THIS WEEK: Repurposed Media
Here’s what I love about the internet. It turns everyone into Marcel Duchamp. We uncover digital artifacts that, for whatever reason, resonate with us, and we repurpose them into something new. We create art with pieces of old art. It’s something that all creative types do to some degree. We all synthesize our influences into our original work. Some people (as you’ll see in the links below) just borrow more literally than others.
A couple of multimedia composers who specialize in remixing the artifacts of geek culture into catchy dance tunes and absurdist parodies. Their obsessions with pop-culture and awkward weirdness remind me not just a little of The Residents. Of particular interest: “I’d Do Anything” (for fans of Battlestar Galactica) and “Shatner on the Mount” (for fans of absolute nonsense).
Most of you have probably already seen this, but for those of you who haven’t, you owe yourself a peek. A completely crowd-sourced remake of Star Wars: A New Hope. By turns awe-inspiring, hilarious, and often more entertaining than George Lucas’s original.
Just to show that this phenomenon is not exclusive to the internet age, filmmaker Kirby Ferguson has produced (and will apparently continue to produce) these amazing and engaging mini-documentaries outlining the history of idea-theft, memetic mutation, influence imitation, and remixing in the media we consume.
Apropos of nothing…
One more link I wanted to provide that didn’t fit the theme…
I have nothing clever to say about this apart from B’AWWW!
