Remix theory: the aesthetics of sampling

186 Pages·2012·3.08 MB·English

by  Eduardo Navas

~ SpringerWienNewYork
Eduardo Navas
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THE AESTHETICS OF SAMPLING
SpringerWienNewYork
Eduardo Navas, Ph.D.
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow
Information Science and Media Studies
University of Bergen, Norway
With financial support of The Department of Information Science and Me-
dia Studies at The University of Bergen, Norway.
This work is subject to copyright.
All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is con-
cerned, specifically those of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations,
broadcasting, reproduction by photocopying machines or similar means,
and storage in data banks.
Product Liability: The publisher can give no guarantee for all the informa-
tion contained in this book. The use of registered names, trademarks, etc.
in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific state-
ment, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and
regulations and therefore free for general use.
© 2012 Springer-Verlag/Wien
SpringerWienNewYork is part of
Springer Science+Business Media
springer.at
Cover Image: Eduardo Navas
Cover Design: Ludmil Trenkov
Printing: Strauss GmbH, D-69509 Mörlenbach
Printed on acid-free and chlorine-free bleached paper
SPIN 86094050
With 60 figures
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012939340
ISBN 978-3-7091-1262-5 SpringerWienNewYork
Contents
Acknowledgments [vii]
Preface [xi]
Introduction: Remix and Noise [1]
Chapter One: Remix[ing] Sampling [9]
Sampling Defined (11) —The Three Chronological Stages of Mechanical Repro-
duction (17) —The Four Stages of Remix (20) — Analytics: From Photography to
Remix Culture (22) — The Regressive Ideology of Remix (27)
Chapter Two: Remix[ing] Music [33]
A Night at Kadan, San Diego, CA (35) — Dub, B Sides and Their [re]versions in
the Threshold of Remix (36) — The Threshold in Dub (37) — Dub: From Acetate
to Digital (39) — Subversion and the Threshold (42) — Analytics: From Reggae
to Electronic Dub (44) — Dub in Hip Hop, Down Tempo and Drum ‘n’ Bass (47)
— Dub ‘n’ Theory (50) —Dub-b-[ing] the Threshold (53) — Dub ‘n’ Remix (58)
— Bonus Beats: Remix as Composing (60)
Chapter Three: Remix[ing] Theory [63]
Remix Defined (65) —Allegory in Remix (66) — Analytics: Variations of the Re-
flexive Remix in Music (68) — The Regenerative Remix (73) — Remix in Art
(76) — The Waning of Affect in Remix (86) — Remix in the Culture Industry
(89) — Mashups Defined (93) — From Music to Culture to Web 2.0 (100) —
Web Application Mashups (101) — The Ideology Behind the Reflexive Mashup
(103) Analytics: From Music Video to Software Mashups (105) — Sampling and
the Reflexive Mashup (108) — Resistance in Remix (109) — Remix in History
(111) — Remix in Blogging (120) — Bonus Beats: Remix in Culture (124)
Chapter Four: Remix[ing] Art [129]
A Late Night in Berlin (131) — Remix is Meta (133) — The Role of the Author
and the Viewer in Remix (134) — The Role of the Author and the Viewer in Per-
formance and Minimalism (137) — New Media’s Dependence on Collaboration
(141) — The Curator as Remixer (146) — Online Practice and Conceptualism
(150) — The Regressive Ideology of Remix Part 2 (155) — Bonus Beats: The
transparency of Remix (157)
Conclusion: Noise and Remix [161]
Periférico, Mexico City (163) — After the Domestication of Noise (167) — Bo-
nus Beats: the Causality of Remix (170)
Index [175]
Acknowledgments
I have read many acknowledgments in books that I reference in my own
research. Now that it is my turn to thank people who helped me move to-
wards the completion of this book, I find it difficult to decide when to stop,
so I will thank people based on a straight forward criteria which is self-
evident. I hope not to forget anyone. Writing this book took much longer
that I expected; it was made possible thanks to many people, some who
supported me directly by reading my writing, others who provided oppor-
tunities for presentations and workshops—which often led to intense dis-
cussions, and others who in different ways made sure that I stayed active
even during periods when I had little time to do research because of the
necessity to meet the basic needs of my family.
First, I would like to thank Norman Bryson, Teddy Cruz, Brian Gold-
farb, and Noah Wardrip-Fruin for their support during my graduate studies
in the Program of Art and Media History, Theory and Criticism at Univer-
sity of California in San Diego. I especially thank Lev Manovich, without
whose advice and guidance I would not have been able to complete my
initial research. I also thank him for his ongoing support long after I re-
ceived my Ph.D., and for introducing me to Cultural Analytics.
