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.