“Remediation as the mediation of mediation”
Bolter and Grusin’s book is their attempt to explain the workings of digital technology through their theory of mediation. They claim “what is new about new media comes from the particular ways in which they refashion older media and the ways in which older media refashion themselves to answer the challenges of new media” (15). The first several chapters set up their theory by situating it within the theorists that came before them and by doing this they also set up a quick history of remediation.
For this post, you are going to explore what remediation means—to you, to this class, and to the world of popular culture. Start by defining the key terms (feel free to use Bolter and Grusin’s own definitions) before examining why remediation might be important to technology, digitality, and literacy practices. How does remediation influence these concepts? How does remediation change the way we might view popular culture? Why might remediation be an important idea in terms of helping us understanding composing? Continue in your explorations of remediation by thinking about the concept as it might apply to this class or how it might apply to you as a composer/compositionist.
In the second part of this post you are going to investigate an example of remediation that you find in pop culture today. Explain what the example is, where it comes from and then show how the example has been remediated. Be specific—in both your example and in your explanation of how and why it is an example of remediation.
***I am not going to give you an example to work with…I want to see what you can find on your own.
***Once someone uses an example--it's gone, so you can't reuse examples.
Normal guidelines (500 words, dialogue with peers, etc)
I thought it was really interesting how Bolter and Grusin give the example of customer with the sense, the wire, and how it is perceived and transferred to the customer, and that the “the ultimate purpose of media is indeed to transfer sense experiences from one person to another; the wire threatens to make all media obsolete” (Bolter, Grusin, 3). Bolter and Grusin put into context mediation of history, may it be through paintings, writing, photographs or film, and that a potential concern is that the actual feeling may not be transferred through the messenger of mediation. Today we live in the digital age where some of this mediation is online, making it remediation. Bolter and Grusin define remediation as “the representation of one medium in another remediation, and we will argue that remediation is a defining characteristic of the new digital media” meaning that “digital media remediate their predecessors, a spectrum depending on the degree of perceived competition or rivalry between the new media and the old ” (Bolter, Grusin 45). For example, “ the computer is offered as a new means of gaining access to these older materials, as if the content of the older media could simple be poured into the new one” (Bolter, Grusin, 45).
ReplyDeleteFor all of my adult life I have known the online world, after reading these chapters though it got me thinking. To me remediation is trying to reproduce reality online. It’s like recreating the world as we know it online through graphics, images, videos, or what have you. It is also improving what came before it, taking elements from it and overall the product is “better.” As EWM majors, I think this is a very important concept to know because we might have a job one day when we are challenged to remediate information online. I think remediation is important technology, digitally, and to literacy practices because it is the tool we use to mediate or get these messages across in a better way than before. We are given the challenge to “remediate our processers...new media and the old” (Bolter, Grusin, 45). So although it is the modern tool we will use and have been subject to- the challenge is to remediate as accurately as possible.
I might be going out on a limb here, but I think an example of culture remediation is the transition from MySpace to Facebook. MySpace was one of the first online sites where you could upload photos, update your profile, post on friends’ walls, and update your status. Facebook developed a few years after; it is much cleaner, more user friendly, and an improvement of MySpace. Like Bolter and Grusin said, “digital media remediate their predecessors, a spectrum depending on the degree of perceived competition or rivalry between the new media and the old ” (Bolter, Grusin, 45). Here, Myspace is the old media, and Facebook the new. There was competition between the two sites, and eventually Facebook got more users because of its improvements.
Remediation to me, is a continuous process of replacement that is never going to stop. It’s important to understand remediation and how to use it. Otherwise, you could get left behind. According to Bolter and Grusin, “We call the representation of one medium in another remediation, and we will argue that remediation is a defining characteristic of new media” (45). The media is constantly replacing itself in new forms, sometimes using aspects of the old forms or combining them. Bolter and Grusin explain how we went from paintings to photos to film to internet and so on. There is always going to be something new, and as EWM majors, we need to be fully aware that the field we are jumping into is constantly changing.
ReplyDeleteRemediation has many effects on people and their practices. With technology constantly changing, the media finds new ways to express their ideas. The literacy world is given new opportunities to share and explore. Through blogs, websites and other internet mediums people can use literacy in new and different ways. Remediation can help us in composing because it allows us to explore what type of medium we are writing through and for which audience. These are two very important factors when it comes to composing. It’s difficult to compose without knowledge of either. A good composer would use the great changes to their advantage and use several forms of media like pictures and videos, along with text to express their point of view.
