By Any Media Necessary: Mapping Youth and Participatory Politics

Remix

How can appropriating and remixing content from popular culture lead to new kinds of political consciousness? And, how do activists who use remix and appropriate existing media in their campaigns resolve issues around copyright?


We are seeing examples of the merging of the identities of fans and citizens across a range of political movements -- most spectacularly in our work through the Harry Potter Alliance and the Nerdfighters, but also in the use of remix for political expression via the Occupy Wall Street movement (like the Pepper Spray Cop memes), the protests against Gov. Walker in Wisconsin,  “Binders of Women” during the 2012 Presidential Campaign, and the use of the Guy Fawkes mask, most closely associated in the United States with V for Vendetta, by a range of activist groups, including Anonymous.

Remix promotes a mode of political speech that can be easy to understand, funny and powerful. It contrasts with the policy wonk language that often excludes youth from meaningful participation. Show how remix can change the meanings associated with pre-existing images. Use a series of memes as an example of remix practice. Copyright can be seen as “private censorship”  that silences a particular kind of expression. But creative activists need to understand the basic criteria of Fair Use and make informed choices as they quote and circulate pre-existing media. Learn how you can use it to defend appropriating existing media by making sure your remix work intends to be: transformative (How much of the original are you using?), critical (proving critical commentary), and non commercial (you are not making $).

Real World Example:
The First Day Fast music video is a parody of the popular radio hip hop song “Birthday Sex”. The Fast video is very effective in creatively maintain the melody and rhyme structure of the original song while completing changing the meaning. The playful nature of the video as well adds to the comical juxtaposition of the original song and it’s new lyrics. The song speaks to specific issues and struggles of fasting but delivers a humorous message of encouragement to those going through the process. It shifts the emphasis of pop music away from sex and romance towards addressing the everyday experience of a marginalized population. The amount of stylistic detail in both music and video reappropriate the projected values of the popular medium to the specificities of the Islamic experience. It must be noted that though most of the youtube responses were positive, there were a couple individuals who were offended by what they perceived was a conflation of sex with an Islamic holiday.

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