This post will focus on remixing…no that’s not only limited to music (as that was the only thing that came to mind when I thought about the word…more specifically it was an image of a DJ spinning a record but I digress). I learned this week that remixing “deconstructs and dismantles other’s creative expressions and reforms them into a new creative expression” (Dail & Thompson, 2016). Basically, remixing is a form of remediation and adaption of pretty much anything and everything. And it happens all the time. It can be the act of remixing an invention (like Thomas Edison and his 6,000 attempts at creating a light bulb), adapting a poem into a song, or remixing a 16th century playwright into a modern film (The Taming of the Shrew being adapted into 10 Things I Hate About You).

I created the meme above using memegenerator.net. For me to say that using this tool was easy, who has admitted to being technologically challenged multiple times, I’m sure tech savvy individuals would agree. I scrolled through the “most popular memes” on their website but when I didn’t find an image that resonated with me I switched over to Google. On Google I found the image from Superman: Man of Steel, then I saved that image to my computer, uploaded it to memegenerator, then added the text. Once the meme was complete I was able to either share it through the website or save it to my computer again. Given that last weeks attempt to share the image of my storyboard of “The Tell-Tale Heart” bombed, I opted to save this meme to my computer and upload it directly to this post.

I choose to create a meme largely due to simplicity. I have never created a meme before (seriously) but this was something that I could figure out without needing to utilize outside support. The message of the meme is meant to be lightly poking fun at something I’ve found to be very stressful. In this case I am comparing my frustrating at not finding a job to Superman’s emotional agony after killing Zod. Yes, this meme is rife with hyperbole on my part. I appreciated the exaggeration of this comparison (obviously there’s a difference between killing someone and job hunting…at least I hope most people would agree with me in that regard). But even though it’s exaggerated, my frustration/sadness at not finding a job yet is real.

The image standing alone would not be considered a remix, but adding the text changed the original meaning of the image. Thus creating tension using double exposure. The “tension” comes from the true meaning of the original image: Superman’s emotional anguish and the remixed meaning: my personal frustration of not having a job. According to Albers this remixing could be described as “superimposing one’s own beliefs and experiences on found images through remediation with text, sound, or other effects” (Rish, 2012).

I would use the remixing assignment in my classroom as a tool to help my students relate to certain messages and broaden their empathy and understanding. For example, if we were reading a novel that I know my students struggle with relating to (like The Kite Runner) a remixing assignment were they adapt or create a multi modal tool to help them connect with the story could make the story more relevant for them.

Prior to introducing this assignment, I would likely utilize Kirby’s videos on what remixing is and how it’s been used throughout history. I find that my students (like almost all students) are more engaged watching a video clip then simply taking notes. I felt that the videos were east to follow and I was not left with many questions of what remixing is. However, I did find the blog post about double exposure to be tricky to follow. I understood how it was used with the example of the Old Guard at the Tomb of the Unnamed Solider, but it took me a minuet to understand how that would work for a different example. I admit to having to reread that blog several times in order to have an OK understanding of it (as when I tried to Google double exposure the top results were linked to a video of a band called Everyman…definitely not the same).

To get back to using this in the classroom, I would allow my students to use any (school appropriate) technology to create their remix. Just because I don’t know how to do song mash ups and create videos doesn’t mean that my students can’t. However, I do think that having them create a meme is a good route to go for a few reasons: 1 it allows them to demonstrate their creativity 2 it is not time consuming, which allows them to focus more on the reflection part of the assignment.

Although I’m sure there are very few websites that can be deemed “100% safe”, I would be hesitant to tell my students to use memegenerator.net. After spending less than 5 mins searching through the memes on the website it wasn’t long before I encounter many racists and homophobic memes. No, I wasn’t searching anything in particular and these memes weren’t until page 3-4. Like I said, I understand that there is no perfect system when utilizing the internet but this was just an observation of an obvious constraint.

Questions: How would you utilize remixing in your classroom? Am I overthinking the use of memegenerator?