I agree with Alexis when she says, “To me remediation is trying to reproduce reality online. It’s like recreating the world as we know it online through graphics, images, videos, or what have you.” People are always trying to find the next best thing. They are constantly creating and sharing. Like video games now a days, we are constantly trying to create reality through the media. And we have so many ways to do it that the possibilities are endless.
The text did not speak very much about music, but it is definitely a huge part of the media. I see remediation when I think about how newer artists refashion and remix older artists’ songs. Bolter and Grusin talk about borrowing within the same medium. “ This kind of borrowing is perhaps the most common, because artists both know and depend most immediately on predecessors in their own medium” (49). We hear this all the time on the radio, but I think an interesting example is the movie Across the Universe. It’s not exactly the same medium because it’s a film. But it has taken old Beatles songs and recreated them not only through the music, but with images and film as well. It creates a story using older media. These songs may have never been meant to create a story together, but somebody decided that it was possible to mold them together and have different sounds a voices to create something new. The cinematography in the movie creates a reality along with the music.
Remediation is to erase all means of meditation, and multiply its media. In other words, it wants to erase media in the act of multiplying it (5). It is also the idea of transferring experiences from one person to another whether it is through photos, writing, the internet, and any other type of media. Immediacy is something that Bolter and Grusin talk about and describe. The idea of immediacy is that we should be left in the presence of what is represented; in Bolter and Grusins words, “the logic of immediacy dictates that the medium itself should disappear and leave us in the presence of the thing represented: sitting in the race car or standing on a mountaintop.” Hypermediated was another term that stood out to me. According to both Grusin and Bolter, the act of this word is arranging text, graphics, and video hyperlinks as well. They then both go on to describe how even when hypermediation is present, that it still has its own sense of immediacy. After reading Grusin and Bolter’s term of remediation, I believe that remediation is erasing media, but correcting it in a new form. I agree with Amanda when she says “that remediation to me is never going to stop.” I agree with this 100%. Things, whether they are a picture, a television show, a website, a book, or anything of the sorts are going to continuously change. Bolter and Grusin mention that they look at remediation as a type of ‘borrowing.’ “We will argue that remediation is defining characteristic of the new digital media,” (45) and sometimes, the borrowing might not me transparent you might need to search for it. The part that caught me the most throughout the reading though, was the very end when Grusin and Bolter say that “remediation is both what is ‘unique to digital words’ and what denies the possibility of the uniqueness.” Without remediation, nothing would change. Change is and will remain constant to keep the world interesting. If nothing ever changes, then what would be interesting?
ReplyDeleteSomething that I find in my opinion to be an example of remediation in pop culture, would be the new brand new phones that these phone companies are coming out with what seems to be just about every month now. Cell phones used to be pretty basic, and pretty easy to use. Now they remake these phones so that it has just about every function like a computer has. It has internet, the ability to now ‘face time’ with the Iphone, and many more capabilities that phones never used to have. The digital media is continuously changes and will continue to. Who knows, maybe one day we will be able to click a button on our phone and you can open the garage door to your house, or even press a button to get into your house! There are so many different things that are changing every single day, and that I believe really can throw off what used to be normal, to what is now remediated constantly.
I haven’t given much thought to how media evolves and how it continues to change until now. But, it inevitably does and it will continue to do so as long as people continue to have new ideas and reinvent new ways of doing things. According to Bolter and Grusin, remediation is a constant process that continues to evolve new media out of old. While some could view this as a bad thing and that we should stick to the own way of doing things, I don’t believe this is true. I think we need to change things. I agree with gbyrne4 that, “without remediation, nothing would change. Change is and will remain constant to keep the world interesting. If nothing ever changes, then what would be interesting?” That is very true. How boring would it be if we were stuck with old technology, and no room for improvement or invention. The world would most definitely be boring. Alexis says, referring to different forms of remediation, that remediation is a “tool we use to mediate or get these messages across in a better way than before.” However, I have to disagree. Just because it’s remediated, doesn’t mean it’s better. I do think that we should improve old methods and ways, but those new improvements could maybe make it more confusing or time-consuming than the old way. But just the fact that it’s new draws us in. According to Bolter and Grusin, “immediacy is our name for a family of beliefs and practices that express themselves differently at various times among various groups….” (30) and “hypermediacy is most evident in the heterogeneous “windowed style” of World Wide Web pages, the desktop interface, multimedia programs, and video games” (31). I’m still trying to figure out what exactly this means. But I think it just explains that when you use a lot of new remediated material in one media, it becomes hypermediated. This is shown by the example of by the World Wide Web and all the new ideas being presented through social media. Remediation can change the way we view popular culture because it is fleeting. If we viewed the hottest most popular celebrity with the mind-set that they, in all reality, will not be so popular in the next few years, we maybe would not put so much focus on them. The same goes for new technology these days. We have to understand that composing is constantly changing and as writers we have to adapt to the changes. When the telegram came out, it was such a novel idea and it was used quite efficiently. But how much more efficient has e-mail become! It’s a whole new genre remediated to fit the 21st century. Who knows what the next change could be in the future, but we can’t get stuck in the old way of doing things. Amanda says, remediation “allows us to explore what type of medium we are writing through and for which audience.” It allows us to pick this genre and write specifically for a group of people so that our message gets to a more concentrated group.
