Mia+Rossi

Reflection #1 7/10/12

To me a remix is a mashing and reorganization of other people’s thoughts, ideas, sounds, or visual images made into your own creative piece. It is the synthesizing of different materials to make something new and original. Almost any group project could be considered a type of remix. Each group member contributes their own experiences on the topic combined with research and any type of visual pertaining to the topic at hand. An example of this would be my final group project for a disabilities class I took last fall semester. My group consisted of 3 other members beside myself, all of whom were male. Our topic was stadium accessibility and the accommodations provided by sport stadiums throughout the United States and even a few in Europe. Each member had a different experience with stadiums for the simple fact that we all have different sets of family and friends. One group member had a disabled grandparent, so he contributed a first hand account of the accommodations made by the particular stadium at hand. Another group member had the experience of visiting several different stadiums in several different cities that catered to different sports. He gave his insights to the differences displayed in each stadium and was able to contribute concrete facts about how a stadium was built. I researched stadium websites because I didn’t have much knowledge on the topic of stadium accessibility. I also ended up synthesizing all of the material contributed by each member and made it into a PowerPoint. Each member brought something useful to the table and put their own spin on it through personal experiences. I think this could be considered a remix because all opinions and viewpoints culminate into one project to create something original. I think remixes are important because they bring in different elements from different walks of life and create something original that people can enjoy and relate to. They take an original, sometimes-tired idea and add a creative twist that makes them unique.

Reflection #2 7/20/12 The fair use reasoning process relies on four concepts. The nature and purpose of the use are important factors. For example, Project 1 was used to educate the class on skin whitening while critiquing the media’s portrayal of African Americans. We used Beyonce’s four solo album covers to compare them and see how her skin color has gotten lighter and lighter with each album. We wanted to show the class something they may not have noticed.

Another important factor in documenting fair use would be the amount of media used. We found an old ad for skin whitening cream from the 1907s and decided to crop out the article attached to it. We did not need to incorporate the entire ad to get our message across.Under fair use policies this would be a legal use of copyrighted material. It was not necessary to use the entire ad.

The last factor of documenting fair use would be its effect on potential markets. Since our project was a tool used to educate the audience was limited to just the class. It was not placed online and thus did not really effect any consumers. We did use pictures of products such as music albums but the original purchaser of a Beyonce album would not mistake our presentation as a Beyonce album. All of the images used in project one are documented as fair use. We transformed the images through photoshop in order to educate and critique media interpretations.