How does identity correlate with critical remix? You have the identity of the producer of the work, the identity of the viewer, the identity of the source samples used and the identity of the remix itself. What do we mean by identity in this context? Identity may be described as the sense of self from the subjective perspective. However, we all have a sense of identity of the people we know in our lives, so that may be described as our perception of their sense of self. Who they are. But it is only a sense. There may not be a true version of oneself, a universal, absolute “me”. Rather there are multiple selves that may be portrayed and perceived in different ways depending on the situation and people involved. In a person’s personality, there may be particular recurring traits that we come to expect – certain behavioural patterns we come to know and recognize in that person and become familiar to us. But these are not fixed by any means. All modular aspects of our ‘selves’ are subject to change over time. We can effect such changes in ourselves or be changed through experience. And so the once familiar becomes alien, uncanny, like a person you’ve known all your life who undergoes a mental breakdown or a stroke and becomes a different, almost unrecognizable person as a result. In remix, the ‘identity’ of the source material becomes alien, unfamiliar, through the process of recontextualisation. There is at once a sense of familiarity, recognition of the source material, but also a sense of unease, wonder, surprise, even amazement at seeing the material you recognize changed so drastically in the remix.
CriticalRemix.com
Dr. Owen Gallagher, SFHEA
