i am i remix
Posted on September 10, 2007 by Tito
At apophenia “pointer remixing“:
We craft our identity through pointing all the time. Language is mostly about pointers (“signs”). The list of favorite TV shows, movies, and music on social network sites are a linguistic pointer to these cultural referents. Yet, in a multimedia world, instead of having to just reference them by name, I can reference them by image, video, and audio, pulling a much more rich set of content into the fold. In some senses, these practices are the same as they both involve constructing a semiotic pointer to a cultural object. Yet, because multimedia referents are “hosted”, multimedia pointers can be altered. Furthermore, there’s a perceived cost to pointing (namely, bandwidth). And, besides, we never think of uttering the linguistic referent as making a “copy.”
As remix is ridden with questions of legality, I can’t help but wonder what the legal ramifications of pointer remix might be. We live in a world obsessed with copyright and IP, but isn’t pointing to something fair use? Imagine how ridiculous the world would be if you could only consume, but never link (linguistically or through html)
There’s room for interesting debate about open culture, etc…. this preview [youtube] for a documentary grabs my attention, too… if for no other reason than hearing GWB “sing” Imagine and Walk on the Wild Side.
(more at the OpenSourceCinema page on youtube)
» Filed Under Art, Crime, Language, Stickin' It To The Man, The Man Stickin It To Us
