Can’t….feel my fingers anymore…been remixing and mashing SO much these past 2 weeks! On top of studying for final exams and doing final projects for other classes, I think these have been the busiest 2 weeks of the entire semester. But I got through them with all of the assignments done in time, and I even had some extra leeway time to put effort into them! I bet Youtube is sick of my uploads and having to give me all these copyright notices by now, but all these uploads were for a good purpose; EDUCATION! Since I pretty much summed up everything I did in the blog posts for these assignments, I think I’ll just list them here to spare anymore excessive finger injury.
Remix the Vacation (Alan’s Trip to Mars) Blog Post
This assignment was hilarious because I got to send the professor to another planet. I hope my ticket to Mars comes in the mail soon. I need a vacation!
Recycle the Media Assignment Blog Post
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! This was where I took everyone’s unneeded junk media and turned it into a work of art. It’s a media party and everyone’s invited!
“Post-Photographic Portrait” Challenge Blog Post
This assignment was one of the funnest ones since I got to turn a man into a machine. I was so happy when Jonathan Worth himself liked it! 
Countrify Yourself! (Remix Generator Assignment)
I had to take an a capella song and somehow countrify it according to the remix generator. I had this song stuck in my head all night even though I came up with the horrible lyrics in like 2 minutes!
This was the first remix assignment I did. I created a parody of the Gorillaz album cover “Demon Days” by using characters from the show “Death Note.” I think the Death Note crew would make an awesome metal band.
Vocal Instrumental Mashup (3 stars)
For this remix assignment I took the vocals of one song and mashed them up with the instrumental of another song to create a totally new song. Couldn’t even tell it was a mashup really since both songs sound extremely similar!
Final Project Idea Blog Post
This is my final project idea to create a 4 minute tribute to my favorite pony, Rainbow Dash. It’s gonna have alot of awesome effects, transitions, and clips of her being spectacular. I’m sure she’d be proud if she saw it.
Remix vs. Mashup
According to Webster’s dictionary, a “remix” is defined as “a variant of an original recording (as of a song) made by rearranging or adding to the original.” I discovered the meaning of the word this week, without looking up the definition, and how it slightly differs from a mashup. My definition of remixing is altering preexisting content and transforming it into a new piece of media with a different message. This could be done with any sort of content; such as photos, music, and videos. The image below is a remix of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper”. This is only one of MANY remixes since the painting is so well known. Although the characters in the picture change throughout each of the remixes, the message of the famous portrait still remains the same in a sense that the individual in the center is meant to be the most important and is the main focus.
A mashup is very similar in the sense that it still an alteration of some form of media. However, what makes a mashup different from a remix is that it needs at least one other piece of media to create something new. This could be done without changing the content itself and just adding something else to it. An example of this one of my favorite videos called “Cant Touch Mormon Jesus” where the author mashed up an animated video about Mormonism and the MC Hammer song “Can’t Touch This.” What makes this a legendary mashup is the fact that not only is the video clip matched to music, but the voices in the clip also sync with the music, as if the narrator was rapping to the beat. “Stop! Mormon time!”
A remix and a mashup follow similar concepts in that they are a transformation of preexisting material, but what makes them different is the fact that one of them is a transformation of itself without the aid of any other media element.
Whew…I thought I would never get through these 2 weeks, but I made it through with one extra paddle to sail with. I learned now that the videos I’d been making since I was younger were really mashups, and I’d actually been crafting stories by creating them; stories about ghosts were turned into music videos, stories about serious topics were lipsynced with funny audio ect. Remixes and mashups can be used to convey messages that are different than what was intended in the original media clip. This can have the power to change a person’s feelings about a situation; just as I discussed in a previous post about political mashups being able to make an individual see a candidate differently. I feel there are endless possibilities to give meaning to a lifeless work.
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