Remixing is important and not important
I saw a tweet from Laurence Lessig this morning pointing me at a YouTube video by Julian Sanchez (‘Normative’) in which he discusses developments in remix culture… and it got me thinking:
I was never much of a believer in Gen X’s “postmodern eclecticism”, but I do understand that as cultural history marches on there’s increasing opportunity to be a ‘culture miner’ rather than a ‘brave new voice’. How could it be different?
But also, I don’t think anyone involved in these remixes believes they are creating art - they’re doing it to communicate with their mates (and, due to the distribution mechanism, everyone else in the world). I’m sure they’re not under any illusion that this is an important and vital new form of ‘high’ culture. But equally, that’s not to say that someone won’t come along and use the technique to create something truly important and precious.
And the third point I’d like to make is that the people who do this clearly have a huge love and appreciation for the source artifacts - if it were easy and visible to do so, I can’t imagine they wouldn’t part with some cash to uphold the legacy of the culture they are appropriating. Unfortunately, a) it’s pretty much impossible to find out who owns what and b) owners generally still charge ludicrous sums for reuse.
There are behaviours and models waiting to emerge here, but I think it’s still very unclear whether the healthy ones will reach the light…
