Digital Remix: the 21ST Century's Coping Mechanism and Resistance
Opinion Analysis by Myriam Skaff, Contributor
November 8th, 2020
In the past, creativity was collateral to a revolutionary scientific innovation. With the passing of time, solutions for day-to-day problems were proved to stem from our creativity. The solution may not be intrinsically novel, but it is rather used in a new context, and/or combined with other elements. The collage of ideas was named remix practices. Thereby our opinions on the creator’s profile and characteristics have also evolved. Creativity is not a product of the elite, the intellectual or the philosopher. Humans are innately creative. Their drive to create is infinite, and the final product comes in various tangible (objects) or intangible (language) ways. Language is the finest example of oral remix, from the choice of words to the syntax of our sentences.
A while ago I read Lawrence Lessig’s book Remix and it was truly eye opening. I began seeing remix in daily habits. We are constantly building on what is present in the outer world. Biologically, we are a remix of our mother and father’s genetic makeup. As I began digging further into the Remix culture, I discovered more interrelated aspects. Creativity seemed to come hand in hand with remix practice. Indeed, a remix presupposes the use of original documents, but it also carries the new author’s knowledge, intent, and message. More importantly, the process of co-opting resources requires creativity. By asking such questions to a creator, how are you conveying your message, what pre-existing sources are youchoosing, what is your purpose behind your creation, we can distinguish the inventiveness in the recreation. It is less about the sources and more about how and why they are shown under a new light.
The read-write culture embraces a particular overshadowed creator, and it is the amateur. By definition, amateurs practice a passion or develop a skill because they are passionate or interested in it. They do not live off their passion and they practice it only when they feel like it; in opposition to a professional who relies on his paycheck to live and who has deadlines to meet. Amateurs are facing legal regulations that forbid them from practicing their passion and expressing their creativity. For instance, some music companies’ giants went to sue amateur music producers for sampling (the act of taking parts of the lyrics or the rhythm) their copyrighted music. Yet if you’ve ever heard any kind of music in your life, you will consider sampling as a natural part of a creative expression. Music sampling is not the only form of digital remix.
Remix was popular before the epoch of technology, but digital tools and platforms made it widespread. Over the last decade, digital remix connected everyday people to multimedia resources. They don’t have to be professional photographers, musicians, editors, writers or producers. Instead, they can surf the web for primary document from pictures, videos, songs, texts or other. After mining the data, they pick and sort the content they like. Then begins the creative process of extracting bits and pieces of every document, and pouring it in the mold of their liking. The final product discloses the creator’s own opinion using pre-existing content. Examples of amateur digital remixes include blogs, music sampling, photo collages, internet memes, political commentary media remixing, fan fiction, photoshop, machinima, game molding, application mashups (exp: Jonathan Mendez and Google Maps mashup) and much more.
Digital technologies and new media give the amateurs two priceless unmatched tools: first being the affordable instruments to create, and second having access to a platform where they can distribute their creations (Negus, 2017). In the realm of creativity, it is hard to determine whether difficult circumstances interrupt the creative flow or promote it. Yet it is certain that shifting your focus and channeling your energy into your passion helps in overcoming hardships, whether the end goal is to cope with reality, to showcase it or to rebel against it. Since Thawra, we saw a rise in Lebanese socio-political digital art. For instance, internet memes hold an absurdist humor purpose or even social commentary purpose (Knobel & Lankshear, 2007). This “visual form of online rhetoric” (Sanchez, 2020) can desensitize violent subjects. A good example would be @khodkhodkhod on Instagram who uses political figures to describe everyday situations or to satirize news. Song remixes are another illustration of this social phenomenon. Take “Nabih Berri” by Rakkan Mallak. By superposing Thawra chants and electronic beats, the artist gets around the sacred image of a politician while conveying his message. In a similar fashion “10 Freaky Shi3a” by Duna combines an infamous Hip-hop/Rap rhythm to his lyrics that unveils his own reality.
Approaching sensitive topics or high ranked personalities with humor, music or other forms of expression gets popular attention, thus starting a conversation with the bigger public. Digital remix is cathartic for the creator and liberating for the audience.
References
Knobel, M. (2017). Remix, literacy and creativity: An analytic review of the research literature. Department of Early Childhood, Elementary & Literacy Education, Montclair State University. Eesti Haridusteaduste Ajakiri. Estonian Journal of Education. doi:10.12697/eha.2017.5.2.02b
Knobel, M., & Lankshear, K. (2007, January). Online memes, affinities, and cultural production. In M. Knobel, K. Lankshear, M. Knobel , & C. Lankshear (Eds.), A New Literacies Sampler (pp. 199-227). Peter Lang. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283968435_Online_memes_affinities_and_cultural_production
Negus, K. (2017). Gendered Narratives of Nobodies and Somebodies in the Popular Music Economy . In S. Hawkins, The Routledge Research Companion to Popular Music and Gender (p. 156). Routledge. Retrieved 7 4, 2020, from https://books.google.com.lb/books?id=PiAlDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA156&lpg=PA156&dq=music+industry+and+amateur&source=bl&ots=HFgEC3bDKe&sig=ACfU3U0KPPgrwPxwq52Sp4GdZtF6pENlkA&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwitt5LX7LHqAhUG3xoKHXMDCRoQ6AEwEXoECAwQAQ#v=onepage&q=20&f=false
Sanchez, B. (2020, January). Internet Memes and Desensitization. PATHWAYS: A Journal of Humanistic and Social Inquiry, 1(2), 11. Retrieved 7 2, 2020, from file:///C:/Users/User/Desktop/Information%20Management/m%C3%A9moire%20yey!!/Internet%20Memes%20and%20Desensitization.pdf
Lessig, L. (2008). Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in Hybrid Economy. Penguin Group. doi:10.5040/9781849662505
Kaufman, J., & Sternberg, R. (Eds.). (2019). The Cambridge Handbook of Creativity (2nd ed., Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781316979839