SEMINAR: Re-thinking the Rhetoric of Remix

Rethinking the Rhetoric of Remix
Margie Borschke, Journalism and Media Research Centre, UNSW

Abstract
Is remix a defining characteristic of digital culture as many scholars have asserted?

This paper critiques the contemporary rhetoric of ‘remix’ with a particular emphasis on the work of legal scholar and copyright reform activist Lawrence Lessig. Drawing on qualitative research on music cultures undertaken as a part of my doctoral thesis on the status of copies in creativity, communication and the production of knowledge, I argue that the conceptualization of remix as any media made from pre-existing media is problematic.

First, because the rhetoric seems to be founded upon a misunderstanding of remix as a technical production process as well as the historic origins of remix in multi-track audio production and music culture.

Secondly, it fails to adequately acknowledge the analogue origins of remix as a compositional technique in dance music and by doing so obscures its significant aesthetic, cultural and social contributions since the 1970s. As well, it overlooks the often blurry borders between commerce and culture as well as amateurs and professionals.

Finally, it denies agency to the many individuals who took a supposedly closed fixed system—analogue records and tapes—and liberated them through use and reuse.

Information: k.albury@unsw.edu.au