Frankenstein/Remix Thoughts

(Because if it has a pretty picture, you'll read it, right? Also because this is what my brain is currently doing with Frankenstein and Remix)

In the spirit of RERO I am going to record my thoughts on Frankenstein as I have them and hopefully glean something coherent from them in a later draft or post. So this is less of a post and more of a research log I guess. I put my most coherent thought at the top.

One thing that we do when we study literature is make connections between texts. We highlight how they are similar, how they are different, and how they matter. Remix is one way of drawing connections between digital "texts." A visual (or auditory) demonstration of connections.

This thought was inspire by this video, titled "Inception-FRANKENSTEIN: Mashup trailer 2011"

When I saw the description I was interested in watching it because I wondered how the creators were going to connect these two stories. As it turns out it was just the Inception music laid over the famous creation scene, but it got me thinking.

A Frankenstein Rap: 

Really not my thing. But, from the little that I was able to listen to without sticking sharp objects in my ears, it is clear that this guy read the book and isn't just rapping about the pop culture version. I don't much like it, but this guy has remixed the story in a way this is (apparently) fun and meaningful for him.

So, what? The usefulness of remix doesn't just have to lie with the end user. It can be useful for the creator, who can explore a topic in a way that is meaningful to them, rather than just dry or forced academia which might not be useful or interesting to them.

Remix supports Web 2.0: " In a Read Only culture, a small professional group produces all the culture that is then consumed by the masses. The public can only absorb and take in the culture, but it leaves no room to interact with the culture. " (Wikipedia). So, remix allows us to engage in the conversation rather than just viewing boring, non dynamic Web. 1.0 pages, as it were.

Other Assorted Thoughts

The  R. Walton (the explorer guy) goes looking for one thing in the arctic, but finds quite another. Similarly, sometimes we go into the digital world looking for one thing and find another.

"...I shall certainly find no friend on the wide  ocean, nor even here in Archangel, among merchants and seamen.  Yet some feelings, unallied to the dross of human nature, beat even in these rugged bosoms," (5).

"One man's life or death were but a small

price to pay for the acquirement of the knowledge which I sought, for

the dominion I should acquire and transmit over the elemental foes of

our race.  As I spoke, a dark gloom spread over my listener's

countenance.  At first I perceived that he tried to suppress his

emotion; he placed his hands before his eyes, and my voice quivered and

failed me as I beheld tears trickle fast from between his fingers; a

groan burst from his heaving breast.  I paused; at length he spoke, in

broken accents:  "Unhappy man!  Do you share my madness?  Have you

drunk also of the intoxicating draught?" (13)

-Two views on the sanctity of life


"I spoke of my desire of finding a friend, of my

thirst for a more intimate sympathy with a fellow mind than had ever

fallen to my lot, and expressed my conviction that a man could boast of

little happiness who did not enjoy this blessing.  "I agree with you,"

replied the stranger; "we are unfashioned creatures, but half made up,

if one wiser, better, dearer than ourselves--such a friend ought to

be--do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty natures,"  (13)

-Walton had expressed earlier his desire and inability to find a friend on his voyage. By travelling into this Brave New World, he finds one-just like the long tail (right way to describe it?) of social groups


Frankensteinia-a blog dedicated to Frankenstein

Looking into some Frankenstein Remixes:

 I, Frankenstein.

A new Frankenstein movie (with some pretty big names) Imdb's description reads thus: "Frankenstein's creature finds himself caught in an all-out, centuries old war between two immortal clans." I'm wondering why it is useful to have the creature as the one getting caught up in the war as opposed to someone else.

Thoughts:

All of the pop culture versions seem to portray Dr. Frankenstein as the quintessential  mad scientist type. However, he does not seem to be a mad scientist in the book. He's tormented certainly, but not mad. Why the differences?

The Horror of Transformation: Remix

Quick side note: our group has been working under the assumption that there are people out there who don't like remix. I've yet to search for or find these people, but this post is working under that assumption.

