Bolter and Grusin’s book is their attempt to explain the workings of digital technology through their theory of mediation. They claim “what is new about new media comes from the particular ways in which they refashion older media and the ways in which older media refashion themselves to answer the challenges of new media” (15). The first several chapters set up their theory by situating it within the theorists that came before them and by doing this they also set up a quick history of remediation.
For this post, you are going to explore what remediation means—to you, to this class, and to the world of popular culture. Start by defining the key terms (feel free to use Bolter and Grusin’s own definitions) before examining why remediation might be important to technology, digitality, and literacy practices. How does remediation influence these concepts? How does remediation change the way we might view popular culture? Why might remediation be an important idea in terms of helping us understanding composing? Continue in your explorations of remediation by thinking about the concept as it might apply to this class or how it might apply to you as a composer/compositionist.
In the second part of this post you are going to investigate an example of remediation that you find in pop culture today. Explain what the example is, where it comes from and then show how the example has been remediated. Be specific—in both your example and in your explanation of how and why it is an example of remediation.
***I am not going to give you an example to work with…I want to see what you can find on your own.
***Once someone uses an example--it's gone, so you can't reuse examples.
Normal guidelines (500 words, dialogue with peers, etc)
From what I can gather from the reading and through my own perspective, remediation is the constant altercation of media such as television, photography, text and movies. The process of remediation includes taking past uses of media and changing them to make improvements. Because media is constantly shifting, it is important for professionals within the context of this class to be aware of how ideas are being represented to the public. Technology plays a big role in the altercations because the more it advances the more media is going to change. Bolter and Grusin states, “remediation always operates under the current cultural assumptions about immediacy and hypermediacy”. Immediacy is important because it aims to erase the barrier between the viewer and what is being viewed. Immediacy seems to be dependant on technology, an example being the wire that is mentioned in the reading. By changing the rules of immediacy, the act of remediation takes place.
ReplyDeleteHypermediacy also affects remediation because it strives to make the viewer aware of that he/she is seeing so that what is being viewed can be manipulated. We use hypermediacy everyday when using computers and video games. Through remediation, it has advanced in technology such as touch screen computers. Users of touch screen computers are able to manipulate what is being done more freely than by using a keyboard and mouse.
Due to the constant change in how information reaches an audience, writers and producers of media need to be aware of how to get their work acknowledged by the public. These days, information seems to spread faster on the Internet and television than by newspapers or word of mouth. The Internet is constantly changing layouts and special effects, which could impact any text and information being relayed to the viewer.
An example of remediation would be digital cameras. They have evolved so much since people began to use them. Throughout the years, the focus on cameras has become more enhanced with special features to change and edit pictures. Digital cameras today have a video recording feature, which takes over the role of camcorders. Cameras have gone from using film to storing memory on a chip that can be easily connected to a computer and uploaded. No more waiting for pictures to be developed over a 4-day period. There are also different levels of digital cameras within the world of photography. The difference between a $1,500 camera and a $20 is extreme. The amount of modification and special effects you can do on the $1,500 is endless where as the $20 one only has 5 features to work with. I’m sure within the next 5 years cameras will change even more to fulfill the needs of professional photographers.
The major thing I learned about through this article was about how we want immediacy. Beginning in the Renaissance, artists painted pictures to capture a moment. Then the invention of a camera allowed us to capture a moment with a single click of a button. Today, we have computers that can generate digital images and even do live video. Bolter and Grusin say that, “ all of them seek to put the viewer in the same space as the object viewed”. To me, that is what remediation is all about. “Remediation always operates under the current cultural assumptions about immediacy and hypermediacy”. Remediation causes effects in technology and other processes because it is always changing and trying to improve. It could be a new form of technology forming or an old form trying to improve to keep up with the times. So, you may wonder, what does this have to do with composition? Well, like Michele said, because there is constant change on how information reaches the audience, it is important for composers to know how to get that info out there. In today’s time, most everything is shared through the Internet. As soon as an event occurs, it is videotaped or written about almost immediately. It can be shared through a blog, news website or even on YouTube. People love knowing about things as soon as they happen, so it is vital that what you are composing should be up to date and correct. Remediation also plays a huge part in pop culture and the way we view it. Sixty or so years ago, we had black and white animation that was all hand drawn. Fast forward many years later and we have digitally generated cartoons that are done by the computer. We as an audience expect to see bright colors and clear objects, not black and white grainy cartoons. The whole idea of remediation is not to get rid of a past medium, but rather to make improvements to it
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that comes to my mind when I think of remediation in pop culture today is the movie Avatar. This is a great example of how the way we create movies has changed. These directors took actors and put sensors all over their face and body as they acted in from of a green screen. Then they scanned them the movements through the computer and made these people look like big blue creatures on there own island. Years ago, we probably would have just painted the actors blue, but with the advancement of technology, were able to transform actual footage and put a digital spin on it. .
