Okay, yeah, I do have a thing for them. I love the first moment, where you boggle and wonder how the two things will ever, ever fit together. Then I love the actual product, which can be hilarious, powerful, or just entertaining. Then I love the way I can appreciate someone else's creativity and lateral thinking, because I never would have thought of juxtaposing those two things.
Today's case in point:
It's brilliant. I showed it to some of my colleagues (only the ones under 35) and we all loved it. It's like... Rick Astley is the Jonas Brothers of 1987! And Nirvana is the epitome of our teenage angst and hormone fog! And we squoosh them together to make something that is nostalgic and wince-worthy, and also bizarrely addictive.
I know that a lot of my colleagues have issues with mash-ups and other remixing endeavours. It's the same reason why they object to fanfiction and other pursuits of this nature. They get all het up about intellectual property and creativity and all sorts of guff that I really don't get.
Look, I would love to write the early 21st century's definitive novel, but I don't buy in to the myth of high genius being a rare and precious thing that is somehow only available to a select few. What I love about mash-ups, mixes, and other remix and remodel endeavours is the way that it makes creativity and artistry something that we all do. It's something that comes from all around us, from using the things that we find in creative and innovative ways. It's the embodiment of constructivism in everyday life, making sense of the world around us.
And I think that's something we should be encouraging in our kids.
I am going to come back to this later, with some ideas for mash-ups and remixes in the classroom, and ways that teachers can encourage creativity. Because I think it's important.
No comments:
Post a Comment