Everything is a remix
Last year I read Reality Hunger, David Shields' manifesto for a 'cut-and-paste aesthetic' of essay writing, an aesthetic that is happy to borrow, remix, mash up and recycle other people's work in an essay format, rather like Geoff Dyer remixed and mashed up DH Lawrence in Out of Sheer Rage.
Well, check this out. It's part of a four-part series of videos by the New York film-maker Kirby Ferguson, called Everything Is A Remix. This is exceptional work, and really a new genre - the YouTube essay. I'm really impressed, and a bit intimidated. And a fascinating financial model as well - no traditional publishers, no TV channel, no magazine editors to deal with. He makes it himself, and asks for donations. Must take a long time to get permission for all the clips though? Anyway, great work. Also check out the video on the Matrix's borrowings, below, made I think by a friend of Kirby's, Robert Grigsby Wilson.