After reading the introduction and chapter one, I gathered that remediation is pretty much the process of replacing the media or changing it. Such as: images, movies, text, and television. Bolter and Grusin say that,” remediation always operates under the current cultural assumptions about immediacy and hypermediacy.” Immediacy is our name for a family of beliefs and practices that express themselves differently at various times among various groups. Hypermediacy is pretty much what we see and play with. Such as, the World Wide Web pages, desktop, multimedia programs and video games. It is all around us even when we are not aware of it. For us EWM majors it is important because we will have a job one day where we will be tested to remediate online and we will also have to be aware that our major is constantly changing. We think that our media and technology are as advanced as its going to get but in ten years from now it is going to be a whole different world. Ten years from now there will be new ways to compose on new computers and new ways to access the internet. I skype my boyfriend every night and I feel like this is a great example of remediation. A couple of years ago I would have not had this opportunity to see him on a computer screen from 1000 miles away. I agree with what Michelle said, there is always going to be constant change in information and how the audience receives it whether it is sent to us through the computer, a newsletter or a television. Caroline also said, “In today’s time, most everything is shared through the Internet. As soon as an event occurs, it is videotaped or written about almost immediately. It can be shared through a blog, news website or even on YouTube.” A great example of this would be the Royal Wedding. You could find out anything you wanted to know and see any pictures you wanted to see about Katherine and William. The news channels were swarming around this event to get the most accurate news to broadcast all over the world. When I think of pop culture and remediation I think about facebook and myspace. In high school we used myspace. Now, in college we are all over facebook and blogging. Facebook got a lot more accounts because it had a lot more updates and easier access to communicate. You can also play games on your facebook. I had a myspace in high school and got rid of it because it was the same old same old for several years. I got a facebook my freshmen year in college and I’m addicted. I’m addicted to the constant changes that facebook makes to it. It keeps me on the edge and wanting more.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first heard the term Remediation, what came to mind was the idea of reproducing something using an alternate form of media. Because this class deals with so many different types of print and online work, it seems appropriate that we study remediation. Remediation seems to be very important to writers, especially those in an EWM type field, because we focus on all types of print. Pop culture is also very important to the media aspect of the EWM major. Pop culture has done a lot with remediation recently. For example, many movies and even TV shows are now offered in 3D. Many companies are even releasing 3D TV’s for homes. TV has obviously evolved a great deal from its early stages, but even in recent years you could only view 3D in a theater setting like IMAX. Viewers that purchase this 3D option or go to see these movies are now were to see the action take place on screen, in a totally different way than they may have when viewing the program normally. Remediation seems to be very important to technology because of its hypermedia aspect. Bolter and Grusin talk about the Web and its many hyperlinks and texts. The World Wide Web and all of its sites are great examples of this part of remediation. With the introduction of the Internet we were able to explore things and research them in a whole new way. Soon the web expanded and became what it is today. With all of the new developments we are now able to do more than ever. Because of technology, we are constantly bombarded with so many things at once. This is where mediation needs to come in, so that these things don’t interfere with each other. To me, Remediation seems to be a way to handle the many different forms of media and the signals that they are sending, which we can relate to our writing. Remediation makes our writing more meaningful by breaking down the barrier between the writer and the writing, or “the viewer and what is being viewed” (like Michelle said). Immediacy allows us to delve deeper into the media and its message. It serves as a “contact point between the media and what it represents,” according to Bolter and Grusin. Basically it allows you to establish some sort of relationship with the message. The transparency aspect is also important for composers to be familiar with because it calls for the erasure of the human aspect and leaves just the media and the message with nothing in between. This may be a little more difficult to master as a composer because writing as opposed to other forms of media has a voice.
