How can we come to understand the aesthetic of remix? Is there a more academic friendly term other than remix? I am less interested in digital appropriation than in remix. Somehitn gthat is clearly defined. So, what is involved in a discussion on remix and aesthetics? The crux of my research is the ethics and aesthetics of political remix. That’s it. So, aesthetically, as mentioned previously, remix comes in many forms. In fact, any cultural work may be remixed – music, film, literature, animation – anything that may be recorded or performed live through some form of media platform, whether that is a book, a newspaper, a magazine, a poster, a flyer, a brochure, a business card, a CD, a DVD, a website, a YouTube video, a game, an animation, a computer program/software package, any kind of printed or digital media. Of course, it is infinitely easier to remix digital media, due to its fundamentally malleable nature, however, all forms of printed media may be digitized and subsequently remixed more easily. Remix refers to adjustment after the work has been deemed ‘finished’ or ‘completed’.
In that respect, Nicolas Bourriaud’s attempt to label the practive of remix as post-production is somewhat flawed. Post-production is a stage of the creative process that occurs before a work is deemed finished, admittedly, the final stage of the process, but once the axe comes down, the post-production phase is over. Anything that follows this, whether digitally remastering, re-editing a director’s cut, or using samples in the creation of an entirely new work, may be categorized as remix. In plain English, it means making changes to a work after it is finished. Reworking it. Reinterpreting it. Reimagining it, but still using the same words, video, audio, code, imagery or animation that you used in the so-called ‘finished’ piece, just reshuffling them, rejigging, changing their order, the sequence of events, or combining parts of it together with parts from other finished works or adding completely original elements to it.
But where does the original work end and the remix begin and vice-versa? The distinction between an original work and a remixed work is important in understanding both. So, remix may be perceived in the same way that non-remixed or ‘original’ content may be. It can be watched, read, listened to, smelt, tasted, touched, experienced. Eyes, ears, mouth, nose, tongues, fingers/body and of course it may be recollected, imagined, dreamed. But what is different about watching a remixed video and watching a non-remixed video? Do we perceive it differently? How so?
CriticalRemix.com
Dr. Owen Gallagher, SFHEA
