Roundtable: Remix and Videographic Criticism

Abstract

In place of a traditional set of book reviews, we offer a conversation among five scholars and remix practitioners on the interrelationships between videographic criticism and other evolving forms of video remix, including political remix and making fanvids. This conversation explores remix, broadly defined as the practice of appropriating, decontextualizing, and recontextualizing media content to create new meanings. While all the participants in this conversation work with and on remix under this broad definition, the contributors to this roundtable situate themselves within interrelated yet distinct communities of practice. The conversation thus demonstrates how “forms” of remix video are constantly proliferating and hybridizing, with parallels and contradictions developing within separate but related communities and aesthetic traditions. As much as we and the participants may strive to discuss specific categories of remix video to convey the breadth and diversity of this form of audiovisual argumentation, it is important to note from the outset that these categories will inevitably overlap and occupy different “genres” simultaneously. In other words, a “fanvid” (also known as a “vid”) might also be classified as a political remix video (or PRV), and vice versa, or it might even occupy both categories simultaneously, depending on who is doing the defining and for what purpose. Indeed, some terminology has shifted within communities, in part because of concerns about perception: some vidders arguably drop the prefix “fan” from the terms “fanvid” and “fanvidding” in part to avoid the perception that vidding is only celebratory and emotional rather than critical and artistic. Moreover, the conversation references some modes of remix such as machinima (video-game remix) only in passing; we hope that future conversations will explore the interrelationships between an even wider diversity of remix forms and practices.