ReplyDeleteAs it was said from Bolter and Grusin in their book, Remediation, “what is new about new media comes from the particular ways in which they refashion older media and the ways in which older media refashion themselves to answer the challenges of new media. Defined by these two authors remediation is the term in which using it to mean the formal logic by which new media refashion prior media forms. Along with immediacy and hypermedia, remediation is one of the three traits our genealogy of new media. “ In my opinion, it was very difficult for me to understand Bolter and Gruzin’s theoretical thoughts on remediation. In order for me to fully understand remediation, I would have to use examples such as, technology and digitalism. A great example of new age remediation is the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web also remediates older forms without challenging them. Bolter and Grusin go into detail that the World Wide Web has a “’point-and-click’ crossing point allows the developer to reorganized texts and images taken from books, magazines, film, or television, but the reorganization does not call into question the character of a text or status of an image.” Remediation influences these concepts through evolution of technology. As soon as Bolter and Grusin mentioned that there have been no new inventions in the 21st century, I could not help but nod my head and agree. All we have done been doing is evolving our technology. From HD television to 3D TV and from CDs to MP3s and iPods we have not created something from scratch and no history. However, that very example is useful when it comes to composing. A great way to visually see this example is to think how literature and composing has evolved since Shakespeare. Remediation is how something changes over time. At this point, in order for our world of technology to fully “evolve” we need to invent something that no one has ever seen before. I agree with what Michelle said, there is always going to be constant change in information and how the audience receives it whether it is sent to us through the computer, a newsletter or a television. Saying that, I hope that sooner rather than later we come up with new inventions just so we can move forward in technology.
ReplyDeleteRemediation is the “representation of one medium in another.” For example paintings can be background in another painting, texts included on top of photos or books repurposed into film. It is the act of “repurposing”, taking a property from one medium and reusing it in another that defines remediation. The term “immediacy” really resonates with me as a constant theme in the sections we read, as well as being a strong component in what “remediation” is. Immediacy in technology is “living” an experience or having the need to manipulate say a computer screen (how you want it to look when you need it) met instantly. Giving first person point of view to users is the newest form of remediation but all artists seek to “achieve immediacy by ignoring or denying the presence of the medium and the act of mediation” all together. The artists seeks to make his or her alterations “transparent,” that is having the object and background blend together as if they always were that way.
ReplyDeleteThe new obsession in remediation is “hypermedia.” Images, sound, text, animation and video can all be brought together in any combination with no beginning, middle or end visible. Bolter and Grusin use Windows as great example of this. Windows allows a user to tailor his or her computer screen to fit the current needs of the user. The window screen can overlap or tile to allow multiple screens to be visible or hidden at the same time. It allows the user to be in control and interact with technology. Another popular example used by Bolter and Grusin is video games, especially one’s that have come out in the last 10 years. Games like Call of Duty allow the player to feel as if they are actually in the game. The graphics are extremely believable, so much so that the purpose is to make the viewer forget that that they are in the real world. It is the option of being able to touch or drag and manipulate technology that has us craving the immediacy of current technological remediation.
But remediation is also access to older or foreign materials. This is especially true when it comes to books. Bolter and Grusin use the example of Jane Austen novels being turned into featured films in chapter 1. The films take the original storyline and imagery, what readers pictured, and repurposes it for a cinema screen without “disrupting the continuity” of the novel. By doing so, a whole new generation is exposed to the immaculate writing and stories of Jane Austen. While media is being remediation, it still remains “dependent on the older one in acknowledged or unacknowledged ways.” For remediation to be, it needs something to grow on. Music today is depending a lot of remediating past music. Hip-Hop/Rap songs feature snippets of other songs as part of their own and classic films are being tailored to appeal to current generations. Films need written stories just as video games need real life experiences to loosely be based upon. Today’s culture is all about remediation; we take something old, polish and build upon it till it is appealing to current generations.