The final stages of my investigation would not have been possible with-
out the more than generous support of Dag Elgesem, Director of the De-
partment of Information Science and Media Studies at the University of
Bergen, Norway. I thank the Department for their generous financial sup-
port, which made possible this publication. My post-doctoral research at
the University of Bergen found its way to this publication under the sec-
tions titled “Analytics.” I thank the university staff, especially Gjartrud
Kolås, and Rune Arntsen who went out of their way to make my stay in
Bergen as productive as possible; and a special thanks to Alvaro Ramirez,
who during my stay provided much needed feedback on all things impor-
tant about not only research but also life.
I thank the international community of artists, digital humanities & new
media researchers who invited me to lecture and discuss my research and
art work especially (in no particular order) FionaWhitton and Sean Dock-
ray at Telic and The Public School in Los Angeles; Gustavo Romano,
Belen Gache, and Rodrigo Alonzo in Buenos Aires, as well as Lila Pagola
and Jorge Castro in Cordoba, Argentina; Brian Mackern in Montevideo,
Uruguay; Ignacio Nieto, Italo Tello, Ricardo Vega, and Barbara Palomino
in Santiago de Chile; Arcangel Constantini and Karla Villegas in Mexico
City; Leslie Garcia of Dream Addictive in Tijuana, Raul Ferrera-Balanquet
in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico; Mónica Mejia, Juan Sanchez, Fernado Fa-
jardo, and Mayra Barraza in San Salvador, El Salvador; Isabel Restrepo in
Acknowledgments
Medellin, Colombia; Marcos Garcia at Medialab Prado in Madrid, and
Raquel Herrera in Barcelona, Spain; Lucrezia Cippiteli and Kristen Palana
in Rome, Italy; Timo Daum, Christoph Büch, and Klaas Krüger in Berlin,
Germany; Ine Poppe and Sam Nemeth in Amsterdam, The Netherlands;
Mårten Janson, Fia Palmgren, and Ana Valdez in Stockholm and Visby,
Sweden; Scott Rettberg, Jill Walker Rettberg, Patricia Tomaszek, and Eric
Rasmussen in Bergen, Norway; and Nadine Wanono in Paris, France. A
special thanks to Mick Smiley who kept me active as a DJ for over fifteen
years.
I thank long-time collaborators Jo Anne-Greene and Helen Thorington
for making it possible for me to share my initial ideas about Remix in a
publication for Turbulence.org. I thank Greg J. Smith for inviting me to
publish on Vague Terrain an early version of the second chapter of this
book. Thanks to Owen Gallagher, Mette Berke, and Martin Leduc, who
invited me to participate in online seminars on remix.
I also want to thank McKenzie Wark, Dominic Pettman, and Christiane
Paul at the New School; as well as Carlos Rosas, Graeme Sullivan, and
Charles Garoian at Penn State University for giving me the opportunity to
teach as needed. Thanks to Suzanne Lacy and Dana Duff at Otis College
of Art for letting me explore in the classroom my early theories. I thank
Todd Margolis at Center for Research in Computing and the Arts (CRCA)
Calit2, San Diego, who always listened to many of my ideas that never
materialized. I also thank CRCA’s director Sheldon Brown for providing a
space in which to work during my time in San Diego. Thanks to Jordan
Crandall, Adriene Jennik, and Trish Stone for encouraging me to curate
based on my research. Thanks to Ricardo Dominguez and Brett Stalbaum,
whose work, even though it is not analyzed in this book, certainly has pro-
vided me with the necessary strength to believe that there is real critical
potential within a contemporary art practice that, for the most part, is no
longer concerned with actual criticism. Thanks to Jeremy Douglass who
patiently explained to me the principles of Cultural Analytics implemented
at the Software Studies Lab. At Calit2, I thank Hector Bracho for support-
ing me with technical needs during crucial presentations of my research.
