +Curtis Jenkins , I will need to check my calendar closely so that I don't miss any specific homework that requires me to use media! Being a media arts major that may be difficult. Have you seen what this fellow from "The Verge" has been doing? Pretty interesting when it comes to media fasting like a boss


Gwendolyn Hammer:


I'd participate. If I planned ahead far enough.
Evidence of outside social proof (from enthusiasts, experts)

Annotated list of potential sources of further social proof

Social Proof from enthusiasts- I think this guys counts as an enthusiast, though I’m not all that crazy about starting a conversation with him (based on his language in the video)http://www.blisteredthumbs.net/2011/10/tm-e13/
Another option is just providing proof of how much machinima is out there already reenacting novels, such as this and this. I know Lord of the Rings isn’t a cannonized classic, but it proves that there is an audience, at least for popular books into Machinima
Professor Kelly and Professor Doug McKinley (Professors of Media Effects)-- very interested in current trends that affect the way the population views media and literature.
Professor Callahan (Professor of Communications)-- highly interested in how media changes and the theories involved.

Literature Review
Links to blog posts exploring the topic from group members

http://xxicenturygirl.blogspot.com/2012/09/media-fast-i-cant-im-connected.html

http://socialmediacrityandme.blogspot.com/2012/09/media-fast.html


http://dyckellis326.blogspot.com/2012/09/reflections-on-media-fast-we-are-so.html


http://ricksrebecca326.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-media-fast-sunday.html


http://digitalcommunicationplease.blogspot.com/2012/09/media-fast-media-snacking-at-least-it.html


http://craftonallie326.blogspot.com/2012/09/media-fastunavoidable-failure.html

At least three books that establish the relevance and importance of the topic. These can be trade book nonfiction titles or scholarly studies.
Frankenstien-- Mary Shelley
Niche Envy- by Joseph Turow
Fictional Realities- by J.J.A. Mooij
Theories of Human Communication- Stephen Littlejohn and Karen Foss

Literary Component
How might literary works provide content or insight for the project (draw from group members' literary works studied)
Understanding just how remix culture operates as well as how communications and media have been affected over time will be important in creating remixes of Frankenstien. Also, in order to not confuse or presented already known facts, we must research the topic we wish to present.

Format(s) and Audience(s)
How will the project be formalized? How will it be distributed and to whom? We can put the video on youtube, make a blog diary,
via facebook/other social networks
flash book

Success Criteria
Our project will have been successful if we created peices that use new sorce of media to remix the work of Frankenstien in a way that interest the current generations more than the work in it's traditional literary form.

Prototype
In order to gain the original insight, class participation involved the creation of this poster as well as the media fast that has already taken place.



The media fast, itself, was a prototype of part of the project that you, professor Gideon, have already participated in. In other words, the project has already gained the participation of a large part of the class.