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How to Remix (Part 1)
April 11, 2008

Have you had a truly original idea lately? If not, don't be concerned. As Dr. Jenkins noted at a recent conference, remixing ideas in creative new ways is historically much more prevalent than truly original ideas. This is why so many book reviews refer to other books. If you liked that book, you will love this book! In the end, we probably can't help but be influenced, inspired, or otherwise guided by the work of someone else when we create.

In schools, we call this copying, but the rest of the world is increasingly acknowledging this as remixing. Sometimes the remix sources are much more obvious. Did anyone else reading Eldest have a moment at the end of the book where they heard James Earl Jones saying "Eragon, I am your brother." The Eragon series draws very heavily on the work of Tolkien and McCaffery in defining a world of dwarves, elves and dragons. The trick to success and originality isn't in coming up with the idea that has never before been seen (it would probably be so foreign that nobody would understand it anyway), but rather to bring one's own creativity to the remix.

This creativity is the ticket that allows entry to the remix culture. Theft of ideas or material is met quite harshly; copying is no less appreciated in the remix culture than it is in schools. Creative use of sources where the artist imbues the source material with new life and a higher meaning earns great respect.

So, where can you find examples of remixing? As noted in the last post, Soulja Boy's music is one of the most obvious examples of remixing happening right now. Other recent remixes that have gained a great deal of attention include Danger Mouse's Grey Album that remixed tracks from the Beatles with rapper Jay-Z and the concept of machinima, creating movies using games. Another recent remix concept uses shots from TV shows to create new music videos - examples from two of my favorite shows, House and Battlestar Galactica.
Check back on Monday for some examples of remixing that you can undertake in your library.

Posted by Chris Harris on April 11, 2008 | Comments (0)