Read Eli Horwatt, “A Taxonomy of Digital Video Remixing: Contemporary Found Footage Practice on the Internet”

      Often it seems that the most prominent video remixers are not part of society, as if they could see us from afar, and thus they gave us a clue on where we stand in this big ocean of media we must all traverse. They even give us the option of not traversing it at all, we should all have a choice. But the characteristics of this remixers can also be the opposite, they could be completely drowned into media, thus giving us the perspective of someone that has been consumed by all the messages that circulate on the net. Even though their messages may be compelling, most of them don’t attempt to institutionalize our view on some issue, instead they can be regarded as an advice to revise our personality and interaction with media. They stand at the same level as we all do, they are users that demand more out of media distributors and we all want more, we want more out of all the services we receive. Because, after all, it is a service, and we shouldn’t allow ourselves to become slaves of this service. Hence proper remixing can be seen as the capability of seeing with your own eyes, and enjoying with your own mind set the service that media can provide.

Roman Mars' radio interview with Max Neuhaus on "Radio Net,"

       To construct a new medium for the creation of content was an important advancement in the realm of radio, by allowing the audience to interact with the radio transmission. The sole experience of being a spectator of an event like this would’ve been the experience of being the spectator of a great work of art. But of course, for the new concept to continue to be artistic it is necessary that the audience realizes that the new concept must be kept alive by means of innovation. Just as a piece of unprocessed meat is not considered a piece of culinary art, for the new concept of radio to keep evolving it is necessary to innovate in terms of its usage and/or harmony. It is in some sense inviting the audience to come back to the times where music was a collaborative work of art, where all the community participated, and the content wasn’t imposed the media. I think developments such as this are important not only for artistic purposes, but also to allow the public to realize all the freedom they are giving away when they decide to use mediums such as radio or television. To realize that choosing and creating the information that surrounds you is not a right but an obligation of every human being that wants to live a meaningful authentic life, and not someone else’s life, or the way of life that is considered fashionable at the time.

The Exquisite Corpse Is Alive and Well

It seemed that with the advent of internet communication and digital design applications artists would now become more individualist than ever before. The context is propitious for making complex works of art with word wide exhibition for free and from the hand of a single artist. But the actual scene is very different, the web and media seemed to be filled with collaborative art. This may be due to many phenomena, for instance we could come to the conclusion that as some old-fashioned people say “internet ruins your imagination”, but even if does ruin your imagination most likely it ruins it at the same rate as formal education does, and formal education hasn’t been eradicated yet. This due to the fact that even if formal education limits our capacity for innovation in terms of concepts, it provides a stable ground for the manipulation of this concepts, and thus allows us to innovate in the realm of construction and assimilation of content. The general public now grasps this new tool of expression in its hands as many become concerned on whether society will be able to discern the great power and responsibility it yields. And of course, just as in education, there are always exceptional beings that reveal against the limitations imposed to them and create new concepts, thus adding more nourishment for society to assimilate.

"Deep Storage: Collecting, Storing, and Archiving in Art"

“Deep Storage” seems to give the spectators the opportunity to become artists themselves , and to experience the mind of the artist not only trough the finished work but also by exploring the context of the creation and handling of the finished object. The audience can experience the curiosity that the vision of the storage containers produce and use their imagination to fill them with objects according to their own subjective idea of value. On the other hand when the objects stored are visible the audience can reflect on the characteristics of this art, as it seems to reveal unseen characteristics when its placed in storage. It is mentioned that these characteristics can either add interest on the objects or lead the spectator to reduce them to pieces of furniture. Either way it is interesting to observe that the importance of product over process is diminished with the inclusion of all this context into the exhibition. I think that art reveals the heart of every artist. But, in a scenario where the process is exposed, the process may become the heart, while the finished product would seem more related with the mind, the intention, of the artist.

"Good Copy Bad Copy," -

      It is difficult for me to understand how the pirate bay is able to operate because the country in which they are located cares about the freedom of their citizens, while in other countries, people that recreate existing material, who are artists, and don’t distribute copies of copyrighted material, but use it to create new content are chased like criminals.



      If science for example where to follow this commercial structure we would be really behind in innovations. Since, everyday all around the world, databases containing thousands of scientific publications are accessed in order to exchange ideas and discoveries between scientists so new content can be created and summed to the knowledge of humanity.

      The music industry and many other artistic industries could well adapt to similar commercial structures, but they would have to give away a lot of the power they exert nowadays. Just like telephone companies are reluctant to updating their wireless cell phone network, since it’s easier to get revenue from the old GSM system. Power corrupts not only people, but also industries as a whole. Nevertheless, there is always competition in most industries and if other entrepreneurs see an opportunity to enter or even create a new market they will certainly push older enterprises to update their approach.

Rachel Rosenthal

         This performance artist has managed to be active for half a decade with numerous contributions to the field. Such as the instant theater, which was an improvised happening related with chance. This situation gave artists the chance to express their performance capabilities in a more ample context.
         Her performances are complete in the sense that they create a completely artificial context for the viewer, with elements such as music, lightning, costumes, make up , and scenery, that are more common for theatre presentations than performance art.
         The themes she addresses in her work are similar with other performance artists such as feminist ideas, the queer community, the inner self, sex and on the other hand her work is also related with less common themes such as mythology and mysticism. But she seems to include her feminist ideas in all the work she does, and also her respect for animals. Her webpage states : “Rosenthal's work centers around the issue of humanity's place on the planet. She is an animal rights activist, a vegetarian, and companion to three outstanding dogs… Sasha… Charlie…and Mrs. Moore.”
         As she has been aging she is no longer able to perform in the whole of her physical capabilities but still stands on the performance set and performs with her students and coworkers. She has been giving classes and workshops for artists in universities such as Carnegie-Mellon, spreading her creativity to new artists and arranging performances directed by her.

Jorge Luis Borges, "Funes, His Memory" (1942)

      Borges begins his narrative by acquainting us with the unusual world that Funes perceives. He describes Funes capability of perception as admired by some and enjoyed by Funes himself, and emphasizes his swiftness at learning any language and perceive everything in detail, contrasting it with our constant procrastination and general feeling that we are immortal and thus we ought not now everything or do everything. We could then say that Funes lives each day at the maximum of his cognitive capabilities.

      On the other hand Borges makes us appreciate the importance of reason and thought regarding any kind of experience. Through his description of Funes’s condition we can discern that the real value of experience is not every single detail of it, but our capability of abstractraction. Transforming experiences into meaningful pieces of information allows us to give a logical structure to our lives and interact with the world using reason. At this point we are able to observe that Funes is trapped in a continuous flow of stimuli, without any structure, that consumes him as time advances.

      Finally it’s strange to see that in the original reading the title is “Funes el memorioso” meaning that Funes had very good memory, but ironically all he remembered wasn’t something we would normally classify as “memories” since they didn’t involve any interpretation of the experiences.