Remix
Lessig explains “Remix cultures” in his essay “Comparing Cultures. Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy”. He suggests some interesting points about cultures, RO and RX and his views about remixing original contents. RO culture is professionalism and RX culture is professionalism and amateurs. Both cultures are valuable to create new cultures. People keep the good messages taught by parents in mind and deliver them to their children. Lessig stated that “From the very beginning of human culture, we have taught our kids RW creativity. We have taught them, that is, how to build upon the culture around us by making reference to that culture or criticizing it”. Like he said, people make references and show other people to follow. If someone makes an art, it can be re-interpreted by someone who develops original contents. I think the process absolutely give an opportunity to develop the original contents and contexts. If the content is an art, other people can add more creative ideas on it. Unless the remix version is not commercially used, it would be fine for everyone to criticize and create new ones based on the original contents. Everyone might have different opinions as they have different values. However, our society taught us to criticize and make a question on every aspects of life. New amateurs start creativity works by analyzing existing works. I think the development of technology limits one’s creativity. If copyrights law is strictly conducted, amateurs no longer show their creativity and had difficult to get evaluation on their works. Therefore, the remixing would be quite a normal phenomenon.
3 Responses to 'Remix'
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on August 8th, 2014 at 4:24 pm
I want to say that “Remix Cultures” in art is a trickier concept. Many people may not have an idea about it before reading this article. As you have concluded: RO culture is professionalism and RX culture is professionalism and amateurs. These cultures are resources and parts of many kind of new cultures. We can use this to understand the remix culture in art. I could not agree with you more when you said that “the process absolutely give an opportunity to develop the original contents and contexts”. The process of wealth creation of one culture is fundamentally remixing. Similarly,when someone create an art, for example, a water color painting, another artist see it and deeply impressed by it, he/she may doing oil painting, he could recreate another oil painting which actually based no the feeling of the old one. There are many current examples that tells this trend in Japan. Such as the combination of Ukiyoe and anime.
on August 10th, 2014 at 4:48 pm
Thanks for your comment. I believe that remix cultures would be existed in the past period but it could not be an issue because technologies are not developed. Currently, well-developed technologies offer a chance to look up similar art works. Like you said, remixing arts are prevalent in these days. Artists create new works based on previous works. Using different materials, re-creating works would give different impacts on audiences. Unless the recreated arts are commercially sold, remix cultures would enhance people to have a strong creativity because, in music industry, the copyright law is very strict and it does not make sense to re create based on previous beats.
on August 10th, 2014 at 5:00 pm
Hi，dongjoon:
I’m very impressed by the online remix work. Those creative people can remix the sound and use the shear technique to create something new. That’s brilliant. You said, “I think the development of technology limits one’s creativity.” I don’t agree with it. I consider that technology can help people to create a new thing, like the remix culture. Remix is an innovation. Lessig claim, “(new technology) These tools of creativity have become tools of speech. It is literacy for this generation. This is how our kids speak. It is how our kids think. It is what your kids are, as they increasingly understand digital technologies and their relationship to themselves.” The new generation was influenced by technology a lot. They use the technology convey their idea and cultures. Also, I think the copyrights law should be changed along with the technology. In some extent, copyrights law would restrict the cyber citizen’s creativity.