Today in my 495 class we discussed The Island of Dr. Moreau. In the book, a man is shipwrecked and ends up on an island with strange, beast-like men. It turns out that Dr. Moreau, who owns and lives on the island, takes animals and operates on them in an attempt to make them human. Totally gross out worthy and horrific. I highly recommend the book.

At one point in the discussion, Professor Horrocks asked us what exactly was so horrifying for us about what Dr. Moreau was doing. Was it the ethics of the thing? The subsequent degeneration of the animals back into their animistic natures? The lack of anesthetic and the screams of the animals being vivisected?

For me it was the transformation of something from its natural state to something tortured and unnatural. I've always been squeamish about human transformation. The first time I saw the movie Willow, I had to leave the room when they all got turned into pigs. It was unnatural. They were in pain. It honestly made me sick to my stomach. During the werewolf transformation scenes in Van Helsing I still have to close my eyes and plug my ears. I can barely watch Bruce Banner's first transformation in the Avengers. What really bothers me about these transformations is how painful they seem. It just plain freaks me out.

I think the same sort of principal works for our horror at what is going on in stories like these:


The Wolfman/Werewolves
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Dracula
Frankenstein

i.e., something natural turning unwillingly and perhaps painfully into something unnatural.

Does this apply to remix? Might some people not like it because they see something they like and are comfortable with (read: natural) twisted into something new and uncomfortable (read: unnatural)? That the original way something is is its natural and correct state and that should not be tampered with?

Thoughts on Literature Remix

I remembered an experience today while trying to consider Frankenstein in the light of remix. Y'all remember how I HATE Charles Dickens? Well, a remix (in a sense) almost persuaded me to give him another try a few years ago.

Two or three Christmases ago, a friend persuaded me to go with him to see the Jim Carrey version of A Christmas Carol. I remember not being overly excited, as the movie's trailer made it seem like just another goofy Jim Carrey movie with hijinks but not much substance. In addition, I knew the basic story (who doesn't? It's kind of like Jekyll and Hyde or Frankenstein; part of the culture even if you've never read it) and wasn't interested in learning more.

I was very pleasantly surprised. Instead of just a goofy kids movie, it was an adaptation that (I think) really tried to stay true to the spirit of the book; including the much darker parts. What delighted me most was the dialogue. I  loved how things were said in this movie, and I could tell that they were using Dicken's own writing (because no one write prose that amazing). One line in particular stood out to me as being just brilliant:

""You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you[!]" (emphasis added)

The dialogue (MUCH more than the story itself) got me interested in giving Dickens another try, specifically in this book. I wanted to hear/read more of his brilliant and witty prose. So, I downloaded the free audiobook and gave it a try.

So I guess the value of this "remix" for me was rediscovering a well known story in a new (for me)
way.

Low Tech Re-route!

One glance at this online copy of Frankenstein and I knew that I would
have a headache within minutes. So I turned this

Into this

It's not that much better, admittedly, but I might get a few chapters in before screaming and attacking inanimate objects. Anyone know how to get Word to ignore grammar and spelling for an entire document?

Video 1 Partial Mockup

I don't have any video editing equipment on this machine, but here's a sort of mock up of part of the first video. There are a ton of problems to be worked out here. Number one on my concern list is how to work in the Frankenstein metaphor smoothly. But, here's what I have:

Video 1: The Monster

Maybe start in with the Numa Numa guy video playing, cuz it's awesome. Keep the audio in the background as we move on to other examples, giving the video a light and silly feel at first, then do some serious music when we move into "ultimately they are all time wasters"

(Show examples with each, videos when applicable) Spoken: Viral Videos. Silly Cats. Memes. Parodies. Remixes. Machinimas. We all love them, but in the end, what are they? Entertainment and a chance to laugh, but ultimately they are all Time Wasters. Ladies and gentlemen, we have something monstrous on our hands.

Viral Videos.

Silly Cat Videos 

Memes.

Parodies.
(This is from A Very Potter Musical-I think we should have a better example of a parody here, something literary perhaps? Something recognizable by a sizable amount of people as well)

Remixes.

(Is this a good one to use here?)

Machinima.

We all love them, but in the end, what are they? (Visually, what can we show here?) 

Entertainment and a chance to laugh, but ultimately they are all Time Wasters. (Ditto?) 

