Project 2: Remediation/Remix

Understanding Intertextuality, Mediums and Multi-modality

For this project, you will remix or remediate a text(s) of your choosing. The term remediation comes from Jay
David Bolter and Richard Grusins theory of remediation, and our sense of the term remix will be drawn from
Lawrence Lessigs book Remix. During this project unit, well be read chapters from their books, well critically
analyze examples of both remix and remediation, and well unpack the consequences involved in both. Additionally,
well explore the ways in which copyright works to limit the practice of remediation/remix, and well examine the
ways fair use provides us the opportunity to continue this practice.
The text(s) you decide to remediate/remix is up to you, but youll want to think critically about what texts lend
themselves best to remediation and remix and how that remediation or remix might come to fruition. You are
required to create a remediation or remix, but you do have the agency to shape the rest of your rhetorical situation.
In other words, youll need to determine your exigence and your audience. Youll articulate your rhetorical
situation in full within your rhetorical rationale (which is where the writing comes in and you can read more about
in its own prompt). As you begin to think about your project, consider the following:

the content you remediate/remix (what, how much, and why);

the purpose for your remediation/remix, the function it serves (besides earning a grade, of course);

the genre of both the original text(s) and the new remediated/remixed one (make sure the medium you work
in makes sense as a compliment/criticism of the original[s]);

the texttechnologies youll use to create the remediation/remix and the medium/platform(s) in which
youll subsequently deliver the remediation/remix;

the affordances of those texttechnologies, media, and platforms and the ways they affect your content; and

the audience of both the original text(s) and the remediated/remixed one.
Youll also need to think about issues of copyright and the way your remediation/remix qualifies as an instance of
fair use, which youll also articulate in your rationale. In short, youll want to consider our past readings,
discussions, and activities and the way they inform your understanding and composing of this remediation/remix.
This project is intentionally vague. As well soon learn, remediation and remix, while practices that have been
occurring for years, are nonetheless complex and difficult to grasp in full. Moreover, remediation in particular is a
broad concept, applied to both technologies and texts, that can manifest itself in various ways. In other words, each
of you will probably approach and conceive of your remediation/remix differentlyand thats a good thing.
I encourage you to think about how your project can respond to a real world exigence. I suggest trying to think of
an audience other than me. Also, think about how your remediated/remix text will circulate, and how it will reach
its intended audience.
Finally, a quick note on the medium. As noted above, youll want to consider the affordances of the medium you
choose and the ways those affordances affect the content you intend to remediate/remix. As for actual media, you
can go in almost any direction; that is, these remediations/remixes can be written, oral, visual, digital: in short, you
can work with any texttechnologies and choose any medium (or media) as long as it aligns with and is pertinent to
the rhetorical situation you lay out for yourself.
In the process of doing so in this project you will:

Participate in the practice of remediation/remix by using the old to create something new (and understand
how this practice is generative and epistemic).

Project 2: Remediation/Remix
Understanding Intertextuality, Mediums and Multi-modality

Compose for a purpose and an audience.

Understand how content is repurposed and/or refashioned for different genres, media, and audiences.

Compose in a style that is appropriate for your genre and audience.

Arrange your text in a way that is appropriate for your genre and audience and that fosters an ideal reading
experience.

Deliver your text to your target audience (there is a difference between publication and circulation).

Understand how copyright and fair use affect the practice of remediation/remix and defend your text as an
instance of fair use.