To quote Bon Jovi:
“Whoa, we’re half way there,
Whoa, livin’ on a prayer!”
We’ve already conquered four weeks of class with another four to go. I have to admit that I have felt very flustered by double-time pace of this course. But it has been very rewarding!
This week was about remixes. In my
reading response, I summarized what Lankshear and Knoble describe as remixes. Essentially, they could be nearly any type of cultural artifact. Today, the internet is a huge resource for these types of remix artifacts. Yet, in my response, I ask whether remixing can also lead to decay in the quality of said artifacts.
I didn’t give an answer in my response, hoping to prompt some classmates' responses. But, I think quality is very subjective. Whether art or music is getting “better” lies in the eye, and ear of the beholder. Lankshear and Knoble say that remixing progresses culture. And again, whether we are progressing “the right way” is also subjective.
Nevertheless, I think remixing has progressed culture the right way, overall. Yes, we may have what we consider bad music, or bad art, or bad film, etc. yet – talking big picture – culturally we have less violence, and more freedoms than ever in human history. Remixes in cultural artifacts has also lead to remixes in thought, and changes in the zeitgeist (sorry, I had a chance to use the word, so I did) for the betterment of all peoples. Right now, we’re at our best remix!
For my
design assignment this week, I created a minimalistic book cover for the book I selected to read throughout this Summer semester in conjunction with New Literacties. Unfortunately, I’m finding it more difficult to relate the two books, as I noted in my reading response. What I did relate again translates to the idea of remixes changing people’s thought. Pressfield uses quotes from ancient Greek figures, remixing them to push his philosophy. This has been done throughout history in literature, as well as politics. Whether by outright quoting major figures, or adopting their ideas, political thought has changed, and progressed by being remixed.
Finally, my critique this week was of a character summary video profiling Game of Thrones’ Jon Snow. Now, this doesn’t have the major effects on culture as I was explaining, but it was a well-constructed video that explained the character Jon Snow extremely well. I started to wonder if creating videos like this would be a good substitute for book reports. I mentioned this to another student who critiqued a character video about Severus Snape from the Harry Potter movies/books.
Creating these videos could fulfill the students’ reading comprehension curriculum, while also teaching them to be literate in video editing. Still, this relies heavily on movie adaptations, and students could get away with not actually reading the books.
I'm excited to see what the next half of Digital Storytelling has to offer. So far, this first half has really reshaped the way I look at people's creations. Really, nothing is completely original. And that's okay. It's all the same, just through different filters called our minds, and remixed.
