Category Archives: Creative Remix

Upon making project 3, I took many steps to gather information. The essay that project 3 was based on had been the longest and most detailed piece of writing that I have worked on. In the process of creating project 2, Professor Perry had our class create Wikipedia accounts, which was very new to me because I had never used Wikipedia during school. While getting familiar with Wikipedia, I used it to gather information about gender bias and see it occur with my own eyes. I wanted to see the gender bias myself, and I got what I was searching for. I eventually did research on Feminist Theory and the Patriarchy. I wrote my essay that consisted of 10 pages, using all the information I collected. Professor Perry then talked to the class about the creative mix project. I was intrigued by the assignment due to the fact that I had not done something like it before. The goal of the project was to recreate one of the papers that we wrote and turn it into some sort of multimedia piece. The instructions called for digital remediation, which is “re-mediating” or adapting a message from its current page-based medium to some other medium using digital technology. There were many different ways to do this, such as creating an audio essay or podcast, making a short video, making a visual essay, or creating a mashup/remix of information using pictures and audio to create something unique. I decided to go with a podcast. 

Podcasts are audio programmes that one can listen to at any time and provide a person or people talking. They tend to be focused on a topic or theme. A popular podcast I like to listen to is The Joe Rogan Experience. In this podcast, the host Joe Rogan talks about a range of topics and has had guests such as Elon Musk, Neil Degrasse Tyson, and many more. I enjoy listening to his podcasts because they make me think about things in ways that I haven’t thought before. Because of his podcasts and my enjoyment of them, I wanted to create my own for the creative remix project, and it would be centered around gender bias specifically on Wikipedia. When I first learned about gender bias on Wikipedia, I was surprised because it was something that I had not known before. I always knew gender bias existed in this world, but on Wikipedia ? It came as a shock to me. After exploring more about the topic I realized that it is a very big thing, and it is important to spread awareness of it. For the podcast, I asked my girlfriend to be part of it so the viewers and I could hear her opinion of it, and she happily said yes. I told her what the podcast was about and she was glad to be part of it. I told her the topic, but I did not go into much detail about it, as I wanted the podcast to be genuine and not faked. I believe that emotion that is portrayed in the podcast can be translated to the viewers, which can in turn help spread awareness for the problem, and I believe that genuinity can achieve that. If one were to read about the problem, the effect would be there but not as strong as seeing and feeling the emotions that are present. That is also why I wanted to have a guest on the podcast, to show emotions that aren’t coming just from me but also from another person. 

In the podcast, my girlfriend and I talked about an example of gender bias in Wikipedia. We took two celebrities, Beyonce and Ryan Gosling and compared their Wikipedia articles. I asked her to take 2 minutes to examine their articles and to spot any differences. Once done, she said that the only difference between the two was that Beyonce’s article had more information than Ryan Gosling’s article. This could’ve actually defeated the argument of gender bias in that example. But then, we took a look at the pictures that were posted for the articles between the two and gender bias was right there in front of our eyes. Beyonce’s pictures had close ups of her cleavage and most of the shots were of her in revealing clothing. Ryan Gosling, on the other hand, had simple headshots of him in suits. After this examination, that was when the emotion was portrayed. The viewers were able to hear the examination of the articles, and were able to hear the emotions afterwards. This, in turn, would help the audience resonate with the topic of the podcast, as they would hear, feel, and be a part of the conversation. An even better way of helping the podcast resonate with the audience is having a camera set up. Since a podcast is just talking, I believe that setting up a camera for the audience to see and hear the people talking could help as they are now able to see the emotions, not just feel them. Sadly, I was not able to do this due to unfavorable circumstances. 

The problem with making the podcast was having to squeeze it into just a couple of minutes. A podcast regarding a topic like this requires a deep dive and analysis of the problem. Because I had to make the podcast short, I decided to take a simple route and simply state what the problem is, explain it, show an example, and talk about ways to combat it. That way, the viewers could get a gist of and attain somewhat of an understanding of the problem and know that it exists and that efforts must be made to stop it. If I were to show this podcast to the rest of the world and broadcast it for the public to view, I would make the podcast longer and talk more about the problem, using the important aspects of relevant information and emotion. That way, the public would hear about the problem and awareness would be spread greater, ultimately helping the problem end in the long run. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zilJiD_rsLZ2GZxBi7OONb8FnmXY9NhcAZ2CysgugXg/edit?usp=sharing

The initial idea I had for my creative remix project was to make a video or slideshow version of my Black Panther/Black Lives Matter essay. Focusing on the music impacts which both movements created. Due to the fact that I was working individually I decided to take a different take on my project. I realized that I didn’t have enough time to create a project which had sound or videos. I decided to stick with the slideshow idea and instead write about some media which helped give the Black Lives Matter movement more attention.

