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Star Wars & John Williams A Capella Style!
Wow: you simply must watch the uber-cool "Star Wars" – an a capella tribute to John Williams …
I love every single one of these scores! Check out the lyrics here (“Kiss you brother …” :P).
Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in a Hybrid Economy
Lawrence Lessig’s latest, and reportedly last, Creative Commons related book, Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in a Hybrid Economy, has been released and it looks very impressive! Here’s the blurb :
For more than a decade, we’ve been waging a war on our kids in the name of the 20th Century’s model of “copyright law.” In this, the last of his books about copyright, Lawrence Lessig maps both a way back to the 19th century, and to the promise of the 21st. Our past teaches us about the value in “remix.” We need to relearn the lesson. The present teaches us about the potential in a new “hybrid economy” — one where commercial entities leverage value from sharing economies. That future will benefit both commerce and community. If the lawyers could get out of the way, it could be a future we could celebrate.
As the founder and leading light of the Creative Commons movement, Lessig is ideally situate to comment on these matters. Indeed, as I wait for my copy to arrive in the mail, my only disappointment is that the book didn’t come out a few months earlier – my honours students are currently completing their own remix projects and this would have been the perfect companion text (you can see the chapter breakdown to get an idea of the content). As with all of Lessig’s books, a freely redistributable version will be released shortly, this time under the Bloomsbury Academic imprint, a new line of academic books which will release all of their titles under CC or similar licenses allowing free redistribution (if you’re interested, you can read an interview with Bloomsbury Academic’s publisher Frances Pinter about this new line).
As well as the book, you’ll definitely want to watch out for Brett Gaylor’s new documentary RiP: A Remix Manifesto which takes a look a remix culture via interviews with the usual suspects (Lessig, Doctorow), but with mashup and remix artist Girl Talk as the focal story. Here’s the trailer:
Barackbar
He knows when it’s a trap!
Guess who I’d vote for if I lived in the US? 😉 [Via]
Remarkable Remixes
The winners of Total Recut’s ‘What is Remix Challenge 2008’ competition are in, with many outstanding examples each showing strengths technical, political or just plain entertaining. For me, though, those that most directly engaged with the politics and practice of remix were the most inspirational; from the top ten, my favourite three were …
In second place in the competition, right on the boundary between the still and moving image, is “Composition” by Jata Haan:
Two things stood out for me with this video: firstly, that all the images, and music, Haan used were licensed under Creative Commons (more that 100 images); and secondly, that, quite literally, this remix showed that digital tools and creativity can bring previously static material to life! Also, as odd as it is, I quite like the Sydney Opera House.
A lot shorter, and in fifth place in the competition, is “Remix Culture” by Sylvia Koopman:
Koopman’s remix is short, pithy and directly to the point. It also highlights the joys and perils of fair use, when the the ratio of remix to credits is about 3:1! It’s worth noting that Koopman is still in high school and posts a lot her other remix work on YouTube. I think she must be one of those digital natives we keep hearing about! 😉
The last clip I want to mention is Ricardo Carrion’s ‘Remix Culture II’:
Carrion’s piece is probably the most useful in really “explaining” remix culture and certainly has some fun with older science footage and science fiction. As with many in the competition, though, I would have preferred more detailed credits on Coopman’s work. One of the missed opportunities with these remixes was the chance to have ready-to-click credits so that others could easily take a look at the source material and take a whirl at creatively remixing it themselves. I should add that DJ Le Clown’s ‘Xmas in New York City’ which won overall was certainly showed a lot of talent and is technically impressive; it’s just not in my favourites because the actual content remixed is largely unexciting to me (no, not a Sinatra fan, I’m afraid)! If you’re inspired to make your own remixes, take a look at the resources that Total Cut highlighted for entrants to this competition. Everything you need to get inspired, and started, is either above or right there! 🙂
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