While reading I thought about things I use in my life that have been remediated and kept coming back to the Maps application on my iPhone. Paper maps have been used as a navigation tool for centuries. But today we have maps on our phones that can tell us immediately how to get from point A to point B in a list form, map form or satellite map option. I did not realize how much I depend on my iPhone Map Application until I was in France this summer and had to use a tangible map to navigate the French countryside. Needless to say I got lost, a lot and frequently. It is my opinion that maps have been remediated into a technological form to make life a little easier when it comes to navigating and also supply the feeling of instant gratification in solving a problem.
“History repeats itself”, is a quote that helps to explain remediation in my eyes. There is a small change with remediation here because there is a constant shift or alteration that takes place with the media at hand. Remediation can be described as the constant changing and reforming of media forms to fit the times that it is in. remediation is able to effect technology by causing for the rapid development of it. The faster things change, the faster new technology must be put out to keep up with this. An example of this could be how fast apple keeps coming out with new computers, phones and other devices such as the ipad. Digitally, remediation can be seen as following the same path as technology. The digital world will keep advancing to keep up with the changing times. Literacy can be one of the things that benefits tremendously from remediation. The way people are able to obtain information is so fast and advanced that children are on the computer by the age of three learning how to read and write through technology. With the idea of pop culture, remediation has a large stake in how we view it. We culture is written by the people who are living it. If people change how they live every time new technology comes out then culture is constantly changing, an example of remediation at its finest. An example of remediation for me would be super heroes. The medium in which we enjoy them may have changed and advanced but the underlying concept of super heroes is still the same. First we were reading about them in comic books for years. Then television series were created to continue to live out the lives of the caped heroes we wanted to save us. Now in our society, the film industry has taken a liking to the thrill that super heroes have always created in culture and put them on the big screen for everyone to enjoy. Like Caroline said, immediacy is a huge factor as to why remediation happens. We always want the next thing and we want it fast. So the way we receive information, view entertainment or conduct business but also change and become faster and “better”. I think that Julia’s definition of remediation is perfect for my super heroes’ example of remediation. We have changed the way we obtain entertainment from the super heroes to fit how we have changed the way we obtain entertainment in general. From print to television to the big screen, remediation is happening.
ReplyDeleteBolter and Grusin provide the following as definitions and/or examples of Remediation: (1) a “repurposing: to take a “property” from one medium and reuse it in another”; (2) when “one medium itself is incorporated or represented in another medium”; (3) “to refashion the older medium or media entirely, while still marking the presence of the older media… maintaining a sense of multiplicity or hypermedicacy; and (4) “to absorb the older medium entirely, so that the discontinuities between the two are minimized.” They also state that immediacy (a cultures desire to erase media such that we are experiencing it as we experience real life, in real-time) and hypermediacy (the “act of multiplying” media such that it is overtly present, or not erased) are invoked in the remediation of mediums. I came to understand remediation as playing a dual role of advancing technologies which tend to create new genres “within or among media”, while continuing to make the past relevant. There is a verse in the Bible that states, “there is nothing new under the sun” and this is exactly what Remediation means to me. In terms of life, our class and the world of pop culture, I will expound on the first definition of remediation listed above. In the class setting, we take stories, topics, ideas, even pictures expressed in books, articles or films and reproduce them in our writings or in presentations for assignments. In the world pop culture, public speeches (i.e., political campaigns) are remediated for television; popular court cases or the tragic events of a person’s life are taken from text or speech and reused via films or books; and in our personal lives, our very conversations have been remediated to text through the use of social networking sites and blogs.
ReplyDeleteRemediation is a key component for technological advances due to the logic of transparent immedicacy. As Shannon and Carolineee have stated, our culture demands access to instant information and the ability to experience it as if we were there. Transparent immediacy requires remediation of older medium by means of the creation of new medium, or extreme modification of the older medium, to satisfy this need. An example of this would be technological advances in disseminating news, which went from being provided via radio to television and ultimately through the internet. Remediation fosters an environment where literacy practices must be in place or learned in order to utilize new mediums. Our mini assignment, to produce a digital poster, provides an example of visual literacy which is needed in order to convey a message or story through the use of images, texts, links, audio or video produce an idea or story.