In order to give my audience some background information about the BLM movement, the first two pages were strictly about its history and founders. The reason behind the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag coming around was, as a response to Trayvon Martin’s murder. Patrisse Cullors, one of the movement’s founders, had brought this hashtag to social media. This is when I would go and show quick facts about each founder, since this project was meant to be presented to someone who may not know a thing about BLM.

I had chosen this form of a medium since it would be very clear for any audience. With a slideshow there are many opportunities. I was able to add images to every slide to fit the description of what I had been talking about. An example of this would be when I chose to present how the song “The Bigger Picture”, brought attention to the movement. I chose to place an image of the song cover in order for the audience to have a better understanding of what I was talking about. I knew it was important to choose a topic which would be easy for me to find information on, but also attract my audience’s attention. With thai medium I was able to customize to my liking. To make it simpler for me, I chose a template on Canva which would fit the theme of my topic. Since I was writing about Black Lives Matter, a template with black and yellow coloring would fit in since these colors have been used to represent the movement. When visiting the official Black Lives Matter website, these are the colors that will be seen. 

Sticking to a multimodal mode would allow me to use images when converting the points I had made in my essay, into slides. Remediating the ideas which brought attention to the party would allow me to dig deeper into each point I had made in my essay. In my essay I briefly brought up the use of the hashtag, but in the remix I was able to give deeper information behind its impacts. The multimodal mode gave me a chance to change things around which I think made it simpler. Funding the right images wasn’t really hard since I already had an idea of what I wanted for each slide. Only thing I would’ve done differently if I did this again, is incorporating even more images, in order to make it more hands-on.

I like the idea of sharing the project with a space outside of the classroom but, I don’t think it’s ready. I know I could have added more aspects which brought attention to the movement. Or at least furthering my thoughts for the three ideas I chose, like adding more than one slide for each. If I decide on putting it out there for the public view, I definitely need to work on it more. The thing that stopped me from making it better was my lack of knowledge in the tech sense. My initial idea was to make a video where I can add sounds, like the voice of George Floyd saying “I cant breathe”, or instead of quoting Lil Baby’s lyrics I could’ve actually uploaded clips. I started to think that maybe working independently wasn’t so easy for me, and I had to stick to a simpler version. If I ever want to make this public, I will definitely have to take the time to learn these new skills. If only I had started earlier I could have taken the time to make my remix better.

Doing a remix of my old work was something very different, something I could put my own spin on. Now the difference between choosing the between projects was more of the creativity to it based on the information that I have researched and put together. Turn an old piece of writing from an earlier project and make it into something new and more interesting to look at. In the end I decided on doing my creative remix project on the Black Lives Matter Movement, scoping in on the effects such a massive movement had on the press/media of society. BLM’s focus has been less about changing specific laws and more about fighting for a reordering of society wherein Black lives are free from systematic dehumanization. The movement’s measurable impact on the political and legal landscape is undeniable. The BLM movement has succeeded in transforming how Americans talk about, think about, and organize for freedom.

I believe using a presentation on slides or PowerPoint is a more effective method of spreading your information to an audience. Additionally, I want my topic not to feel dry and boring. It is a serious topic and there is a lot of information given that would make people feel overwhelmed at once. Especially college students being one myself I know that they definitely do not want to read a bunch oof words in a presentation and would want to look at their phones instead. With that idea in mind, I opted to go for something that can be more appealing to my younger audience, being videos of past and current events of my topic. I want my audience to realize how impactful the Black Lives Matter movement was so much that it was covered over several news channels and broadcast that contained thousands of protestors rallying together. They say the phrase is a demand for equal treatment and an end to racism – because the lives of black people are just as important as those of others.

Sharing my work with others is the biggest part of the remix project. I am not too great with technology, so I went with a more effective approach of a PowerPoint with slides to demonstrate my knowledge of the topic I chose. Sharing a presentation outside a classroom would prove to be rather difficult but I can use it to spread awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement on social media platforms that are used every single day. Having open platforms to spread awareness is the best way for me to use my remix project to inform the public on my topic. I can only hope it sparks activity in other people to make a change for the better of society and improve the relationship between all races. My research can become someone else’s building blocks to a movement, which is my goal for sharing this project to the public.

Overall, I enjoyed this project and what it had to offer in terms of creativity and design. I was able to return to an old project and dive deeper into a subtopic of my choice and create a new project from it, a remix. Choosing the topic and doing research was not as complicated as my topic had been narrowed down and I knew what I had to focus on. Now choosing how to portray that information was the biggest challenge I faced as my lack of experience with technology began to show. I didn’t know how to go about using a program creating other types of media other than what I was familiar with, PowerPoint. Picking a medium and knowing what I was going to do with it I began to form my presentation to appeal to my audience and hope they take something from it. Black Lives Matter is a very well-known topic, but I always wondered just how much people actually knew about it. I wanted to express how big the movement is and what they are trying to accomplish in the end. I can only hope my presentation can be shown to anyone with creative ideals to turn it into something even bigger for the future and maybe a place in the movement itself.