ReplyDeleteAn example of remediation in pop culture would be a magazine I used to read. I used to subscribe to this magazine and I got a notice that it would no longer be sending me a magazine anymore. But, they gave me the website address telling me I could now access it on-line! They made it seem like this was the new and improved way of doing things and that everyone’s doing it, so I should too. So, I went to this on-line website. And I do have to admit that there were some cool features on-line that I would not have gotten with the paper version. Bolter and Grusin say, “the electronic version is offered as an improvement, although the new is still justified in terms of the old and seeks to remain faithful to the older medium’s character” (46). I do agree with this, because the magazine was an improvement and it did still have the same feel as a magazine. I guess I’ll just have to get used to it. Times are changing and I’d better keep up, both as a citizen in this world and as a writer.
Remediation is an unstoppable occurrence. It can be defined, “as the representation of one medium in another remediation…” Media is milked for all is has and transformed into multiple formats of remediation. When reading what gbyrne4 wrote about remediation, I found his/her final comment about normalcy very interesting. When growing up whenever I would disagree with my parents’ about something I would whine, “…But it is normal! Everyone does--(whatever mischievous act, in their opinion, I had been up to).” Every time they would argue back, “What is normal? Who defines the standard of normalcy?” So in a literal sense, remediation to me is the ever changing definition of “normal”. We are constantly remodeling the “old” into something “new”. It is so important for people in the field of media to have a solid conception of remediation because media will be constantly remediated.
ReplyDeleteRemediation is important for our role as students in a sense that we take information that we are given and produce new works of composition. After our college careers, as composers we will have to learn to keep up with constant transformation of media in order to survive in the EWM world. Since we live in a society where profit is the majority of peoples’ main goal and I believe remediation exists to satisfy society’s craving for profit. A good idea can be taken and molded into countless forms of media. One idea is a never ending source of media, which is supported by Bolter and Grusin’s opinion of remediation as a hindrance to “uniqueness”. Remediation also occurs because media and technology is constantly being changed to meet the current definition of “normal”. Alexis noted the change from Myspace to Facebook as a form of remediation and I would have to agree. Our prior popular social networking site, Myspace, was ditched for the current Facebook because it was the popular decision. Many people view non-Facebook users as abnormal. The differences between the two sites are minimal. The two networking sites allow most of the same features, except Facebook does not offer the musical elements that Myspace possesses.
Remediation does not always stay in the same forum of media, like the switch from Facebook to Myspace. Remediation also occurs in the world of literature. So when a work of literature is produced it is often remediated in multiple different formats, sometimes even hundreds of years later. That goes to show that a work of media has limitless and timeless possibilities for remediation. An example of remediation to a work of classical fiction occurred with the novel, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, which was originally published in 1813. This novel was remediated into a film starring the famous actress Kiera Knightly in 2005. Not only was the novel remediated once, but writer Seth Grahame-Smith took advantage of the United State’s sudden science fiction craze and published a parody entitled Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Jane Austen’s novel underwent remediation twice almost two hundred years after it was written. It is amazing to think that a composer work can still be a source of creative motivation no matter how much time passes.
Like some of the previous posts, I felt the most accessible and useful definition of Remediation from which to base this discussion is the relatively simple statement that remediation is “what we call the representation of one media in another”. I think that this concept has ramifications for many different things. As far as it relates to technology, I think it’s an important idea because it’s a key part of the way our technologies develop. They advance not autonomously, but in a way that is linked to the other existing technologies. I think when you look at the way different media have developed, there is a lot of the type of “its like this, but better” thinking, as demonstrated by the books example of the way photography is a media linked to art. We also see this in the way that the internet and TV have pushed each other, with the Internet providing a more direct and immediate access to information or other materials. I also think remediation is a concept that is important in pop culture if only due to the “repurposing” of stories or novels that have continued to be present in pop culture thanks to newer media, such as the example of the way Jane Austen’s novels have been remediated to such a degree of success. I also think it’s definitely significant regarding literacy because of the way it presents things in ways. Understanding the original novel Pride and Prejudice and having a functional film literacy to fully appreciate the movie are different concepts, and remediation has also pushed us towards an ever-present multimedia literacy. We are endlessly confronted with media messages in different formats, and often simultaneously, as in the news broadcasts and websites the authors mention that include text, graphics, video, and other media in the same page/broadcast.