In terms of composition, remediation provides the composer a better forum or outlet for delivery or circulation of his/her intended message. A good example of how remediation acts to support the composer, is Kathleen Yancey’s essay “Let’s Have A Moment”. Yancey explicitly states that the text we read was a remediation of a speech she had given at a particular conference, that also incorporated powerpoint slides. In the remediated text, she basically said that she was able to expound more on her topic (or provide more information) in the essay, even though she had to cut down the number of slides to include in the text.
The rapid development of new digital media has an effect on older electronic and print media, and vice versa, which has led to remediation. --Remediation is when new media comes from refashioning older media, and the older media refashions itself to answer the challenges of new media. Remediation may borrow from painting, photography, television, and film. Some important factors for remediation are immediacy and hypermediacy.
ReplyDelete--Immediacy works such that a representation is perceived to be the actual thing itself.
--Hypermediacy is a "style of visual representation whose goal is to remind the viewer of the medium." The desire for immediacy in remediation causes digital media to borrow from each other as well as film, television, and photography. Virtual reality attempts immediacy by ignoring the medium all together and through act of mediation. It seeks to put the viewer in the space where the objects are viewed. Although immediacy and hypermediacy are mutually exclusive, they coexist in remediation because our culture wishes to multiply its media and erase all traces of mediation at the same time.
Remediation refashions media to stay up to date in a digital and technological age. It's important in terms of pop culture because it refashions the media to speak to the appropriate audience and can cross trends in pop culture media. In terms of composing, remediation is important for drawing inspiration from other sources and understanding media's cultural significance. Media such as painting, photography, film, and television can all be used in order to inspire literary composure or any other form of media. Remediation calls for media forms to draw from other forms, expanding the possibilities, and creating composition that is creative and fits the cultural audience.
Interest in Asian popular media has been growing in the U.S. with the interest in Japanese anime and Bollywood film. Remediation plays a role in cultural globalization and allows forms to detach from their original context. In Bollywood films brought to America, song and dance sequences are very over the top, which is something we'd change and take out. With these "foreign takes" on popular media, it is possible for new forms of composure emerge. In the U.S., the media makes changes to Bollywood films to fit their audience, while also taking bits and pieces of their media techniques, in order to create a new composure.
I agree with Julia that remediation is a technique to unify many aspects of media so that more people can connect with the media and literature. Remediation serves to break down the barrier between reader and writer, whether they are from the same world or from a different planet.
Reading Remediation leads me to the belief that although the drastic art movements of the Avant-Garde were conscious decisions made by artists, the artists were vessels of remediation. Each movement was expressed in a new media from the last because of the media’s constant progression. I’ve learned that the movements, in a light of immediacy (that which leads us either to erase or to render automatic the act of representation), were created by groups of artists who wanted to bring something new to the table. In that, I learned that in the light of hypermedia (that which multiplies the signs of mediation and tries to reproduce the rich sensorium of human experience), these movements like Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism, etc. are a spinning reel of political rebellions bringing thought provoking challenges to the people of their times. This idea of remediation in the Avant-Garde movements is how the reading spoke to me. It may be a bit loose of a translation, but I do believe that we are always adjusting our societal beliefs. When we challenge society within our realm of culture, we remediate. This is how I see remediation in composition and in the learning environment of our class. We are exposed to a collection of articles and essays pertaining to the governing of discourse. In these readings, we see that author after author challenges us to compose more purposefully than the last. Our responses to these challenges are our own forms of remediation in discourse.
