Remix Culture & Loving Life

I have been brushing up on my Boing Boing lately, and came across this excellent discussion on the evolution of remix culture.

Normative makes some excellent points, and draws interesting disdinctions.  He points out that these mashups and remixes have the power to alter “the way we relate to each other.  All of our social actions become a kind of invitation to this sort of collective expression.”

Normative breaks remixes into two stages:

Stage 1 Remix: involves individuals using our shared culture as a sort of language to communicate something to an audience

Stage 2 (Social) Remix: involves using remixes to mediate peoples’ relationships with each other.  People can use characters as a platform for identifying themselves, their relationships and their environment

Overall, I like the examples Normative uses, and have always been fascinated by this subject.  It’s fun to hear someone else’s take on it.  Overall, I see remixes as a new form of language.  Just as the regency-era woman would speak volumes with a flick of her fan, we can communicate a great amount by remixing shared cultural artifacts- be they songs, videos, or TV shows.   It’s very cool.

I’ll leave you with my favorite remix of the moment: “We Love XKCD.“  I loved the original Discovery Channel commercial (see below), adore XKCD, and can’t believe how many AWESOME people are in this, including the one and only Dr. Octavio Coleman Esquire of The Jejune Institute!!! WTF???

Here is the original- for reference (and for additional warm fuzzy feelings):

I hope you’re loving life, the whole world, and everything else as well! Wheee!