Last summer, when Mindy and Jonathan were planning the Remix Institute, they taped a whole bunch of episodes of So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol off the air. They talked about how the election commentary between Obama and McCain was reported on like a game or a contest and voila, the concept for Jonathan’s video remix was born. This is all Jonathan - editing and critical analysis. What a great remix it is! Here is the link to Jonathans website :http://www.rebelliouspixels.com/2008/so_you_think

The pressure is on as contestants present their positions on a range
of social and political issues then face the hard-hitting scrutiny of
our panel of judges. The audience at home will delight as candidates
are challenged in ways never seen before on television.

The mainstream media spectacle of American democracy reaches new
heights and this time with a twist. Contestants on our program are in
for a surprise: our panel of experts doesn’t exactly play by the
prescribed broadcast rules. Unlike the corporate news media of today,
which often coddles leading politicians, our judges grill each
candidate on their policies with hilarious and unexpected results.

In this week’s episode only two weeks before the general election,
Senator Obama and Senator McCain have their feet held to the fire over
shockingly similar positions on energy and foreign policy.

Who will be this season’s champion and take home the grand prize?
You’ll have to watch and decide that for yourself, then participate by
casting a vote* for your favorite performer on November 4th!

The Fair Use Remix Institute drew to a dramatic conclusion with the completion of five exciting video remixes by youth participants. Another two will be completed in the next week in time for the World Premiere to take place on July 25 at 6:00-7:00 at Columbia College’s Journalism Department. (33 East Congress) A food and drink reception begins at 5:30! Don’t miss this exciting event in which you will see some of our favorite remixes as well as our own and learn how remix represents a cultural communication right of youth.

Watch all our remixes now by clicking here.

Transformation by Keith (Imagine My Potential) Gordon

On Tuesday, we had a great discussion about two Remixes using sermons by Reverend Wright. We began by talking about the difference between a remix that uses the media to critique the media and one that celebrates it or pays positive tribute to it. We also discussed how many remixes out there can certainly claim fair use but they may in fact reinforce racism or sexism rather than challenge oppressive systems of power. We decided to watch three examples and then post comments about what we saw. In evaluating whether it is a political remix or not, we need to ask: 1) WHAT IS THE SOURCE MATERIAL; 2) WHAT IS THE MESSAGE; 3) IS THERE A CRITIQUE; 4) IS IT POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE.

All of the examples we watched can be seen in the Category on the FURI blog called REMIXES BY OTHERS.

The first example we looked at was Sunday, Bloody Sunday, an amazing video in which a speech by Pres. Bush is re-cut in order to form the words to the U2 song, Sunday Bloody Sunday. Many of us didn’t know the original U2 song and that it was calling for an end to Protestant vs. Catholic violence in Ireland.

Then we viewed two remixes using sermons from Reverand Wright. Jonathan asked how Rev Wright was portrayed in the mass media. We discussed how the speeches were taken out of context and distorted to make it seem as if he was a kind of radical lunatic. The first example actually uses one of Wright’s uncut sermons about America’s history of racism, oppression and imperialism cut with movie images from Terminator, still images and other source footage. The second video cuts sound bytes of Rev Wright to a Simpson’s episode in which Grandpa Simpson writhes around the ground in a crazy fit. Both of these videos have a very different approach to the speech. The former adds a visual element to intensify and demonstrate the message of the speech, whereas the latter actually takes pieces of the speech and ridicules the Reverand by placing him in a cartoon character culturally symbolized as crazy.

On Tuesday, we were very fortunate to have a communications and public speaking expert , Anita Sarkeesian, teach us the fundamentals of how to outline and deliver a speech. Anita stressed the importance of creating an outline to help guide us in this process. She also emphasized techniques to engage the audience by making eye contact and relating the material to the listeners lives. Today, we will be practicing some of these techniques and skills when FURI participants lead a critical evaluation of their rough cut remix!