A very special thanks to my long-time friend Yong Kim, who took the
time to read carefully my manuscript at different stages of its production; I
also thank long-time friend Ludmil Trenkov, who designed the cover of
this book. I thank my editor David Marold and my project manager An-
gela Fössl at Springer, who were very generous and diligent in the entire
process of editing and making the book find its way down the line of pro-
duction. I also thank Stefan Sonvilla-Weiss for the opportunity to publish
parts of what is now chapter three in this book, in an edited publication of
his own.
viii
Acknowledgments
As this is my first major publication, I would like to thank my mother
Mercedes, my sister Mirna, my brothers Max and Ricardo, who believed in
my career decisions. A special note to my nephew, “little” Max, who I
hope never stops pursuing his own goals in life. I especially want to thank
my wife and partner Annie Mendoza who was my primary creative and
moral support during the long process of finishing this book. Finally, I
dedicate this book to my late sister, Daisy and my father Maximiliano,
who have left this world, and my two young children, Oscar Eduardo and
Oliver Antonio who barely are learning about it. They are all proof of the
beautiful cycle of life.
******
I would like to thank the resources listed in the following acknowledgment
for publishing some of my early research, which has been rewritten and
edited for this publication:
Chapter Two is a revised and extended version of “Dub, B Sides and Their
[re]versions in the Threshold of Remix,” Vague Terrain, August, 2008,
http://vagueterrain.net/journal07/eduardo-navas/01.
Chapter Three contains revised sections from the following texts:
“Remix: The Bond of Repetition and Representation.” In Interactivos II:
ambientes, redes, teleactividad, edited by Rodrigo Alonzo, 32-46. Buenos
Aires: Fundación Telefónica, 2008.
“Regressive and Reflexive Mashups in Sampling Culture,” Vague Terrain,
June 25, 2007, http://www.vagueterrain.net/content/archives/
journal07/navas01.html, which was further revised to be part of Sonvilla-
Weiss, Stephan. Editor. Mashup Cultures. New York: Springer Wien/New
York, 2010.
“Turbulence: Remixes + Bonus Beats,” Turbulence.org & newmediaFIX,
January 22, 2006, http://turbulence.org/texts/nmf.
Chapter Four contains revised sections from "Reflections on Conceptual
Art and its Relation to New Media, a Month Long Conversation at Em-
pyre," Noemalab, Bologna, Italy. January 2006, http://www.noemalab.org/
sections/ ideas/ideas_articles/ navas_conceptual_art.html.
The Conclusion contains a revision of the anecdote “Report on Periferico,
Mexico City: third installment in a series of five,” Netartreview, Septem-
ber 20, 2004, http://www.netartreview.net/
weeklyFeatures/periferico3.html.
ix
Preface
I was not aware of it then, but my research on remixing began when I
bought my first set of turntables during the summer of 1987. I would have
bought them sooner, but I could not afford an expensive set of Technics
1200s and a Numark mixer until I started to work fulltime. Prior to this,
like many aspiring DJs, I would spend countless hours re-dubbing tape-to-
tape recordings I made from the radio. When I took my turntables home, I
could sense that they represented something bigger than music. I had no
idea what that was, so I spent over fifteen years living the not-so-
glamorous life of a DJ who mostly played private parties and weddings,
occasionally spinning at clubs. From East Los Angeles to Beverly Hills, I
got to experience LA culture in a way that I still find hard to describe in
writing.
What the turntables stood for became clear to me in 2003 when I de-
cided to focus on the concept of remix as a type of cultural binder, a glue
that brings elements together beyond music. At the time that I decided to
focus on remixing as a form of discourse (which I refer to as “Remix”
throughout this book), Lawrence Lessig was just beginning to publish on
remix culture, which at times he called free culture, and most recently re-
fers to as read/write culture.
Now that my research finds its way into book form, some nine years
after I started on this quest, much has been published about the subject,
and the rise of “remix studies” has taken hold of academia, with a growing
number of conferences in different parts of the world. I hope that the re-
search community will find the compilation (remixed) version of my re-
search in book form worth perusing.
This book brings together parts of selected texts that were previously
published. My early publications, while accepted as valid references to de-
fine remix in culture, occasionally have been questioned for their specific-
ity. There are two major reasons for this. The first is that previous texts
were released as preliminary studies that were later re-edited based on
feedback from my peers. The second is that as I developed more ideas I
found the need to summarize them in order to meet a limited number of
words for publication as individual essays. Now that I have the chance to
officially publish the material the way that I think makes most sense, it is
my hope that critics will find their questions answered in the longer ver-
sion.
There is a particular criticism that I must mention in this preface for the
reader to keep in mind while moving through the chapters. Some discuss-
ants of my work argue that I tend to generalize Remix and claim it to be
everywhere. I will not respond to this question here as it is dealt with in