ReplyDeleteAs for an example of Remediation, I think its interesting that Amanda also discussed the way music can be remixed or structured or presented in a different way to achieve a different effect, such as the way the Beatles music was arranged to help tell the story of Across the Universe. The example that came to my mind was the artist Girl Talk, who is known for creating albums full of mashups of basically every type of music. He often combines an older beat with modern rap lyrics, or a beat or riff from a rock or pop song and combines it with a different type of rap lyric. For example, in one song, the beat from Umbrella by Rhianna is sampled under the vocals of the Jackson 5 from “ABC” and finally, these two songs are combined with a guitar riff from Queen’s Bohemian Rapshody. I think it’s a good example of remediation because like the example of the Pride and Prejudice movie, it doesn’t make any mention of what the music that is being remediated is or used to be, but presents it transparently as separate and new music and maintains a sense of immediacy
I think the term “remediation” is somewhat obvious in certain aspects. It’s simple to identify this term with major examples, like Alexis when she described the switch from Myspace to Facebook. It’s basically just the move from one big thing to that thing’s replacement. Especially seen in media, remediation occurs whenever something is taken and changed to correlate with the moving on of technology. Every single digital device that has been created has constantly been altered and improved as technology is improved. As mentioned in the reading, this act of remediation replaces the old with the new form and eventually erases the existence. Sure, people of that generation will always remember it being there, but they will no longer use it. So many examples of remediation are through communication, which I think is a major factor as to why this is. When cell phones first came out, not many people had them. But as time passed by and improvements were made, more and more people got them. A big example is in these social networks and instant messaging. In order to communicate in that form, both parties must have a Facebook or an AIM screen name. If you didn’t, you were sometimes left out of the loop and almost cut off from the rest of the world. I think remediation is important to EWM majors in many ways. First off, one of the main focuses and topics of this class is the media. Not to keep mentioning Facebook, but this is the biggest online website presently. So it naturally revolves around any advertising or media. Nowadays, instead of “Call this number!” or “Go to this website!” it’s “Visit us on our Facebook page!” I think our major is a little different than the basic creative writing major or English major; it’s more modern. Even using this class alone is a good example of that. Writing, Editing, Printing Online. Most of our work is created online. Online is the major source of remediation. Any improvements help with our writing. To give an example, Prezi is such an awesome alternative to Power Point. It is more modern day and creative. That is another definition of remediation: using alternatives for something that may be older and not as technology savvy. I agree with Amanda when she says, “It’s important to understand remediation and how to use it. Otherwise, you could get left behind.” This is so true. To use the social networking example again, people who do not have a Facebook are left behind. So many things happen on that site: event invitations, finding old friends, organizations sites. I haven’t checked my Myspace in probably a year.
ReplyDeleteI think a good example of remediation is the major transition of music players over time. There was the record player, the Atrak, the CD player, the MP3 player, and the IPod. The major switch was when compact discs were cut out completely and music had to be synched from the computer to the player. Even in the IPod alone, remediation takes place. When it first came out, there was only the IPod Classic. Now there’s the Classic, Nano, shuffle, Touch, IPad, and even the IPhone. I’ve always gotten IPod Nano’s, and even in that they have changed greatly. My old one had the dial and buttons and my new one is this tiny little square that is a touch screen. Remediation can start out general, like the transition of music players, and go down to the tiniest detail like the type of one music player, and then the different models of that one type. I think it’s really interesting to see how quickly media and technology is changed and improved in so little amount of time.
