remix culture august 1, 2011. remix: making art and commerce thrive in the hybrid economy
TRANSCRIPT
What’s at Stake:
“The extreme of regulation that copyright law has become makes
it difficult, and sometimes impossible, for a wide range of
creativity that any free society. . .would allow to exist,
legally.” (18)
“I. . .want to spotlight the damage we’re not thinking
enough about—the harm to a generation from rendering
criminal what comes naturally to them.” (18)
What’s at Stake:
“Never before in the history of human culture
has the production of
culture been as professionalized
” (29).
What’s at Stake:
Remix is “a critical expression
of creative freedom that in a
broad range of contexts, no free
society should restrict” (56).
Working Class Hero Exhibit
Candice Breitz:“the idea is to shift
the focus away from those people who are usually perceived as creators so as to give
some space, some room, to those who
absorb cultural products. . .” (6)
Girl Talk“We’re living in this remix
culture. . .” (14)
“From a financial perspective, this is how the music industry can
thrive in the future. . .this interactivity with the
albums. Treat it more like a game and less like a
product”(14-15).
Sousa Goes to Washington
“Today you hear these infernal machines going night and day. We will not have a vocal cord
left” (24-25).
“These ‘machines’, Sousa feared, would lead us away from what elsewhere he praised as ‘amateur’ culture. We would become just consumers of culture, not only producers. . .his fear was that culture would become less democratic. . .” (25).
Sousa Goes to Washington
“[Sousa’s] fear was that people would be less
connected to, and hence practiced in, creating [a
music] culture. Amateurism…was a
virtue—not because it produced great music,
but because it produced a musical culture. . .
(27)”
RW vs RO Culture
RW
“ordinary citizens ‘read’ their culture by listening to it or by reading representations of it”
RO
RW vs RO Culture
RW
“ordinary citizens ‘read’ their culture by listening to it or by reading representations of it”
+
RO
RW vs RO Culture
RW
“ordinary citizens ‘read’ their culture by listening to it or by reading representations of it”
+
“they add to the culture they read by creating and re-creating the culture around them”(28)
RO
RW vs RO Culture
RW
“ordinary citizens ‘read’ their culture by listening to it or by reading representations of it”
+
“they add to the culture they read by creating and re-creating the culture around them”(28)
RO
“. . .a culture less practiced in performance, or amateur creativity, and more comfortable (think: couch) with simple consumption” (28)
Reviving Sousarian
Sensibilities:
1) The importance of ‘amateur’ creativity
2) The importance of limits in the reach of copyright’s regulation, leaving free from regulation this amateur creativity (33)
The “hybrid”
“For there need be no simple trade-off between the past and the future. Instead, all
evidence promises an extraordinary synthesis of
the past and the present to create a phenomenally prosperous future. This
future need not be either less RO or more RW: it could
be both” (34).
RW Culture as Ecology/Economy
“Usenet” – conversation site into a spam “ghetto”
Three-layered system:
1) Writing
RW Culture as Ecology/Economy
“Usenet” – conversation site into a spam “ghetto”
Blogs – the “writeable web” + the ability to write back
Three-layered system:
1) Writing
RW Culture as Ecology/Economy
Three-layered system:
1) Writing
2) Tags and Ranking Systems
RW Culture as Ecology/Economy
Add meaning to content Three-layered system:
1) Writing
2) Tags and Ranking Systems
RW Culture as Ecology/Economy
Add meaning to content
Enable collaboration
Three-layered system:
1) Writing
2) Tags and Ranking Systems
RW Culture as Ecology/Economy
Three-layered system:
1) Writing
2) Tags and Ranking Systems
3) Tools to Measure the Significance of the Conversation
RW Culture as Ecology/Economy
Three-layered system:
1) Writing
2) Tags and Ranking Systems
3) Tools to Measure the Significance of the Conversation
(Oops. Also: Advertising.)
Is this Remix?
RiP!: A Remix Manifesto
A Remixer’s Manifesto:
1. Culture always builds on the past.
RiP!: A Remix Manifesto
A Remixer’s Manifesto:
1. Culture always builds on the past.
2. The past always tries to control the future.
RiP!: A Remix Manifesto
A Remixer’s Manifesto:
1. Culture always builds on the past.
2. The past always tries to control the future.
3. Our future is becoming less free.
RiP!: A Remix Manifesto
A Remixer’s Manifesto:
1. Culture always builds on the past.
2. The past always tries to control the future.
3. Our future is becoming less free.
4. To build free societies you must limit the control of the past.