Check out Anita’s Guidelines and Evaluation Rubric under the category Resources.

Monday was Collective Intelligence Day where we shared talents, skills and knowledge. At Open Youth Networks we believe that we can create a smarter learning environment, better remixes, and a more
equitable social space when many voices come together as one in collective dialogue and purpose.

Prisca started us out by showing us her wordpress site she is developing to help inform other youth about global issues. She also gave tips on how to get teens involved in social causes. Xavi played some amazing radio diaries produced by youth and talked about the power of youth radio. Xavi is a radio host of First Voices at Radio Arte in Pilsen. Then Keith talked about 9/11 and showed a video about conspiracy theories that the Republican administration was behind the attacks.

Aaisha and Ameenah dazzled us with their spoken word/a cappala performances and then taught us how to free write about why “cupcakes are the best.” You see, Jonathan has shared his passion for cupcakes with us and now cupcakes are like the FURI mascot!

Silvia has been blazing along at lightening speed on her remix on gangs and presented an edit that is well along after only learning how to use final cut that morning. Wow! Zane finished up with a screening of the Cloud Factory and OurMap of Environmental Justice. He talked about how social activism clubs at his own high school are much less effective than the work of community based youth organizing groups such as Little Village Environmental Justice Organization. Check out Daily Reflections to learn more about what FURI youth participants think about our collective intelligence.

• Did the unlicensed use ‘transform’ the material taken from the copyrighted work by using it for a different purpose than that of the original or did it just repeat the work for the same intent and value as the original?
• Was the material taken appropriate in kind and amount, considering the nature of the copyrighted work and of the use?

These are the questions that drive our remix work and they are taken directly from THE CODE OF BEST PRACTICES IN FAIR USE FOR ONLINE VIDEO. Published by the Center for Social Media at American University, this important document explains how and when remix is considered FAIR USE - the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances. The Code of Best Practices was drawn up by a distinguished panel of experts including Pat Aufderheide who has been skyping and advising us in the process.

Look for our posted remixes soon with explanations about how they apply to Fair Use!

After the workshop yesterday, Jonathan and I were talking on the way home about how much everyone’s ideas had evolved so much from their original remix concepts. We both noticed that the more the FURI youth worked intensely with source material and images, the more complex and critical their thinking was becoming. At first the tendency was to take on a song that had personal meaning and connection with the intent of illustrating that song in a literal way. Now everyone is pushing past those limits into deeper territory.

By the end of yesterday, the process of “thinking in remix” was resulting in a much more transformative approach to the material. Aaisha and Ameenah now are taking Michael Jackson’s song Beat It and altering its original intent to target police brutality. ElDevon is juxtaposing Diamonds on My Chain by Fabulous with images of violence resulting from diamond harvesting in Africa. The sheer act of doing political remix necessitates a more critical and analytical thought process. By transforming media to create new meanings, you have to really examine what the source material (the songs, the ads, the tv shows, the speeches) are communicating. And I think everyone of us is seeing what a huge responsibility (ethically, morally and legally) that really is.

Here is Silvia hard at work. She is adding layers of sound effects onto an instrumental soundtrack and then intersplicing short clips of documentary interviews about gangs to tell a more complicated story about gangs and their impact in her community.

Yesterday, Jonathan taught how to use a variety of open source and some not so open source tools for converting and capturing media off the internets, such as Media Converter, Zamzar and, everyone’s favorite, Audio Hijack. Jonathan also taught us how to understand Creative commons licenses and how to do attribution. We learned how to find high res images on Google, Wikipedia Commons and Flickr (through the Creative Commons.)

Learning all of these amazing apps and how to use them was unbelievably empowering and inspiring. We can wait to begin assembling our images into Final Cut today!

However, yesterday was also a sad day for us because our friend, (Deviant) Dan Marano had to high tail it back to Ann Arbor for knee rehab. We are so going to miss him.

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