In their book, “Remediation; Understanding New Media”, Bolter and Grusin describe remediation through the tendency of our culture to “both multiply its media and to erase all traces of mediation; ideally, it wants to erase its media in the very act of multiplying them” (Bolter and Grusin, 5). An important term in relation to this theory is immediacy, which the authors say can be reached by “ignoring or denying the presence of the medium and the act of mediation” (Bolter and Grusin, 11). Also, I agree with Amanda that remediation is “continuous process of replacement that is never going to stop and is important for us to understand.” After reading, I realized that remediation is not only ever-present in our society, but also extremely important to us as young adults and EWM majors. With the reinvention of works and technology, we as young adults need to be aware and constantly adaptable. This correlates with what Eric F said about developing multimedia literacy in that “we are endlessly confronted with media messages in different formats, and often simultaneously, as in the news broadcasts and websites the authors mention that include text, graphics, video, and other media in the same page/broadcasts.” As EWM majors, we have to be conscious of the changing realms of genre, composition, mediums, etc. This and many other fields, such as those of communications, film, etc. are always going to be affected by remediation. The reading also made me question the concept of originality. For example, there are commonly 12 themes used in most literature. If an author is composing an original work, there are bound to be elements of past works that affect their writing.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite pastimes is photography, and I think the development of how we take pictures is a suitable example of remediation in society. When I was little, photographs were taken with a camera using film, and the images on the roll had to devolved at a local convenience store. As time passed, film rolls gave way to memory cards, which fit inside digital cameras. Once a picture is taken on a digital camera, it can be instantly viewed on a screen and printed in a moment’s notice. Nowadays we also have digital imaging, in which we can alter and enhance an image before it is viewed or printed. Also, nowadays, there are cameras in our cell phones that can be messaged to other devices and viewed that way. Though we still use film cameras, they are by no means novelty, but used more for a certain effect or technique. Without a doubt, in time, even the digital camera will give way to now photographic technologies. It is my job as a photographer to use devices that are up to date and relevant if I intend to be successful. Imagine if you showed up to a party with a camera that still used film, what would people say? Remediation works in the same way, making the older versions of things irrelevant and highlighting the innovations of tomorrow.
"Remediation," defined by Paul Levenson, is "the anthropotropic process by which new media technologies improve upon or remedy prior technologies" (Bolter & Grusin, 273) Hypermediacy is "a style of visual representation whose goal is to remind the viewer of the medium" (Bolter & Grusin, 272). In contrast, immediacy's goal is for the viewer to look past the medium and disregard its presence. Throughout history, remediation has consistently been an important role because it allows for us to build upon past innovations. Remediation challenges us to accept the idea that something can always be made better. In a way, the process of remediation reflects the editing process. If the goal of composing is to provide immediacy, to expose a reader to a literary work that is so real that it makes them forget that they're holding a mere book, then it's only reasonable that the work be treated in a critical way that expects that sort of reaction. In order to do that, an editor must scrutinize every detail and rework a text in every way that allows it to have such an impact. This remediation builds upon past stories presented through literature in order to make one that is even more unsurpassable. Remediation seeks to perfect the reader's experience in order to make it as real as possible. The attitude is just as Eric and the book said: "it's like this, but better". Kelly mentioned Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but I would like to go further to say that all works are at some level a remediation of previous works. Ever heard of the expression "Everything worth writing has already been written." It's true. All stories take a common structure of a previous story and remediate it in order to achieve something that is either better or at least more comprehensible for the people of our generation. It could be argued that Twilight is a Romeo and Juliet remediation involving warring families and forbidden love. It's important to be aware of remediation's presence in almost every work because it allows us to question the faults in current media and technology. Why is this movie boring? Why haven't I finished this book? Why have I still not been convinced that a Snuggie is worth buying? If we aren't able to bring into question the transparency of media than there will be nothing for us remediate.
ReplyDeleteMy mom has worked for Walt Disney World for over a decade now so over the years I've been able to experience how the change in technologies has changed the quality of rides. I don't know if anyone's been on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, but it's a simple ride with a moving car, a lot of black-light, and guns that are essentially laser pointers. When a laser hits a target on the ride, it adds points. When the ride first came out in 1998, it was the hottest presentation of technology in a ride. Since then, 3-D has become big, and computer graphics have become very multi-dimensional. In 1998, there wasn't much that computer graphics could bring to a ride. In 2008, building upon that "point and shoot" basis for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, Disney Imagineers presented their newest innovations in themed ride technology through the new Toy Story Midway Mania. Midway Mania goes beyond Space Ranger Spin with a much more interactive game experience that is 3D, with a shooting range of objects that respond to your shot. When you shoot a balloon, it pops. When you send a paintball up at a target, you can visually see the paintball in flight and watch as it splatters on the bullseye. The point system is much more organized, and the experience is all together more realistic. Disney Imagineers took a point and shoot game, incorporated modern technology, and remediated the idea into a newer and more popular ride (the wait is usually 120 minutes, but the experience is worth it.) This is a specific example. I believe that in general, The Walt Disney Company is a great example of constant remediation.