ReplyDeleteAn example of remediation is fashion. Not only do fashion forecasters look at history, but they also look at the current events of today and how it will affect our culture over the next few months. When looking at the historical events of our country (economic struggles, revolutionary movements, etc.), forecasters see when fashion shifts and how the style of a consumer reflects his/her take on the particular cultural movement at the time. More specifically, an example of remediation in fashion that we all will recognize is leggings. Leggings were first introduced as a quick fad in the eighties during the gym craze. Around two and a half decades later the leggings came back. However, when they came back, they were more than just a fad. They were repurposed as a new staple item, just like denim jeans or t-shirts. Leggings returned around 2005 and they’ve stayed in the loop since then, proving that they’re more than just a fad. Now, as a staple, we put them on to go to the gym, before bed, when a skirt is a bit too short, or when we’ve forgotten to shave our legs. Leggings didn’t come to us in 2005 on their own. They came back to us and when they did, they repurposed themselves as a staple fashion item. A similar example is music, like Olivia mentioned. Artists are reinventing songs from the past and exposing it to the ears that have yet to hear them. For example, I vividly remember hearing Britney Spears’ cover of “Satisfaction” and arguing with my parents that it was her own work. When society is ready to repurpose and re-expose a song, the music industry will answer the call and make the remediation “real.”
Bolter and Grusin define remediation as “a text that is useful in its articulation of the concepts of immediacy and hypermediacy”, the “twin logic of remediation”. I also understood this as how time passes and technology advances, how everything reacts in accordance. In pop culture there are always people looking for the “next big thing”, so to meet that demand companies are always producing newer, faster, better products. In this class, I understand editing to be in the same idea as remediation- taking something someone else has done and improving the written work, or in this case a technological product.
ReplyDeleteAn example of remediation that can be found in popular culture today is HeyTell instant voice messaging. With the development of smart phones in recent years, people have been searching for new ways to communicate with each other with their phones that can do “everything”. HeyTell is an application you can load onto your phone that combines a quick phone call with a text message. Like a new age walkie talkie, users are given a certain amount of time to record a quick message and can then send that voice blip to a contact who also has the HeyTell app. This mimics hypermediacy by how it is fascinated with new age technology, but also reverts back to older technology for its framework. I like the connection Julia made with IMAX theatres, how movie theatres and filming styles upgraded themselves to give viewers a more real movie-going experience. Opaque hypermediacy shows itself in many ways in culture today.
The saying history repeats itself best describes Bolter and Grusin’s idea in their book “Remediation.” There is no doubt that times have changed and are changing and the technology advances literally over night. To understand the concept of remediation, the terms immediacy and Remediation is the representation of a medium within another medium but the old medium is still represented. Immediacy is having your ideals or goals met. As a human being, I am impatient and I want instant gratification. This idea allows you to forget what is really happening around you and you become so consumed by this video game or movie. Hypermediacy is more complex and “expresses itself as multiplicity.” I liked Olivia’s definition of hypermediacy when she stated “Images, sound, text, animation and video can all be brought together in any combination with no beginning, middle or end visible. “ That definition helps capture all the layers that are involved. They argue that every type of media affects each other whether it is old or new. So without the first computer we would not have been able to advance to a smaller, faster, more attractive version now. First we had slow dial up internet connection, now we have Wi Fi everywhere and can get on the internet in a blink of an eye. So we all have to start somewhere. That is how remediation influences technology. Remediation helps define the newer media era by transferring information through a different medium. Everything can be improved and reworked that is why it a continuous process. This theory is important to understand has a composer because the process begins to come together. We start with a rough draft of our work and then make changes thinking on how to improve and go from there. Also there may be a better way or different medium to allow your audience to understand your message. By using remediation it will make your presentation more exciting and in all more effective. An example of remediation that we use today is how we listen to music in the car. Listening to music while we are in the car is no longer thought of as a luxury, it has grown that is now a necessity. This idea has been reworked and improved because what started off to having a limited selection of radio stations has led to satellite radio. When you are traveling it is a pain to have to try to find a radio station. With satellite radio you have the option of hundreds of stations including music, comedy routines, sports scores, news, traffic and weather, to listen anywhere. No matter where you travel to you will still be able to sing along to your favorite song or be updated on traffic. This is relevant to our culture now because so much of it stems from music and the newest technology.
