For weeks 13 and 14 the main theme was remix and mashups.  Before this week I used to think of mashup and remixes as taking specific things and mixing them together to create something new.  It didn’t cross my mind until after I watched a few references provided by my ds106 professor that the original pieces I often chose for my remix were remixes in and of themselves.  Remixing and mashups are everywhere, even saying that they are everywhere makes me feel as if that is an understatement.  Yes many people can create a new piece of art, but now I am starting to thing, what ideas could they have pulled from and changed or mashed together. A lot of times it can be second nature to remix or mashup ideas.

To begin of the two week…i guess you can consider it a mashup up…..for weeks 13 and 14, we had to watch videos explaining and giving examples of remixing and mashups then write a blog on what we gathered from the movies and examples.  The link for that blog is below….
http://ashstegemiller.com/wordpress/2012/11/24/remixxx-of-creativity/

Once we had a better grasping of what remixing and mashups incorporated, we were to complete 7 stars worth of Mashup/Remix assignments.  I completed 11, but 3 of them went to the Recycled media assignment.  The links for the blogs for each of the assignments along with how much each of them were worth are listed below…..

Case of the Beetles J-Walking (3 Stars)
http://ashstegemiller.com/wordpress/2012/11/25/case-of-the-beetles-j-walking/

If Dr. Suess ran school! (3 Stars)
http://ashstegemiller.com/wordpress/2012/11/25/if-dr-suess-ran-school/

Annual McDonalds Monopoly Consumer mashup! (2 Stars)
http://ashstegemiller.com/wordpress/2012/11/25/annual-mcdonalds-monopoly-consumer-mashup/

Recycle the media assignment (3 Stars)
http://ashstegemiller.com/wordpress/2012/11/25/recycle-the-media-assignment/

For part of this mashup week assignment we had to use 7 old recycled media material to create something new!  I found a sound clip of street sounds and then found pictures where that sound could be found and created an iMovie, the blog for this creation is linked above with the mashup/remix assignments, labeled Recycle the media assignment.

The last assignment we were assigned to do was to go to the remix section and using the Remix generator, do recreate an assignment with a twist to it.  I miss understood what they asked at first so I created one not from a previous completed one, and then realized that I had to use a previously completed assignment and add the twist to it, which was added at the bottom of the blog.  the link for the blog is below….
http://ashstegemiller.com/wordpress/2012/11/25/remixing-an-assignment-2-examples/

Overall these two weeks assignments gave me a new outlook on what remixing and mashups involve along with how prevalent they are in everyday. With the thought of remixing and mashups being more prevalent than expected, the thought of copyright became more of a challenge.  It is difficult to not fully avoid copywriting if using someone else material, even when referencing them.  I feel like some copyright rules had to be made or loosened to allow for people to share ideas.  In the place of media and culture, remix and mashup are everywhere! In a way culture could be built of a mashup of different people stories and histories and media is a mashup of different cultural views.  I feel if media wasn’t based on culture and something for people to relate to than it wouldn’t be as successful.  I feel, after this week, that a lot of what our culture is based off of  a remix and mashup of all things we have learned and enjoyed from history, which then implies that our culture is based off of remix/mashup.