Recently, I finished a research paper in which I argued that researchers frequently ignore the influence of sexism on hidden gender biases. Throughout the paper, I gave detailed examples of ways in which the hidden curriculum of classroom education features gender bias that is motivated by inherently learned and socially accepted forms of sexism. While this essay was an effective means of compiling my thoughts and evidence into one cohesive argument, it was not intended for a large audience. Rather, as my professor acknowledged during class this Wednesday, the paper was written for her, my grader.
In my next project, a multimodal representation of the ideas that I developed in my paper, I hope to develop a more accessible argument that might be appreciated by a larger audience. For a project to be “multimodal,” it must take advantage of a variety of technologies or methods of communication. One possibility, is to create a “remix.”
Most likely, you have heard of a song being remixed. By taking an original source material, and editing it so that it behaves in a way it wasn’t originally intended to, an artist can express their own interpretation of another artists work. For example, in EDM music, it is very common for an artist to borrow a chorus or sample from other genres. By building a new song around these samples, artists can re-envision the sound of a song and possibly encourage alternate interpretations of the original source material.
Furthermore, remixes are often referred to as “mashups.” However, I would like to draw a
syntactical distinction between these two descriptors. While a remix may only draw from one source material, a mashup must combine at least two or more source materials into one new cohesive piece. In this way, a mashup draws upon the interaction between artists and ideas by putting two or more pieces of work in direct “communication” with one another. In order to prepare for my own project, I watched a few remixes and mashups on YouTube to see which ones were most effective. Each of these two mashups is a compilation of movie trailers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGmcYTKSfaQhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGmcYTKSfaQ
By combining a plethora of short clips together, each mashup claims to build one “mega trailer.” Both mashups succeed quite well in this manner. Yet, I feel that the latter of the two is stronger since it seems more like one trailer than a compilation of many. Unlike the first mashup, the second features a voiceover which effectively serves to tie all of the clips together into one.
In creating my own mashup or remix, I will hope to provide new insight to the original source material that I utilize by applying my own vision to the works that I borrow from.
mattsrobinson 