ReplyDeleteRemediation is not a new term but in the 21st century it seems to take on a new meaning. To define remediation, it is the use of an old medium within a new medium. When reading the introduction I thought that remediation pretty much means an update. It is a way to present ideas in a modernized way. In class we talked about how a painting was an ancient form of remediation. When looking back on history, a painting was the main form of remediation for a long time because it captivated us humans. Once technology progressed, however, it seems as if mediums are constantly undergoing the process of remediation. I saw a documentary a few months ago that said that technology is growing at an exponential rate, faster than ever before. It is interesting that paintings were a form of remediation for thousands of years and now remediation changes monthly. Soon hyper remediation will be an outdated concept and we will have a new term for something even more engaging. I think that being an EWM major will allow us to adapt to the new technologies and remediations. As professionals in the real world, we should strive to create products that engage and captivate and in order to do so, it is necessary to stay caught up with the times. Hyper remediation is very interesting to me because I feel that it will become more and more prevalent in everyday life and I want to learn how to utilize it. An example of remediation that I can think of is the development of a computer as big as a room, to a desktop, to a laptop, and now the tablet world is evolving. I think that the iPad, and other models are becoming more and more advanced and soon the tablet concept will become the next generation of computers. I believe that in a few years they will be able to engage all senses and be classified as hyper remediation. Another example I can think of is the development of robots. They began as primarily tools for special effects and movies but are finally evolving. I saw a documentary on PBS a while back about robots being created that interact by constantly surfing the Internet for more information. They are capable of holding conversations. This is still a new technology when thinking about a life-like robot but robots exist all around us. They are in factories, stores, and even on campus they just don’t move or think on their own yet.
ReplyDeleteI think that KillaKay makes a fabulous point when she says, “The way people are able to obtain information is so fast and advanced that children are on the computer by the age of three learning how to read and write through technology”. I think that the next generation of kids will be so advanced because of remediation. When listening to the song “What a Wonderful World”, there is a quote, “I hear babies crying, I watch them grow / they'll learn much more than I'll never know”. This applies to what KillaKay was saying because growing technologies lead to more knowledge which leads to better outputs of mediations which essentially is remediation.
"Remediation is the representation of one media in another." -- Bolter and Grusin, Remediation.
ReplyDelete"Remediation is remediation." -- Bolter and Grusin, Remediation.
In thinking about remediation, one can't help but draw the connection between the process of remediation and the process of composition. 'Remediation' being a representative process, and a self-iterative process (since 'remediation is remediation'), remediation can also be identified as iterative composition with a shift in medium. Technology is an impetus for much of this iterative composition -- a book becomes a movie, which then becomes a website, which then becomes a game, which then becomes a movie -- a composer/compositionist creates (that is, remediates) based on the media available. Sometimes the shift in media does affect how a text is read (or heard, or seen, for that matter) -- and can greatly affect how well that text is retained by the audience.
Popular culture is all about remediation -- the style of performance composed by Lady Gaga, for example, is a remediation of that produced by other female pop-singers (notably, Madonna). In building an enterprise based around her music, Lady Gaga has also created a composition process that has redefined all aspects of entertainment, from eccentricity in dress to shooting styles for music videos. Interestingly enough, her music is not so far off the mark from other pop music, except for perhaps in production values and soundprint. The text itself is not so unusual, except for the willingness to address controversial and/or religious topics (which others have certainly done).
Let's narrow down a bit to the grammy performance of "Born This Way." While there has certainly been spectacle in performance before, and therefore the genre of performance exists, this particular performance is a remediation of the song itself -- a completely auditory creation that now involves visual/multimedia elements along with a secondary 'birth' narrative, created by the visual 'egg' and hatching. While the song itself clearly mentions being born, a visual representation of that text is a re-composition, that is, it is a re-mediation. Repurposing also occurs -- the grammy performance is meant for live and television audiences to 'see,' as well as hear the song, where the original song was meant for listening only. An audience experiencing something differently would imply, in this case, that the new purpose might be to expand audience base, or to overwhelm an existing audience with a hypermedia presentation of material they are familiar with.
Michelle mentioned that remediation produces improvement -- and I want to agree, but have some reservations. It makes sense that improvement in some sense would always be the aim of an iterative process, but I wonder if improvement is always the result -- or, if improvement is actually a component of remediation. Certainly something can be remediated poorly (I think we all saw the super bowl performance by the Black Eyed Peas, for example) and that even something that doesn't show improvement could still be a remediation. In remediation, understanding of the new media (and its accompanying technologies -- live microphones in the case of the Black Eyed Peas) is integral to improvement.