Remediation, as described and applied in Bolter and Grusin’s book, is basically the modernization of something in order to keep up with increased technology. It’s all around us. From the devices we use, to cars, to food, and to TV shows, remediation is a constant in our society. Remediation has such an impact on society because of our insane obsession to have the newest, coolest thing. For EWM majors this is especially important because one third of our major is media which Bolter and Grusin say “Media are continually commenting upon, reproducing and replacing each other, and this process is integral to media. Media need each other in order to be media in the first place.” We need to be able to change our style of writing along with the world around us. For instance, newspapers have almost completely been replaced by online blogs and websites. Hence newspaper style of writing has been replaced by a more interactive, and quick genre. When our parents were kids, the newspaper was delivered every sunday. Thats it. Now, with a few clicks on your iPhone you can check CNN.com for news that happened an hour ago. The high demand has created a completely different genre, style, and remediation of media writing that has never existed before.
ReplyDeleteI think another great example, although my classmates have talked about some really good ones, is something as basic as writing. I don’t mean the creative act of putting words together, I mean the physical act of writing. Whether its a casual note to your friend in class, or doodling, we don’t write anymore. It occurred to me the other day in Rhetoric class when I was typing notes in class and I received an instant message from my friend Alexa who was sitting next to me. The few times in college where I have actually taken out a pen and written lengthy paragraphs made my hand ache of cramps.
It made me realize how much computers have taken over our lives. We don’t write letters, we text or email, we don’t write essays, we type them. The remediation of the simple act of writing effects us every day, yet because remediation is so constant, no one realizes its even happening. Remember elementary school, when our teachers insisted that we NEEDED to learn cursive because we were going to use it so much in the future. Well, its been about ten years and I think I’ve written cursive maybe five times. This example is completely because of the modernization of technology and its impact on our lives.
Bolter and Grusin explain remediation as media adapting to new trends and being able to combine old and new media techniques together. As an EWM major this concept is very important to me, particularly because I am trying to work in the field of media. To be able to succeed in todays media world you need to be able to adapt to all sorts of changes in how media works and new media formats. There is no sympathy for people who can’t adapt anymore and you will get left behind without a job if you are not able to keep up. Its very important to this class because we are learning about the different forms of media and how to compose for the particular audience you are aiming for in the right genre.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of how we view pop culture remediation can have a huge effect on it. Some mediation theorists believe that some audiences use the media for their own enjoyment purposes and that the media can be progressive and that the audience can use the media for their own individual purposes. Since the media is part of popular culture, certain people can use the different forms of media for their own personal enjoyment. They may use print or online media for facts and expertise, while they use radio and televised media for strictly entertainment purposes. In terms of the act of composing itself, remediation can have an effect on it as well. As a composer you must be familiar with all the different genres and types of media and be able to use all of them affectively in order to reach whatever particular audience you are trying to reach. If im trying to write an ad for something aimed towards a more younger demographic, I might consider using one of the newer forms of social media, such as Facebook or Twitter. But at the same time if that ad is trying to be aimed at a much older demographic that particular genre of media might not work as well and I might be better suited with an older genre, such as print media. This is definitely something I can apply in this class because with all things you do, you must take into account what particular audience you are aiming for.
As a sports fan and major follower of sports and particularly sports media, the biggest example I can think of remediation is the increasing use of Twitter in the world of sports media. Its become the strangest thing over the last few years, but it seems that more and more stories are being broken via Twitter than on previous social networking sites. Frequently on ESPN reporters and even the athletes are beginning to break huge issues on their Twitter pages. It has gotten to the point that athletes have even began to be fined for things they have said on Twitter and then the media will cover it as if it’s a real story. That is a great example of an old media format (television) adapting and using the newer media format (Twitter/social networking) to help keep their product current and up to date.
Remediation, as defined by Bolter and Grusin, is “the process by which new media technologies improve upon prior technologies.” From that I get that remediation is the constant updating and rapid replacement of media technology. One strategy of remediation is immediacy, which is “a style of visual representation whose goal is to make the viewer forget the presence of the medium and believe that he is in the presence of the objects of representation” (Grusin & Bolter). There is also a completely different approach, hypermediacy, which is “visual representation whose goal is to remind the viewer of the medium.” In regards to remediation, I also like Gabrielle’s way of explaining it as “modernization” to keep up with technology. I also feel that our culture has an obsession with both maintaining and conquering the newest form of any technology or material item in general and this need is, in my opinion, one driving force of updating and therefore remediation. On that note, I think the example gbyrne gives is perfect; when new and improved phones keep coming out, it is remediation because it “erases media in the act of multiplying it” and creates something faster and better. I love Amanda’s example of Across the Universe as a remediation of Beatles songs because it builds on the old songs, using updated formats and also provides that feeling of immediacy.
