Generation Flash Reading...

What fascinated me the most about this article was the comparison of the audio remix and the visual remix. While I am familiar with the traditional style of collage/montage as a form of visual art, I never thought to use the term "remix", it put visual art in an entirely different context. (for me at least)


I have always hated the 'remix'. I regard music with a blatant sampling of music and meaning as uninspired and cheap. Why don't musicians come up with original compositions, and try to come up with new meanings?
It's unfortunate when I forget my mp3 player at home and am forced to flip through the radio while driving. But it's absolutely horrible when I stumble upon a familiar "loop" only to discover it is not the original, but some crass remix. This has most recently happened to the Rick James' classic 'Superfreak'. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ifkNhakQ-0&feature=related)

So, on principle, I should hate visual remixes. But I do not. I genuinely love Andy Warhol's remix of the 'Mona Lisa'. ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/glindsay65/75781826/)& Marcel Duchamp's L.H.O.O.Q. (http://usimages.easyart.com/i/prints/rw/lg/6/0/Marcel-Duchamp-Mona-Lisa-with-a-Moustache-6000.jpg) is clever.

This is because 'good' visual remixes have a meaning in contrast or separated from the meaning of the original. Andy Warhol's continual commentary on pop, and Duchamp's commentary on Leonardo's sexuality.

As the article progressed I learned that I was wrong, and that perhaps I did not like their idea of a good visual remix. The author of this article breaks down 'artists' into three categories: an artist, a media artist, and a software artist. (page 6)

So the original "Mona Lisa" is done by an artist. and would be considered the modern.
Duchamp and Warhol would be categorized as media artists. their art, post modern.
and there would be no post post modern take on the Mona Lisa. just an abstract remix of the lines & shapes used in it's composition.

I've deduced that software artists are more concerned with writing codes that can produce 'art', than what each code tangibly produces. Websites like (http://www.whitneybiennial.com/) are interesting I guess. But i much perfer the art of past centuries to computerized animations that exist only in pixels, and not in the real world.