This assignment serves as a prelude of sorts to the A/V Project. While that project will ask you to produce a podcast or video with a clear purpose, your work on the Remix assignment can be more experimental and open-ended. Here, you might have a clear sense of purpose, something specific you want to achieve or communicate through your work, but you are also welcome to test some things out and see where it takes you. Either way, we are aiming to engage with the concepts and perspectives from our recent class readings:
- Remix. Ridolfo and DeVoss focus our attention on the act of remixing as an important part of digital writing (and writing and thinking in general). In your project, be mindful of what materials you draw on and what you do with them. How does your choice of materials shape the meaning or effect of your project? How are you remixing and reworking your materials to say something new with them, to find new possibilities for expression?
- Velocity. Ridolfo and DeVoss offer the concept of rhetorical velocity to help us think about the speed at which texts are taken up and transformed. Digital technologies and social media allow for the quick spread and transformation of texts and ideas. Ridolfo and DeVoss see value in the ability to produce texts that have a sense of velocity, that lend themselves to spread and transformation. Roberts, on the other hand, encourages us to practice patience, slowing down in our engagement with texts to better appreciate and understand them. For your remix, consider how this notion of velocity shapes what you produce. How do you want your audience to engage with your project? Does your work lend itself to quick distribution and consumption or more patient consideration? What choices can you make when designing and developing your project to shape this sense of speed?
- Self and Culture. Ennenga’s thinking on self-portraits and selfies helps us consider the balance between our selves and the culture that informs our work in digital writing. When we compose with a/v materials, to what extent are we reproducing preexisting cultural forces and ideas? To what extent are we extracting ourselves from this cultural web and producing something grounded in our own vision and ideas?
- Representation and Reality. Bogost reminds us that pictures, videos, and audio recordings do not capture reality so much as create a new text. When we look at a picture, we are not just seeing an accurate representation of reality; we are looking at what the camera itself is capable of producing based on how it reads color and light. For your project, consider how the technologies you use shape what you produce.
Your work on the remix can go in a number of directions. Here are some of the main options. Regardless of which approach you take, you should post your work on your class website or submit it through our class folder on Dropbox. In your Remix post on your website, offer a brief overview of your approach to the assignment.
Audio Remix
One approach to this assignment would be to remix or otherwise manipulate audio files by splicing them together or juxtaposing short clips for some sort of effect. You can do this using programs like GarageBand, Audacity, WavePad, MixPad, Mixxx, Serato, or Zulu. You would also be welcome to test out music making apps to produce your own digital music file.
If you are looking for audio files to incorporate, I would recommend checking out these sites for public domain or Creative Commons licensed materials: the Free Music Archive, Musopen, American Rhetoric, LOC Sound Recordings, and the Internet Archive. If there is audio you want to use on YouTube, you can download it.
Video Remix
Video remixing offers an opportunity to splice together or layer different video and audio files and images. Your work could go in a few different directions: you could remix multiple videos or images and audio files to create a mashup; you could play music or a speech or other sound source over a set of videos or images; you could take various video and audio sources and combine them in a unique way to create a story or collage. To do this, you might have video editing and production software on your computer (e.g., iMovie or Final Cut Pro), and you are welcome to use this. Otherwise, you will need to download software onto your computer or onto a Bonaventure computer. I would recommend VideoPad or Vimeo or other free software.
If you are looking for video files and images to incorporate, I would recommend checking out these sites for public domain or Creative Commons licensed materials: the Public Domain Review, the Internet Archive, Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress, and Flickr. Keep in mind that sites like YouTube and Flickr allow you to search for Creative Commons licensed material. On YouTube, you can select a “Creative Commons” filter on your search. On Flickr, you can do this under the advanced search option. If there is video you want to use on YouTube, you can download it or get a screen capture using software like Debut.
Images
You are also welcome to remix or otherwise compose with images. Your work could go in a few different directions: you could produce your own images, either of yourself (toward a more radical selfie) or something else; you could create a set of memes by taking existing memes or new images and adding your own words to them using a site like imgflip; you could create a collage by combining a series of images and laying them out in a specific way using a platform like PicMonkey or Lightroom; you can create a comic strip using a platform like StoryboardThat or Pixton; you can produce a drawing using tools like Kleki, Sketchpad, or AutoDraw, or generative art using Acrylicode.
Matt King 