1.2 Activity 5: Have you ever remixed, mashed-up or mixed up a media text/s? What was it? Why did you do it?

Yes I have. In an art unit I studied we learnt about a French art group known as the Situationist International (SI) who in the 1950’s and 60’s would take images of the “establishment” (Government, Educational and Art institutions etc) and remix them, creating new images that worked against the establishment. This form of rebellion or protest was known as Détournement as can be seen everywhere today.

The act of detourning something (remixing it) relies on the idea that everything has a symbolic value beyond its function. For example - we use a car to get around but it can also describe our social status, lifestyle, and culture or be seen as a stereotype. Remixing items and placing them out of context allows for the creation of new narrative formed around symbolic meaning.

For an assignment I re-created some of the situationist works using items from the modern day to create new meaning. I also produced some collages out of advertisements that rely heavily on symbolic meaning to create new narrative.

An artist who uses remix in his work is Banksy. This is one of my favorites:

http://www.artofthestate.co.uk/blog/index.php/tag/banksy-the-dunce-westway-london/

Ball, E. (1987). Great Sideshow of the Situationist International. Yale French Studies(73), 21 - 37. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2930195