ReplyDeleteRemediation is extremely relevant to our major because remediation will always be an evolving process present in our studies of interest, as it concerns the way mediums are repurposed and changed. Even after our class is over, the world of media will still continue to constantly change, and if we keep that in mind, we will be able to handle remediation, or even aid in the process of it. Overall, if you look at composing with remediation in mind, it seems that a multimedia approach is the most beneficial way to go about any form of composing or communication of information in today’s technologically advanced society. I think if every medium is constantly adapting or building upon predecessors, we should keep that in mind while trying to get a point across effectively. For example, websites these days are efficient if they include not only text but graphics, video clips, blogging, etc.
Before I started reading Grusin and Bolter, whenever I thought of the word remediation, I always thought of environmental remediation because I was recently in an environmental literature class. Not the same field, I know, but the two share a basic concept of remediation. If the goal of environmental remediation is the removal of pollutants by means of a new remedy, then it shares in common with remediation in media that it provides a fresh, new idea based off of an old one in order to keep up to speed with present day factors that affect all humans. Both fields, media and the environment, are of growing concern and importance to the population-- “Go Green” is a spreading concept, and media is obviously present every time we turn on a computer, phone, or television. Also, remediation in both the environment and media sense are the same process of seeking to improve prior technologies and remedying them. Thats just staying away from the traditional interpretation of remediation as it relates to media, a topic which I think my classmates covered in depth already.
I completely agree with the examples that Alexis and Amanda gave. Myspace introduced the world to global networking and then facebook reintroduced it by making enhancing it and making it more user friendly. I don’t think it is going out on a limb at all to say that especially since it is a well known fact that writer’s such as Shakespeare used well known stories and recreated them. He is not Shakespeare because of the stories he tells but because of his ability to write in pros and verses and make it his own. I also agree with Alexis’ example of Across the Universe which was a multimedia production that was used to portray a revolutionary time in the United States through an assortment of Beatles songs. Remediation is important to EWM majors along with every other creative major there is. Like Bolter said, remediation is not just a part of one medium of work but of all forms art; whether it be on a canvas, online, television, or a billboard. For example where would technology be if there was no such thing as remediation? This world is constantly evolving and it takes a revolving door of idea for us to keep coming up with new ideas and improvements on the last.
ReplyDeleteI’d like to consider remediation a term that signifies the evolution of media into new media that can be shared and devised by old media. It is an inevitable occurrence that allows for the renovation of the old into new. The changing of media keeps it interesting; it allows students like us to have a current database of information. However, just because remediation occurs, does not mean that the information is better. Bolter and Grusin in their work, “Remediation; Understanding New Media”, define remediation as a response from our internet society to “both multiply its media and to erase all traces of mediation; ideally, it wants to erase its media in the very act of multiplying them”. One term that Bolter and Grusin take the time to define and consider essential to our understanding of remediation includes- immediacy; which occurs when we ignore or deny the act of remediation.
ReplyDeleteAs EWMers we must understand that our field is constantly adapting and changing. So we can draw upon the similarities between the process of remediation and the editing and composition process. A work or script can change as the composer follows through with its publishing therefore, I can understand the importance for us to know the terms associated with remediation. An example of remediation in the genre of Movies and Film is the example of Alice and Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz. The storyline of Alice in Wonderland includes a girl who falls down the rabbit hole into an alternate reality where she must find the queen to get her back home. Similarly, the storyline where Dorothy is plummeted into an alternate reality by a tornado and must find her way back home meeting cooky characters with a dog named Toto. Obviously the similarities between the two stories lend themselves to each other and we can see that the stories are descendants, or at the very least variations of the original story by Lewis Carroll.
