Hypermediacy

Last night, at about midnight, before finally giving in to heavy eyes, I scribbled down a quick thought on a post-it.


"piracy/appropriation as hypermediacy or activated spectatorship
the culture (consumer, ad-based culture) is the installation/plane of immanence
Pirates are no longer passive viewers"

In my installation art class we are reading Installation Art by Claire Bishop. In this text she outlines four categories of installation art, describing one type as "activated spectatorship," or the kind that require/ask to viewer to participate in some sort of action to complete the artwork. In our discussion of this particular category, the idea of Immediacy vs. Hypermediacy (according to Jay David Bolter) was brought up. If installation art's aim was to shake the viewer out of their complacency or passivity as a spectator of art then the question was asked, "Can installation art that causes us to perceive ourselves perceiving be considered hypermediacy (an experience that is opaque and/or self-referrential)?"

My question is, "Can appropriative creation be considered hypermediacy?" If piracy/appropriation is a form of activated spectatorship in the installation that is our current media-based culture (our plane of immanence - I think I'm using that right), then I would venture to say yes. We watch a YouTube video mashup, or listen to a song with samples, and realize that the components have been appropriated from other sources. In those special moments when these acts subvert the media structure we're used to then we are no longer hypnotized by it, or passive. The experience can become opaque.

Just a thought.

Plunderphonics Album

So a year or so ago I put together a mixtape of songs that utilized samples as some form of melodic base/foundation. I basically stole the term plunderphonics and called the album by that name. Since I have an affinity for the genre and because of the popular use of sampling for "beats" the songs on the album are, for the most, rap/hip-hop songs. I did some research when I compiled the original list and found all the sampled songs that were used:

(the first song on each line is the song on the mixtape, followed by the songs that were used as samples)

1. J Dilla - Donuts (Intro) / Motherload - When I die

2. Little Brother - Watch Me / Michael Jackson - With A Child's Heart

3. Pharoahe Monch - Bar Trap / War - Deliver the Word

4. Talib Kweli - In the Mood / The Friends of Distinction - Lonesome Mood

5. Kanye West - Apologize / The Masqueraders - It's A Terrible Thing to Waste Your Love

6. Madlib - Please Set Me At Ease / A. L. & R. Mizell - Please Set Me At Ease

7. Lupe Fiasco - Daydreamin' / I Monster - Daydream in Blue

8. DJ Danger Mouse - December 4th / Jay-Z - December 4th / The Beatles - Mother Nature's Son

9. MF Doom - Deep Fried Friends / Whodini - Friends / Ronnie Laws - Friends and Strangers

10. J Dilla - Last Donut of the Night / The Moments - To You With Love


I even uploaded part of the playlist to Grooveshark, a local online music company that was started by UF graduates. I had the pleasure of working for them as an intern one summer and have been using them ever since. Their website has a cool widget feature which I used above.

For those that care, there is an explicit lyrics warning on a few of the songs.

Rant

Being sick the last half of this past week has taken my aspirations of finishing What Is Philosophy? from leaps and bounds down to very tiny incremental squirms. Squirms in which I slowly chip away at the tunnel through the mountain of this book (being nowhere close to finishing) or scratch away at the walls of my cell like the Count of Monte Christo. I fear for the rate of my progress. Yet it took Dantés 14 years to break out of Château d'If. I just keep hearing Ulmer's words in my head, "Don't try to understand the reading, just read...and take notes!" Ulmer is my Abbé Faria, educating me as I try to make my way out of this philosophical hell hole.

Onward then.

Plundertechnics

I've googled it.
It doesn't exist.
I've made it up.

Not without some help/inspiration of course. I came up with the term plundertechnics after thinking about a term I came across a year or so back. Plunderphonics was a term used to describe the act of taking, or "plundering," various bits of music in order to create new songs. Mixtape, mash-up, sound collage, whatever you want to call it, this form of creation has forced us to bring into question our notions of authorship. Do those that employ the use of someone else's material create something original? Is it right? Is it legal? Is it.....cool?

So what does plundertechnics mean? In my head, I've decided the term will refer specifically to the methods by which various forms of appropriation occur in order to create new things. Stealing music, text, images, video, etc. Whatever your thieving little heart desires.

"Pirates," they've been called! The fact that we're reading Appropriation from the White Chapel series is great. I've owned the book for almost a year and never had the time to read it. Now, I have to read it for homework. Coincidence? Perhaps. I'm not complaining. In fact, allow me to align myself with all those pirates out there. This blog will be my ship and I'll steer her true, through the mist, exploring new seas, in search of what all pirates seek: treasure, wealth, booty (in my case, an understanding of the legalities and traps of piracy, and the uncovering of little gems of creation through plundering).

Speaking of booty, shake yours to my parting gift: a video mashup (more appropriation!) set to the mashup track of one of my favorite mashup artists out there - Girl Talk. (so much mashing)