Category: Remix culture

Brooklyn is Watching (us)

I just read a really interesting article about a “sandbox” space in second life that is being recorded and projected (in almost real time) to an art gallery in Brooklyn. The avatar who is doing the recording is being controlled by people walking through the gallery. I’m going to sign in and check the space out in a few minutes. Here’s the slurl if you would like to teleport.

Check out the article on the Not Possible in Real Life Site.

The Escher reference is tight.
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Some killer audio mashups

Exhibit A proving my own techno-geekery: I saw a Twitter fed through a friend’s Facebook status update that highlighted a website of a mashup artist, DJ Earworm, which I then proceeded to bookmark via del.icio.us (which then feeds to my own Facebook page) and am now blogging about it. So while that proves that I’m a geek, it might also prove that I’m musically out-of-touch, as DJ Earworm seems to be well-known in mashup circles (although not on Wikipedia!).

Definitely check out his site if you have a taste for mashups & haven’t heard his work – my favorites are “Together as One” (Beatles + U2 + more), “Stairway to Bootleg Heaven” (Dolly Parton covering Led Zepplin with a bunch of other stuff from Queen to Pat Benatar), and “Over the Confluence of Giants” (tons of sources). More conceptually, “United State of Pop” took the Billboard Top 25 songs for 2007 and remixed them all – the mashup has become a hit on its own, hitting radio top 100 lists for March! I’ve embedded “Together as One” for your listening pleasure:

[audio:http://www.djearworm.lunarpages.com/together_as_one.mp3]

Update: inspired by all of your Wikipedia-ing, I’ve created a page for DJ Earworm. Let’s see how it’s received…

Meta Media

Hey Guys, I was directed to this online and I watched nearly every single one of them. They are really cool “text” pieces that transcribe the dialogue from famous movies. It’s really interesting to see how they are each put together. Check a few out. You’ll notice it starts with the dialogue Robyn and I used for our Pulp Fiction remix. Enjoy. I’ll embed the first one, but click the link to see a whole bunch more.
[youtube syf8olcM0z4&eurl=http://www.alwayswatching.org/features/great-scenes-television-and-film-told-using-only-typography]

http://www.alwayswatching.org/features/great-scenes-television-and-film-told-using-only-typography

Predator Rap

I stumbled across this a week ago and I think it’s a nice example of combining “found” media with artistic creativity. It goes beyond combining multiple forms of media—it combines the creative (the rap) with the lines from the film. I’m very impressed by this, and if I had more time I would like to attempt this with another movie. (I know the clip is a little long, but you’ll get the gist of it after about a minute or two so don’t fee like you need to watch the entire clip).
[youtube ovi-djkUgd0]

NIN Ghosts

Hey guys,

It looks like the Nine Inch Nails are following the marketing strategy that made In Rainbows a chart topper. They have released a new album called Ghosts which is available (9 of 25 tracks) for free on their site. It has minimal vocals and is designed to be remixed and mashed in a style similar to the Black Album. Download it here!
If any of you remember the days of Napster and its demise you will realize the hypocrisy of NIN’s release.

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I’m on YouTube!

So a year and a half ago I was only using my computer for email, AIM, and TextTwist. My sister actually made a Facebook account for me and then gave me the password. Now I’m blogging with you guys, running Firefox, and uploading video to stream on the net. Woohoo! What a rush.

YouTube was surprisingly easy to join and use. Easier than, say… navigating a Mac! (I run Windows… and I LIKE IT! You can all jump out of the shadows and eat me now.)

I only have one video up so far, my final project for Sight and Sound I, and I don’t know if it counts as remix culture. It certainly borrows from other media and even has something to say about it, and I’d like to know what you guys think.

Is it sad that I take extremely nerdy glee from being able to embed videos in this blog thing?

[youtube 37pi39U2NEk]

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series

Yeah. I posted it. I capitalized and punctuated correctly. I have two decks stashed away in my desk somewhere if anyone else on the planet still knows how to play.

Moving on.

This is definitely more of a traditional remix than Haloid. It’s a series of episodes- each cut down to about ten minutes and completely dubbed over by one very talented man- and it’s absolutely hilarious. Whether you love, hate, or have never heard of children’s card games, this will probably make you laugh. Littlekuriboh got millions of hits per episode before having his videos taken down and being repeatedly banned from YouTube. I believe his episodes fall under fair use- but you can judge for yourselves. Now he has his own website.

Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series

And if you liked the funny subtitles of the Beni Lava video, he does something similar for the opening and ending themes of Yu-Gi-Oh! The Other Abridged Movie right here! Sadly, it will probably be ripped off of YouTube once ‘they’ find it.

[youtube pBhUWjQAJYE]

Haloid

This is possibly the best example of borrowed media I have ever witnessed. It was choreographed and animated by one guy. If the characters were not borrowed, it would be original media, and impressive original media at that. The lengths fans go to appreciate their favorite games for free is astounding, though I’m sure this produced a different kind of return. It is, of course, available for download in ridiculous quality. Fanservice alert: If you are deeply attached to the manly mystique of Master Chief, you may want to keep a defibrillator handy.

[youtube K9sYixr2miY]

No!

I want to show you all a different kind of remix video. It’s a collection of Shia LaBeouf saying “No,” in various films. This is a pretty popular technique, I know they have versions of movies that just have the f-word, like pulp fiction and superbad. Here’s a link to the superbad one.

Here’s the “No” since that seems a little more appropriate to embed for class.
[youtube 8IXCK1EyP4s&feature=PlayList&p=320D9C060F640453&index=9]

Garfield remixed

A few of you mentioned Garfield as a comic reference point. There have been some great online remixes of Garfield that you might be interested in.

“Garfield minus Garfield” removes the cat from the strips, turning it into “an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolor disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life.” For instance:

“The Garfield Randomizer” mashes up random panels from the strip to create a nice example of non-sequitar panel transitions.

And my favorite: a thread of Garfield strips that just remove the cat’s thought balloons, making it about Jon talking to his cat pathetically. Some favorites from this thread:

and a bit more political: “This is the Garfield from September 11, 2001 – and even though it was probably prepared weeks or months in advance, it seems like a daringly edgy response to a crisis:”

I apologize in advance for the time you will now waste…