A man named Marshall McLuhan famously said, "the medium is the message."
Now, to a traditional study of English and literature, this might not seem to be a terribly profound statement, as the medium (that is, the method through which information, work, or message is conveyed) for traditional English would be almost exclusively paper and ink.
However, with the dawn of the age of technology and its subsequent remix culture , the study of English has transformed into an entirely new field, with nearly endless mediums available. Rather than simply writing a book about a subject of interest, a writer can now create their text and offer through print, digital publication, or audio formats. Not only that, but if the author should desire, they could make an entirely new, interactive way to deal with their information or text, such as virtual worlds, interactive timelines, games, and endless other mediums for their created work.
Basically, text is no longer bound to being just... text.
(Not that I don't love a good, traditional book.)
But now that there are so many kinds of media available to artists, writers, and other creative individuals, conscious choices have to be made about how to convey their material to their audiences. And the choice of media can drastically change how a work is perceived, and who receives it.
Choosing to create a historical or autobiographical work as a graphic novel like John Lewis did here with his "March" trilogy - may not make it a common text for a university library, but it may make it a popular choice for middle school or high school classrooms. Not only that, but the combination of visual images and written text transform the message into a new form; some things - like inner monologues or powerful speeches - may be lost, but other things may be gained - such as the story's imagery, which was one of the most powerful tools that the Civil Rights movement used to visually convey its message of injustice in a way that words alone could not. The medium itself was a message.
Of course, this is not always a life-or-death choice; an creator should always be aware of the different ways that their message may be interpreted based upon the medium they employ, but choosing one form over another is often a subjective choice.
Remix culture also allows us to take works created by others and remediate them; that is, to take them from their original medium, and interpret them through another medium.
"Re-" "mediate" ... clever, right?
Remediation is not only a fun way to add to or re-interpret your favorite works, it is also a way to contribute to the conversation on the meaning of a work, and a way to develop your own understanding of the messages contained within different mediums.
Here is a bit of text remediation that I have been playing around with; I took Emily Dickinson's poem, "'Hope' is the Thing with Feathers -," and remediated it into a couple of new forms.
Here is my first translation. As you can see, I have kept the text intact, but I have created a digital card with the words layered over a picture of a fantastic (as in "fantasy creature" not just "super-duper") bird with gorgeous plumage.
Now, to a traditional study of English and literature, this might not seem to be a terribly profound statement, as the medium (that is, the method through which information, work, or message is conveyed) for traditional English would be almost exclusively paper and ink.
However, with the dawn of the age of technology and its subsequent remix culture , the study of English has transformed into an entirely new field, with nearly endless mediums available. Rather than simply writing a book about a subject of interest, a writer can now create their text and offer through print, digital publication, or audio formats. Not only that, but if the author should desire, they could make an entirely new, interactive way to deal with their information or text, such as virtual worlds, interactive timelines, games, and endless other mediums for their created work.
Basically, text is no longer bound to being just... text.
(Not that I don't love a good, traditional book.)
But now that there are so many kinds of media available to artists, writers, and other creative individuals, conscious choices have to be made about how to convey their material to their audiences. And the choice of media can drastically change how a work is perceived, and who receives it.
Choosing to create a historical or autobiographical work as a graphic novel like John Lewis did here with his "March" trilogy - may not make it a common text for a university library, but it may make it a popular choice for middle school or high school classrooms. Not only that, but the combination of visual images and written text transform the message into a new form; some things - like inner monologues or powerful speeches - may be lost, but other things may be gained - such as the story's imagery, which was one of the most powerful tools that the Civil Rights movement used to visually convey its message of injustice in a way that words alone could not. The medium itself was a message.
Of course, this is not always a life-or-death choice; an creator should always be aware of the different ways that their message may be interpreted based upon the medium they employ, but choosing one form over another is often a subjective choice.
Remix culture also allows us to take works created by others and remediate them; that is, to take them from their original medium, and interpret them through another medium.
"Re-" "mediate" ... clever, right?
Remediation is not only a fun way to add to or re-interpret your favorite works, it is also a way to contribute to the conversation on the meaning of a work, and a way to develop your own understanding of the messages contained within different mediums.
Here is a bit of text remediation that I have been playing around with; I took Emily Dickinson's poem, "'Hope' is the Thing with Feathers -," and remediated it into a couple of new forms.
Here is my first translation. As you can see, I have kept the text intact, but I have created a digital card with the words layered over a picture of a fantastic (as in "fantasy creature" not just "super-duper") bird with gorgeous plumage.
The picture itself adds some new ideas to the meaning of the poem. Even though the words themselves haven't changed, there is now a comparison of the bird symbol within the poem and the rather fierce and powerful looking bird in the image. Other people have remediated this poem similarly, and have chosen small songbirds to represent hope, but by using the image that I did, I have created a subtle implication that hope is not a frail thing, but a fierce and unique creature.
Additionally, I highlighted a few words to add different emphasis without actually changed the punctuation or form of the text at all. If I wanted to further change the message, I could have highlighted entirely different words, like "thing" instead of "feathers." My medium is a message that you interpret without even realizing it.
Here is another interpretation of Dickinson's poem. Now, in addition to visual text, I have also added an audio version of the poem with music in the background.
Though the poem is the exact same poem as the one above - and the same one as is printed in many tradition anthologies - my remediation offers a new variation of interpretation of the piece. The music I chose, the emphasis on different words, the speed at which I read, the inflections of my voice, and the images in the background of each section worked together to create meaning for this poem. (Yes, I did choose to go with a fairly "introspective" music, but I could have chosen heavy metal, or actual birdsong. Both would have changed the audience's understanding of the poem in some way. )
My final remediation was truly a tribute to digital and remix culture. Instead of conveying the entirety of the poem in text, I only included a few lines of the poem. This remediation focused on creating an entirely new variation of the work, instead of preserving as much of the original as possible.
This time I used HTML - hosted through a website called Glitch - to create a visual version of the poem. It's not a profound project, but basically what I did was use HTML programming to create "building blocks" (virtual Lego blocks) that I could use to build pictures to interpret and allude to the poem.
Here are images of the page that I created.
So nothing amazing - my major is mostly focused on English, not programming - but still a new medium to convey my message through.
The point is the same, however. With the right amount of time and knowledge, I could have created an interactive bird-flight website, or a build-a-bird website, or a "mad-libs" interactive poem building site. And each would have offered a unique method of interpretation for the same text.
See how great text remediation is? I'll bet you've participated in it and never even realized it! (Ever doodled an image of a story or movie you liked? Or worn a t-shirt with a movie quote/image?)
Now go out and have fun making awesome stuff! But remember - the medium IS the message. Be intentional, play around with your medium, and create the best product possible!
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