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The Beauty of Remix and Memes
Feeling bland? Looking for something a little less vanilla, a little more chocolatey-fudge coated, cotton-candy, pop-rock, tiger-tiger? Good, because this week’s offbeats theme is REMIX. We’ll be sifting through the depths of the internet for all things revived, torn apart, thrown against the wall and smashed together again. I’m talking renaissance paintings dabbling with ufos, drones dancing to classical symphonies, and the infamous Cherpumple (that’s a triple-decker cake baked with three types of pie to perfection FYI). They’re a little old, they’re a little new, they’re the funky Frankenstein’s of our modern age - and we love them (sometimes).
image source: http://bit.ly/2gpEimw
Technically speaking, a remix is any piece of media that’s been changed from its original state by adding, removing or adapting elements of the piece. This can include music, art, books, video, photos and so much more (basically whatever classic, pristine materials we can rip off the wall and smear with peanut butter). Some say there are no new ideas since “everything’s been done before,” but we beg to differ. Like the phoenix rising from the ashes, sometimes you just need a little destruction to make way for innovative creation. Smashing old works into pieces so we can mash them up again with brand new pieces is, what many would argue, what our new generation of art is all about. (Seriously, we’ve been called the Remix Generation by more than a few).
For example, just take a look at one of our main, modern mediums of humour. You see them all over the internet, dripping down your facebook feed, sprinkling through your google searches, plastered across your dorm’s sticky mini-fridge. I’m talking memes.
Beautiful, right? While memes are generally known as any recognizable image recycled with variations of humourous text, they are, according to the all-mighty Wikipedia:
“an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by nongenetic means, especially imitation.”
And if there’s one thing we tech-savvy creatives are good at, it’s imitation (along with its variations of parody, projections, cheeky appropriations, and general poking fun.) Memes are one of the most powerful ways we connect with others using art and humour, by attempting to bring the internet together into one big, collective in-joke, group-hug. Plus, they’re a lot of fun. Are they art? Arguably. Are they sophisticated? Occasionally. Are they the time capsules of our generation, reflecting a blossoming online culture of satirical remix for all future generations to define us? I sure hope so.