Most English students use their eyes. A lot. They use their eyes to compose essays on a word processor, conduct research on the internet, and create presentations with PowerPoint or even Prezi. And of course, for sighted students, words on a page need eyes. Novels, essays, poems, paper drafts, and instructor comments almost always appear broken down into letters of the alphabet. This workshop hopes to open the door to another sense that is handy for making and perceiving compositions: hearing. What are the possibilities of sound for writing classrooms? How can instructors, especially those who teach online, engage students differently through a voice as opposed to a written text?
For easy clicking, here are some links to tools and/or resources that will accompany today’s upcoming workshop, “Composing with Sound” featuring Sarah Etlinger.
Archives of sounds and music for use in audio compositions
Know about more resources? Put them in the comments!
Rachael Sullivan’s iMovie workshop was fantastic! Although she prepared the workshop for iMovie 09 (per the loaner computer from L&S IT that was supposed to mirror the computers in CRT 108), the room actually has iMovie 08. Details…
In spite of this, we got a great introduction to the general layout and workings of iMovie, learning basic skills that could transfer to all versions of iMovie. Here are the topics we covered:
You can download the iMovie basics handout to see exactly what we covered during the workshop. It includes lots of screen captures that any first-time iMovie users could follow to create their first video—but remember, the handout is written for iMovie 09. Feel free to distribute it to students, or email Rachael for the editable file (sulliv97 [at] uwm.edu). Thanks to everyone who attended the workshop!
And for those who are interested, here are some of the resources and links that Rachael has gathered over the years. (She credits Ken Stone for his excellent iMovie guide, from which she adapted a few screen captures and some instructions for my own handout.)
Material Licensed for Remixing
Free Sound (just sound, no music)
Flickr (go to Search > Advanced Search > Creative Commons)
Possible Assignments, Student Samples, etc.
Know about more resources? Put them in the comments!
This is probably redundant — if you ever check this blog, you probably keep up on journals like CCC and Computers & Composition. But just in case you haven’t checked them out for a while, I highly recommend going to the library or its website or your not-yet-sorted-through mail pile to fish out these journals.
CCC‘s new special issue on the future of rhetoric and composition includes, among other things, Steven Fraiberg’s “Composition 2.0,” which tackles multimodal/multilingual literacy in a high-tech Israeli workplace. Computers & Composition‘s March issue is devoted entirely to Composition 2.0.
There’s all kinds of good stuff here, but I thought I’d highlight two articles:
Of course there’s more — but there’s always more. So what’s been blowing your mind lately?
Our conversation on remix started by looking at how remix was framed as the theme of CCCC 2010: Remix is there used as a metaphor for “changing it up,” “looking at things in a new way.” Not quite “remix,” but not too shabby.
According to the Wikipedia, “a remix is an alternative version of a song, made from an original version. This term is also used for any alterations of media other than song (film, literature etc.).” The notions of “remix” and “mashup” (a mix of two or more songs together) come from music. This has been reinterpreted and translated to image (think AdBusters or Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup cans or comic strip mashups) and video (think sweded movies, montage, changing the audio track of a video clip— stretching out to Auto-Tune the News, etc.). It can also extend to writing.
There are images, sounds, video clips and text aplenty online. Copying those and reworking them with software (or printing images and text and reworking them on paper) is one way to accomplish a remix.
So why do it?
Appropriation and remix are primarily used to make some kind of commentary—but it can also just be a lot of fun to work with a song or image you really like. But “why?” is an important question: why would or should your students should make a remix of something? What does that help them to accomplish?
Other issues surrounding remix
If you’d like this post in a PDF, here is the workshop handout.
How might you use digital image remix and appropriation in an English class?
Or, perhaps, first, how can you work with digital images?
While Photoshop isn’t the only program you can use, it is on the CRT 108 laptops, as well as on lab computers across campus. If you or your students are interested in alternative and open source options, the Wikipedia comparison of raster graphics editors compares an overwhelming number of options. One popular free software alternative is GIMP.
Here are a few resources for those working in Photoshop:
I should also note that I’ve had pretty good luck with the help menu and link, as well as with simply typing things like “working with layers in Photoshop” into a Google search. (It’s not the fastest or smartest way to find an answer, but it’s consistently worked.)
So once you and your students are familiar with digital image manipulation software, what’s next?
Courses & Syllabi
(note: these are not necessarily particular to English/the humanities but provide all kinds of interesting takes on image remix & appropriation)
FURI (Fair Use Remix Institute)
VJ-U. (Video Jockey Wikiversity site – a stretch from Photoshop, but video is one direction remix & appropriation can go.)
Articles & Essays
Hanke, Bob. “For a Political Economy of Indymedia Practice.” Canadian Journal of Communication 30.1
Knobel, Michelle and Colin Lankshear. “Digital Remix: The Art and Craft of Endless Hybridization.” Keynote presented to the International Reading Association (2007)
Examples of remix
Adbusters is an often-used example of the commentary you can do with remix and appropriation.
“English Downfall.” Kairos 13.2
(these are the university and personal webpages of scholars working in and around this area)
remix my lit. (literary, not image, mixes and mash-ups.)
Finally, it bears noting that there are a lot more resources out there — please feel free to share suggestions via comments and email.