Nothin’ Under the Sun

In  ENGL 7741 I am on my third remix. For those new to the blog, remixes are visual, audio, multimodal texts created by an individual with their  own twist.  DS 106 creates or host the Remix projects . So enough of the boring and technical mumbo jumbo. For my remix I chose to do Learning By Design. This remix requires one to visualize a  blog post, TED Talk, or dense text from a book (whatever you choose). Use drawings to  symbolically represent the concepts and  connection between the ideas.

The inspiration behind this assignment was  a TED talk. I was browsing the  Creative Spark channel. The talks in this category consists of creativity, imagination, and inspiration. The particular video that  channeled my inspiration  was of a young lady named Natalie Warne, she was behind the successful campaign of Invisible Children’s Project. This project aims to rescue the Ugandan children from Joseph Kony’s child armies.  While I listened to Warne, the message she conveys is that you are never young to make a change in the world.

My drawing is entitled Nothin’ Under the Sun. Well the title is just a spinoff of the cliche’ “Nothing under the sun is new”, which is true. As you look at the picture I know there is a bit of confusion . I will highlight  some  of the elements in the picture for you to get a better understanding of my thinking process.

Power of 1.  This concept is  every one person or idea there is power within both. At times many people think one person is not enough to make a change, but that is not true. That’s all it takes is one person to create an idea, movement, awareness of  something. Along with that one person or idea others will soon follow. Think about all the major movements it started with one and others joined the bandwagon, think about it Ceaser Chavez, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Black Panthers, Slow Food Movement. Basically that one person along with others with shared interest strive for that change they wish to see in the world. 

Scale . The balanced scale has the years 1950 and 2012. I made these equal because the more things change the more they stay the same. Although there are technology advancements and citizen rights have transformed throughout the years, there is still a repetition of the same ideas. Of course we have Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, blogs,  and other social media sites are not new the concept are the same just a different  medium. In the years of our parents and grandparents these sites would be translated into a television, radio, camera and vintage video cameras, newspapers, magazines, social/networking organizations, and journals. Even now we see the same fashion trends, television shows, literature, and music repeating  the same message, but with a different flair.

Chart . The Value of Dreams charts was to simply highlight the older people become the less we believe or less likely to pursue our dreams oppose to our prime years people are more optimistic and impulsive in acquiring their dreams. I think dreams are strongly associated with innovation as well.

Remix. Remix is located in the middle of all these concepts. The world is a remix, everyone has had an idea that has been produced . In the words of Kirby  Ferguson, he defines it as  ”copy, transform, and define”. It is a form of mixing the old with the new to make it relevant .

Who says originality is dead?  It’s not a matter of is it dead, but how can we continue to transform ideas that are successful.