When I think about the word remediation I think of I immediately think about the helping or the improving of a deficiency or problem. Remediation is the intent to correct or improve deficient skills in a particular subject(s). Paul Levenson defines remediation as “the “anthropottropic” process by which new media technologies improve upon or remedy prior technologies. Bolter and Grusin define it as “the formal logic by which new media refashion prior media forms. Along with immediacy (a style of visual representation whose goal is to make the viewer forget the presence of the medium and believe that he is in the presence of the objects of representation (272-273)) and hypermediacy (a style of visual representation whose goal is to remind the viewer of the medium (272)), remediation is one of the three traits of our genealogy media (273). Remediation influences both hypermediacy and immediacy, in a weird way. Remediation is the collaboration of both immediacy and hypermediacy; I say this for the “purpose” of remediation is to make a medium seem transparent as though you were viewing something in person. For example, let’s say I go to the Oglesby Gallery in both person and online. I see the original of Van Gogh’s Starry Night in person. Remediation is supposed to give me the feeling as if I was viewing this painting in person. The same as broadcasting an event live over the web, remediation is suppose to bring and improve your current atmosphere as you not only listen (radio) to viewing (live streaming) of the event. I agree with Alexis when she says that, “…remediation is trying to reproduce reality online. It’s recreating the world as we know it online through graphics, images, videos, or what have you.” The place where immediacy and hypermediacy come into play is by them basically feeding off of each other. For instance the typical common house phone was invented in 1876 by Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell. This will be the immediacy, and hypermediacy would be the invention of the mobile phone 100 years later. I know we remember those old phones that were as big as a baby car seat. With the involvement of hypermediacy this also transformed, the older phones simply allowed others to call on the move, while now of days, out mobile phones allow us to not only hold a conversation, but also text, surf the web, check and send email’s, listen to music, take pictures, and record videos as well. The list goes on, remediation has made it so that mobile phones have become of our everyday activities without the “burden” of even knowing that we are doing what it is that we are doing. Remediation has made surfing the web transparent while we are on our phone, and if anything goes wrong we say that our phone is stupid or it isn’t moving fast enough.
ReplyDeleteI think of remediation as a continuous process of reimagining. It seems like this constant contest between new and old media for survival while at the same time new media (in my opinion) could not exist without the advancements of the of what came before it. Immediacy as term is the need for creators (such as computer programmers and graphic designer goal to eliminate the median or as the text states, to make it “transparent.” The ultimate desire of media is not just to bring the sense to user directly, uninterrupted or tarnished by a median that takes away from the experience like an external noise or image distortion in graphics. Perhaps ultimate fantasy of new media is to bring the user into the media itself, something far more extravagant than just doing ones best to imitate reality in media. How remediation fits into my life and this class, it’s essential in our careers. What many of us do with our degrees after college will depend heavily on the most current advancements in media at that time. Being EWM majors, English majors in general, many of us might find that the form of media we may have been specializing in has changed or become obsolete. With the way media is advancing as fast as it is, new technologies, new programs and websites and applications become available to the public each month it may become apparent that we will have to catch up to the rest of the world with what’s in at the moment. I agree with Kelly who says that remediation can in its own way be defined as what’s “normal” at the moment. If we are not in touch with what’s normal at the moment then we cannot hope to make a living, like Kelly says, money is the key motivator in today’s world.
ReplyDeleteAn example of remediation that I’m seeing everywhere now is this odd fusion of both computers and televisions. Google just released Google TV which is basically a TV that acts as computer desktop and computer modem and can do virtually everything both mediums can do. You would think the internet has virtually no need to compete with the television but it would appear that this is not just a new for advancement, a step up on the latter of remediation for either the TV or the computer but it’s also a response to the television’s latest move: The 3D television. Internet’s found something that it has yet to figure out how to do without the help of extra and often expensive machinery. How does the world? More new media will come out of this move. We may have face jobs lost if the TV, on its own, should become obsolete and whatever it mean for the advancement of computers. Now, personally looking at it from the prospective of a consumer this could actual lead to nowhere. The price is high and the system offers things you can find alternative ways to achieve but that depends on what exactly become the new “normal” in the next ten years or so.
Remediation is contingent upon immediacy and hypermediacy. Immediacy is making a visual experience as close to reality as possible. A live performance such as a concert, play, or any other stage production would be an example of this. You would not be watching through a screen or anything else but your own eyes.
ReplyDeleteHypermediacy is another demand made by audiences. I mean, come on, who can stand just a website with just text? It has to be interactive and instantly connect you to other sources, photos, or video footage. It has to have "random access" and "no physical beginning, middle, or end". The first thing I think of is stumbleupon.com, the website that promotes procrastination for college kids everywhere. Once you're on, you're taken from page to page to page to video to pictures infinitely.
As information becomes more accessible, more and more compose on their own and everyone becomes a composer. It means students have to up their game and use new mediums to reach their audiences. If there's one thing the Internet and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets has taught me, it's to not believe everything you read. It's much harder to find reliable sources of information now.
An example of remediation would be Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas. It's a children's book, turned animation, turned film, turned Holiday season event at Island of Adventures called "Grinchmas". Animation to film may be repurposing, but it reached a completely different set of people and changed up the story some to add teenage and orphan heartbreak.