second remix readings

Pla(y)garism and detournement was a quick and easy to follow read. The process of mixolgy and a general background of the art of creation was shared in the readings. It helped me better understand the idea and the differences between plagiarism and playgiraism. In a nutshell, playgarism can be described as the act of playfully reusing found source material and altering its message.The creation of the remix and the steps that can be taken to make your own remix are also presented, It demonstrated examples that taught the idea of changing the words of a text to create a poem. After reading the first article i believe that I have done some forms of remixing without a doubt . Using images that I find on the internet, whether it be for things such as powerpoints, school projects, video projects, writing papers all serve as primary examples of remixology in a sense. Every word we use and speak could be considered plagarised. Its all been said, and its all been done, It is up to us to accept the challenge and manipulate any and everything to put our own stamp on things we create. In Detournement, they focus on remixing mass media messages that have a target audience to changing the whole meaning of the work. Thru the process of sampling and mashing one can manipulate the source material and achieve something truly unique. Culture Jamming is another form that is brought up and that involves hacking frequencies and broadcasting whatever you feel is neccesary. Everything can be altered, why not put your own spin on things and be heard for once!

Final Remix Project

I am looking forward to starting my final remix project. This will be an opportunity to take a more in depth look and spend some more time getting comfortable with video editing software. The more I get to use and experience the software the better understanding I gain from it. My project is going to consist of a classic children's television show that first aired in 1968 and continued for a very long time. Children who grew up watching Mr. Rogers neighborhood were at a young age and very impressionable. That is why Mr.Rogers was the man for the job, with his simple songs and ultra positive outlook on life he showed children the pathway thru happiness and taught them important life lessons. This is the reason why I am choosing to manipulate his videos. I plan on remixing clips (both audio/video) and cutting them so that it correlates with a television show that is on the complete opposite end of the spectrum: Gangland. Gangland is a show that discuss' criminals and the groups that make up gangs and all the extremely bad things that they do. There are a lot of interviews of drug lords, murders, gang leaders, etc on the show and I can definatley incorporate them in my project. I have found many clips online of both Mr. Rogers and gangland that will work out being great source material. I also plan on incorporating a few other clips from news reports and other videos that I come across that would fit in with the topic. The challenging part of this project will come down to timing of the cut scenes. It can be tedious to trim source footage exactly to the point where you need and then place it in the timeframe so that it will playback properly. Also, being organized will prove itself to being probably the most important aspect of this project. Especially if I have a ton of different clips all pulled from different websites/sources. Grouping and categorizing the footage you plan on using would be a smart time saving idea that will allow an ease of navigation of clips to be used in the project.I will primarily be working on
this project at school in the labs because I do not like using Windows movie maker, Therefore i will be using Imovie/after effects/ premier or a combination of them. I am excited to bring what I see in my head to life and to share these mashups with everyone in the class will be an entertaing experience!

Cut-Up Method Readings

The idea of chopping up text/images/sound/film has always seemed like an interesting topic to explore more in depth. In a sense, we incorporate remixing and chopping in our everyday lives, even when we are deciding what clothes we want to wear! Piecing different options together with something that is from somewhere else. In "The Cut Up Method" he explains the process of splitting a page of text into quarters. Then cutting them and re-arranging the blocks to read differently. Go more in depth and ever rearrange each word, or sentence, or any way your little heart desires! The beauty is that you can create something that was not really intended to be created!"Cutting and rearranging a page of written words introduces a new dimension into writing enabling the writer to turn images in cinematic variation." (Burrough 91) This process allows a unique and completely out of the ordinary method of writing and how things can read/perceive. The wikipedia link summed up the cut up method in a fairly short manner. I do not think it necessarily needs a long description because the beauty and product that comes from it is all found within the process of combination. Rules do not exist when you are experimenting with the arrangement of text and the possibilities are endless. I am looking forward to starting this next project and seeing what direction we all take off in! The end results will all be something truly unique to the individual and I think this project will serve as an opportunity to showcase how differently our minds can work.

HyperText Websites

Overall the idea of hypertext and the html process started off somewhat rough for me. I was never a fan of html very much but this project (and the other project in DIM) is slowly but surely teaching me a thing or to the more I tinker around. My page's content was strong but my DIV positioning and formatting of text could of been much more organized and presentable. A lot of my problem involves stylesheets and positioning divs and boxes through coding. I understand the concept and it makes perfect sense just that when I actually go and try the coding myself I find the order in which to add the code confusing at times. Well, a lot of the times. I am very proud of my banners and content and have the general framework and pages all linked together well. Once the site was a little more set up with divs and the text formatted it would be complete! Of course I would like to add more images as well because "a picture is worth a thousand words." ha!
I really enjoyed seeing what my fellow classmates came up with as well. All the pages had a simplicity to them and seemed to look clean and organized. Some minor adjustments could have been made to the formatting of the text and the text box/divs to make it easier to read. Sometimes having images as backgrounds can make the plain text very challenging to decipher. I beleive my favorite website out of everyones would have to be the electronic mobile banking site that talked about the potential of eliminating paper currency and making it all electronic and linked to mobile devices. This is a concept that I too have also thought about and it is a concept that could potentially happen one day in the not so distant future. There are already banking apps that allow transfers and deposits and bill paying. Now the simple modifications can be put into place to bring that concept to reality! The future is unwritten!

Processing Stills

As We May Think

As we may think was quite the reading. It talked about an early conceptual idea of a platform that can hold and transmit data and information instantly. He called this system "Memex" and it is a great understanding/beginning of the concept of a personal computer involving hypertext. The importance of tying/linking two separate things together is an awesome concept to think about. The possibilities would be endless. In the beginning of the reading it all seemed rather confusing to follow exactly the direction the reading would take. Focusing on the future and the ideas and technological advancement that come with time. The idea of computers and the internet has probably been around for a lot longer then people would think, and we are just now stepping into the shallow end of this technological ocean. He focused a lot of attention on how computer systems could operate and how the user interaction could be used to benefit people.The primary focus was to have the computer respond and be programmed to do exactly what the the operator wanted. instead of the person learning to operate the computers way. The goal was to have the computer operate like the human mind would operate through association. His ideas gave us an opportunity to organize endless amounts of information and be able to present it in a matter that is easily comprehended and navigated through, therefor allowing a gain of intellect for the user.

Typography Critique

After Effects has been my favorite part of the semester thus far. I have never used it and was excited to start dabbling! I believe the class's projects turned out very well overall. Some simpler modifications of timing could and should be adjusted but I really enjoyed watching all the projects. It was cool to see each persons style come thru in their work. I think a couple of them were very awesome and turned out looking quite professional and I could tell that they spent a lot of time on their work. It was a pain to line up the words with the audio and I understand the challenge and it was a good opportunity to see and learn how my fellow class mates went thru the process. I look forward to using After Effects in the near future in making subtitles for short films and also for more kinetic typography projects.
Here is a video of my final typography piece!

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