Remix and Resell
It was a long time ago that I was introduced to the concept of remixing but as embarassing as it is to admit it, it was not until this week that I thought of remixing as anything more than changing a few words to a song or mixing songs together to create something new. More simply put,up until now, remixing to me, did not exist outside the realm of music and it certainly did not exist as a means of reproducing or transforming something that was successful in the past to sell it in the current day. It really dawned on me when Harrison Ford discussed invented products as not simply 1 person's ideas but rather the collaboration of many people's ideas with relation to what resources were available to everyone at that time to use and experiment with. This idea that people copy and transform pre-existing ideas/products to create new and improved ideas made me reflect on my favorite movies, my favorite clothes, products and technological tools only to realize that all have existed long before I ever thought they did, only in different forms. For example, my favorite movies are based on books that were written years ago, my favorite fashion clothes are similar to those in my great grandmother's closet, my favorite computers and phones are merely products that existed 100 years ago that have been modified and transformed with what has become available over the years. This really made me think about where we should draw the line in terms of copying someone else's idea and while I, as a teacher, encourage my students to develop their thoughts and explore their creativity based on knowledge or products that are provided to them and although I encourage them to reinvent knowledge in new ways, should I also be encouraging them to recognize and identify the ideas upon which they have developed. People appear to most attracted to the familiar but long for the familiar to be new and improved and this is why even though most poeple's cell phones are in perfect working order they are inclined to buy the newest and most current version.
