In preparation for this week’s topic for ds106 I opted to put out a question via twitter to get input on how you explain the differences between mashups and remixes (I get sloppy and move somewhere in the vague area between).
Probably the best outcome was getting clued into Star Wars Call Me Maybe. Shannon Wiebe gets my vote for the fruitiest metaphor
@cogdog#ds106 mash up=different songs together remix=1 song played in new way, mash up=fruit kabob remix=strawberries blended into smoothie
Mainly I got that Remix is a retelling, recasting of a single piece of media, say The Shining, in a new way (think the recut movie trailers, which change the meaning of the content by simple re-ordering and adding of music) — e.g. 2.6 million views cant be wrong
While a mashup mixes together media fro different sources, say a version of the Shining with an alternate media, say Jerry McHGuire
Are the differences really significant?
I have not played with storify in a while so wrapped in the tweets with some other links:
This one was a pain. You would think we’d have found better ways to synchronize slides and audio for upload to YouTube, but nooooooo. I used Audacity for audio, then opened audio in Quicktime Pro and added the images to each piece of audio (Add Selection and Scale). No big deal, but YouTube didn’t like the .mov result, even though it was in H264 and everything. Had to export as avi to get YouTube to accept it, reducing image quality.
Wow, what a week! Video activities in ds106 have kept me very busy. Add a full-time job, a concussion, and various other issues this week and I’m almost surprised I survived…with my sanity at least!
So I’m at Balboa Park in San Diego, on the Daily Create day in question, and I suddenly frantically look around for a natural scene without a human artifact.
I was at the park going to see Richard III at the Old Globe and wanted to go get my tickets. So it didn’t occur to me till later that even though I blocked evidence of human interference in the shot, a eucalyptus tree is automatically a human artificact. Humans brought eucalyptus to this part of the country – they aren’t native.
Things are really going super duper with responses to the Seven Day Daily Create Challenge, where last Wednesday I dared y’all (that means you, all 4 billion people in the internet) to do a ds106 Daily Create seven days in row.
People are stepping up, some of whom have not done TDCs before, and at least 2 UMW students are in the action. I’ve been doing daily summaries, found at my blog tag 7daychallengetdc.
Originally I had said at the end, I would challenge you to make up a digital story from your own work. And you can certainly do that… you make up your own rules (which still makes me wonder when people tweet apologies about not getting it done by midnight or the same day, phooey). After all, its not like anyone is getting graded here!
Then, and here is where it gets interesting, my friends, is that you are to make a mashup of content that other people created for each fo the seven days, and to make an interesting story out of it. How you do it is up to you, but you should use the media (and link back, give ‘em credit) to 7 different pieces of media submitted for the Daily Create on the days you did yours.
So there it is- now I challenge you to weave together a story from the work other people did the same seven days you did your own TDCs.
This week in the world of Daily Creates, cogdog expressed his frustration with lack of consistent participation with The Daily Create and issued a 7-day Daily Create Challenge. Rising to his challenge, I worked to complete the Daily Creates daily, everyday. And here’s what I came up with:
I took this picture through the open sunroof of my car while sitting in traffic on my way home. I promise, traffic was dead stopped…I was NOT trying the photograph and drive simultaneously! The clouds were looking quite omnious as a storm was brewing. Looked like trouble to me…at least this was not going to make my commute home easy.  I didn’t see it initially, but cogdog commented that he could see a raven. Then I saw it…yet another sign of trouble!
This one was super easy and FUN! Referring back to the ds106 Packing List for web-based drawing tools, I found Flamepainter! What a cool concept! Selected my colors for a fiery theme, looped the cursor around a few times, and…easy, peasy…a fiery tornado. After uploading, it got the attention of a few participant that left complimentary comments, including a comment inquiring about Flamepainter. After publishing a tweet about it on Twitter, I think I turned a few excited followers on to a new tool to play with!
I so love the photograph challenges! It gives me an excuse to play with my camera. I am still amazed at the power of the zoom on my little red Canon PowerShot SX260. I was standing quite a distance away, using the max 80x zoom to capture these bees on a flower. I love how sharply focused the flower and the bees are while blurring the background, showcasing the subjects! In keeping with the instructions, there is not a single human artifact in this picture, foreground or background!
And we’re back to video again…but this one is easy, even to an amateur like me. I had to wait until late in the day to do this though, because I had the DirecTv guy working on hooking me up with a Whole Home DVR system and new equipment, so I didn’t have TV access most of the day. Using my iPhone camera to record this short clip, I discovered that channel 106 is not accessible to me! You see, channel 106 is ESPN-3D and it promptly reminded me that my TV is not 3D, so it could not play this channel. Maybe one day…
This one left me a little stumped at first. Not to mention, I still avoid hearing my own recorded voice whenever possible! But I sucked it up in the interest of not letting cogdog down! Anyway, it finally occurred to me that credit repair services and debt reconciliation firms are constantly advertising too-good-to-be-true services that will magically “fix” your credit problems and stop debt collections. A shame, really, as I’m sure in the current economy, they find plenty of desperate victims to prey on. Using the SoundCloud app on my iPhone, I was able to record and upload this short call quickly, once I had an idea to work with. I do admit using Audacity to edit out a segment that I didn’t like.
So there are 5 Daily Creates in a row. Sorry, cogdog, I still owe you yesterday’s TDC! No excuses, but in my defense the video session of ds106, combined with a concussion, quite frankly kicked my ass this past week! I’ll have it up later today and will amended this post then.
I would like to pont out that only 2 daily creates were required for ds106 students this week, so I more than doubled that requirement!
Ok, so TECHNICALLY I can live with my iPhone. Unlike cogdog insulin pump, my health and existence does not depend on it. But it sure does make my life easier, keeping me organized, in touch, entertained and more productive. The millions of apps available make it fully customizable to suit my needs and desires. I’ve been an iPhone user for 5 years and I am so happy with it. I can’t wait to see what Apple has in store for the iPhone 5!
There is always that moment when you hear a new song, watch a new show, or see a new movie and go “wait, I swear I have seen/heard this before.” That’s probably because you have seen/heard something very similar. After watching “Everything is a Remix”, Kirby Ferguson makes valid points about entertainment and media all just being reused then reused again. A lot of “action” or “journey” films follow the same basic plot line. For example in comparing Harry Potter to Lord of the Rings. Frodo and Harry Potter are both simple characters but are destined for greatness. They go an epic journey to achieve a certain goal which is saving the world from evil. They go through moments of weakness but have their friend(s) pick them back up again. In the end, they achieve their goal and save the world from destructions. It’s hard to find a unique and original movie. I would first off say documentaries are original, but thats obvious. Toy Story, is another example in my opinion of an original movie. Toys come to life and have their own world based in a child’s room. They go on adventures and want to always be loved by their owner (andy).
It’s hard to come up with a completely original idea when so many movies have already been produced. I think now it is more about how well can a director spin off from a movie idea that has already happened and how well can they sell it.
Camp is now over (see the final story. If you are craving an experience like this, head over to ds106 and see how to participate. For more on the Summer of Magic Macguffin, see.....
