Mozilla’s Doug Belshaw says that the “heart” of “digital literacies” is the Remix. Kirby Ferguson eloquently encouraged us in his TED talk to “Embrace the Remix”, because, as his enlightening documentary series reminds us, “everything is a remix”. Newspaper blackout artist and award-winning author Austin Kleon’s advice to budding creatives is to “Steal Like an Artist”, because “you are a mashup of what you let into your life”. Our students are engrossed in remix culture - they are the appropriation and recontextualization generation. Remix calls for knowledge and understanding, critical, higher-order, and design thinking, a variety of tech skills, and, frequently, collaboration and navigation in the greater media landscape. Most importantly a remix task offers students a chance to truly transform a work and create something unique - something that will contribute to their digital presence and legacy. This session is part pedagogical/philosophical and part participatory. Attendees will leave with a “goodie-bag” of resources and ideas in the form of an ever-growing G+ community to organize resources and serve as a space for sharing participant work and continuing the conversation long after the conference has ended.
The slide show offers a glimpse into the history of remix in the art world and its significance in our present media landscape. We’ll explore how different techniques of remix and mashup lend themselves to collaborative creativity and differentiation in the classroom. We’ll also look into the distinctions between “remix” and “rip-off” and discuss the ways in which to help work become transformative rather than mere copies. There will be some discussion of copyright reform, fair use, and creative commons as well. Philosophically we’ll look at the work of William Burroughs, Grandmaster Flash, and Andy Warhol as well as the more recent efforts of writer Austin Kleon, media theorist Henry Jenkins, MIT Media Lab Lifelong Kindergartener Mitch Resnick, documentary filmmaker Kirby Ferguson, and the online course DS106.
We’ll explore how social media in particular inspires recontextualization and re-imagining. And, in an era of ever-abbreviated communication, we’ll look at various ways to essentialize and synthesize into more minimalist, visual interpretations.
Participants will have the chance to have at least one hands-on experience, so it is helpful to should bring your own device and ideally create a G+ profile ahead of time so you can access all the resources.
