We didn’t have a workshop this week, but that didn’t stop some of us of continuing to work on the project. Rose and I completed our website late last week with the video as well.
In the lecotrial, we looked at the topic of “The Remix and the Glitch”. Our lecturer was Dan Binns. I found the music to be a bit loud – it also went on for at least 15 minutes. After the music, our lecturer told us that “there is no such thing as an original idea”, and remixes are a perfect example of that. There were remixes of art, literature, film, and of course, music.
The “golden age of hollywood” in the 30s and 40s was filled with remakes and reboots and adaptations, thanks to the addition of sound in cinema. Films like “Cleopatra”, “The Wizard of Oz”, and “Gone with the Wind” were made because of sound, and the cuts and mise-en-scene of a film is a type of remix. Even the printing press allowed for mass popularization and reproduction of work. Anyone can make a series of copies, but the original work is something else (like a work of art).
The lecturer went on to say that social media is also a way of “remixing” photos, videos, and even people and personalities. However, moments captured in a photo will never be the same as the moment that the picture is capturing. It isn’t about the “artifact” (e.g. the digital photo) but rather the event itself.
He then talked about the “remix theory”, which is the best way to understand mash-ups and popular music in the world. We went from a calm man on the radio saying what was just played, what will play, and perhaps an update on the weather. We then went to jute-boxes in establishments and then eventually DJs playing and remixing records and songs, starting the nightclub scene in the 1970s, the theme of which more or less continues today (despite changes in how the DJ plays music, the music itself, fashion, and dancing styles). The lecturer then played a series of song bits with footage of “Saturday Night Fever”, cut and remixed together to show how easy it is. Some songs are even produced specifically for nightclubs.
Eventually, the home computer allowed two or more pieces of music to be mixed together without the input of either artist or producing studio (although sometimes they would collaborate to promote each others music) and create something new – called the “Mash-up”. However, lots of corporations do what they can to not have these productions mashed-up or remixed without purchase of the rights.
We then listened to a mash-up by a re-mixer called “GirlTalk”, where we were supposed to write down as many samples as we recognize. I recognized a “Jackson 5” song called “I want you back”. I also heard several drum and guitar beats as well as some rap and goth/heavy metal music that I didn’t recognize that contained the lyrics “Do u want to die?”. I think a tribal-type song was there, as well as something that might have been done by “Atomic Blonde” or by something from the late 70s. I found these groupings fairly strange. Other people heard Justin Timberlake, Simon and Garfunkle, Farside, Slat and pepper, NWA, the Beastie Boys, U2, BRB, and many others.
We then looked at Popart, and how it associates us with various aspects of society. Its played up with colors and shapes and politics and sexuality etc. Advertisers showed us what our life “could be” and would be fulfilled by thier product and their product alone. Pop artists took popular culture and ads and dressed them up and mixed them together as a form a criticism of the status-quo, the political structure, etc. Glitch artists mess with footage with bugs to affect aesthetic. They don’t change the content or form, but rather just the digital code that it uses to alter it -“predicated on wrongness to catch the sublime”. Glitch art is sometimes compared to expressionism and cubism.
Dan Binns concluded the lecture by reminding us that we still had readings and that the ones for week 11 would be helpful for the subject of remixes.