Ladies and gentlemen, we have something monstrous on our hands. (This is a non pop culture pic of Frankenstein. Somehow. Would something more recognizable be better here?)

Update: turns out I actually DO have a video editing program on this computer! Updates upcoming. Thanks to Katie Wilkie for helping me!

My Vision: 3 Videos and a Challenge

So this is the vision I had for our project yesterday (Click to enlarge):

And this is a more refined version:

So, like webisodes. I see it as being similar to this site, with all three videos embedded on one web page. If we get ambitious we can include more information on the site that doesn't fit easily into our "narrative," perhaps links to blogs or more information or whatever.

I think it's important that we end with something like "Look, we redeemed remix. What will YOU redeem?"

Midterm Self-Evaluation

Non-Fiction Book: All Your Base are Belong to Us

As I said in my original blog post, I was slightly disappointed with the book I chose. The content was actually really interesting, but did not discuss what I had hoped. I talk about it a little in my original post.I realized today that I have another question: How have video games changed the way we interact with one another in terms of culture, and especially pop culture? What topics are colored or coded differently in our conversations because of video games or the stories/characters they embody?

On positive thing that it did for me was fix my view of how video games came into being. I had never really thought about the rise of the video game before, but if I had I might have thought that video games just came from start up companies determined to take advantage of computers in a fun way. In some cases that is correct, but not all. Nintendo, for example, existed as a game company for many, many years before it got into the video game business.

Fiction: Jekyll+Hyde

I initially made the connection between J+H and Digital Culture in terms of the concept of split worlds/personalities. In the book, Mr. Hyde acts in ways that Dr. Jekyll would never consider. In a similar way, we sometimes act differently on the internet than we normally would. We represent ourselves slightly different than reality, and some people behave badly or rudely when they would not do so in "real life."

Video games can act as a sort of Hyde-inducing elixir for us. Much of the act of playing a video game includes the act of stepping into someone else's shoes and acting in ways that we would not in real life. My husband and I would probably not shoot bandits in real life, but we do in our game. Video games allow us to step into our "Hyde" selves, though it should be noted that in a game the Hyde version of ourselves might not be evil. Games encourage us to act like someone else for a time.


Self Directed Learning:

I have thoroughly enjoyed being able to direct my own learning in this class. I set a goal to use the internet in new ways that I was not necessarily familiar with or comfortable with. One way I decided to do this was reactivate my Twitter account and follow a group of people related to my interests. My biggest success has been following Markus Persson (notch), who is one of the creators of Minecraft. He tweets about things that I find interesting and often go learn more about. Today's example: Notch re-tweeted this:

Which led me to this article which concerns the closed nature of Windows 8 (see the section on Other Interests).

Something that I would like to do the rest of the semester is expand my usual resources. I'd like to move away from simply Googling a topic and only looking at what comes up on the first page. Rather I'd like to be able to find interesting things in more diverse places. At this point I'm not entirely sure what that entails, but I have in mind a sort of journey down the long tail: Perhaps starting with a Google search, but finding links and topics from the items I find there instead of then just returning to Google.

Other Students:

I've really enjoyed connecting with classmates on Google Plus. I feel that it has helped me specifically in my self-directed learning. I enjoy seeing the topics that interest people in the class and discover that I share those interests. One important thing that I learned is that while RERO is great, you should probably reread and revise at least once before release to make sure you are saying what you really want to say.

I found it very encouraging when I would post something on Google+ and get lots of feedback from my classmates. I wish I could have gotten more feedback on my few blog posts, but I suppose in order for that to happen I would need to write on topics that are more relevant to people's interests.

Other Interests:

One of the things that really interests me (besides video games) is the idea of openness on the internet and technology. What originally got me interested was the series Everything's a Remix. I was especially interested in the opinion that the notions of "intellectual property" and copyrighting were originally useful but are now outdated. I'm intrigued by the idea of open source content. But how do we reconcile the great idea of free material and ideas with the fact that people have to make a living?

Prototyping

A bitty Castle Frankenstein. Not accurate to the book, but a proof of concept maybe?