Transformative Works and Cultures has released No. 9, Fan/Remix Video, guest edited by Francesca Coppa and Julie Levin Russo. An exciting slate of essays and multimedia explorations discuss issues related to videos of all sorts, including fan videos, AMVs, and political remix. Check out TWC’s vids for the issue:
“Nirgaga,” trailer for TWC’s Fan/Remix Video issue by Kevin Tomasura (2012).
“Timeshifting,” trailer for TWC’s Fan/Remix Video issue by Kevin Tomasura (2012)
Tracking Error,” trailer for TWC’s Fan/Remix Video issue by Kevin Tomasura (2012).
This special issue of TWC provides scholarly essays, multimedia, and interviews, most of which utilize the online-only aspect of TWC to embed videos and images. It engages a broad variety of remix video genres–vids, anime music videos, political remix, queer video, fan trailers and reedits, and others–and features cutting-edge theoretical essays about the ways in which multimedia literacy is changing our culture.
The guest editors hope that this issue will be of interest to artists, fans, and academics alike. “One of the things that interested us was the way remix sits within the classic liberal arts,” says Francesca Coppa. “Both Julie Levin Russo and I have taught courses about remix, and we hope this issue will be useful to teachers and learners alike.”
Paul Booth considers how remixes mash together two time frames. Tisha Turk and Joshua Johnson claim that scholars of remix typically paint vidders as articulate consumers rather than as producers in their own right. Virginia Kuhn discuss vids in terms of rhetoric and reading strategies. Kim Middleton links the crisis of the humanities and the rise of the remix. Sarah Fiona Winters provides a close reading of two vids that many fans will recognize: “Closer” and “On the Prowl.” Agnese Vellar analyzes vids that riff on Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” video. And Kathleen Williams assesses fake and fan movie trailers as architectural desire lines.
Martin Leduc surveys the career of political remixer Jonathan McIntosh; Zephra Doerr looks at anime abridged series; and Forest Phillips explores Star Wars fan edits and recuts. Popular vidder counteragent interviews fellow vidder Bradcpu, and artists Desiree D’Alessandro and Diran Lyons together discuss the ways remix culture has influenced their work. Brett Boessen presents a video interview with fair use advocates Eric Faden and Nina Paley. And Lindsay Giggey reviews Jennifer Gillan’s 2010 book Television and New Media: Must-Click TV.
In curated lists of historically important videos, Ian Roberts discusses “Genesis of the Digital Anime Music Video Scene,” and Jonathan McIntosh provides a history of pre-YouTube history of political remix. Elisa Kreisinger considers remix as a queer act. Finally, Alexandra Juhasz addresses the shallowness and triviality of remix in her “Fred Rant” video book.