Remediation
Colleen Bayer
What is it?
• Remediation is the representation of one
medium in another
– Complete: No reference to original medium is made.
“The new medium can absorb the older medium
entirely”[1].
• “Flika” flim is a remediation of the book
• http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/flicka/
– Visible: Medium is inserted into new medium for
significance through contrast, juxtaposition, irony,
parody.
• Cell Block Tango
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0TR0Irx4Y0
Question:
• How many times were these media
remediated?
Twice = from text to film to powerpoint
Six = from music to theatre to flim to television
to internet to powerpoint
Visible
remediation
• In their book, Remediation, authors Bolter and
Grusin would call this an example of visible
remediation - Viewers are simultaneously aware of
the individual pieces and their new, inappropriate
setting[2]
Example 1
continued
• Simpson’s Parody – Cartoon incorporated
similar plot lines and characters.
1931 film original →1992 film remake →1992 TV cartoon
This is an another example of visible
remediation. We, as viewers, are expected
to understand the reference to the original
Example 2
and thereby get
the joke.
The viewers are engaged by ignoring the story and to
instead understand the form, genre, style and parody.
Hypermediacy
• Viewers have been similarly engaged
when viewing Modernist art
» Viewers are aware of the cluttered space and
oscillate between seeing the image and seeing
through it
» In both the Simpson’s parody and Hamilton’s art,
the viewer looks at and through these
representations.
» This is an example of Bolter and Grusin’s “Logic of
Hypermediacy” – the artist (or cartoonist) strives to
make the viewer acknowledge the medium as a
medium and to delight in that acknowledgement.
Double-Logic
• Although our culture wants to multiply its media
it also wants to erase all traces of mediation.
– http://www.comedycentral.com/
– These media of this hypermediated site mediate
between the viewer and the meanings.
– The viewer does not want mediation, an intervening
agency, but instead the wants immediacy, a way to
get beyond mediation
The Process
• According to Bolter and Grusin, Media are continually
commenting on, reproducing, and replacing
eachother.
– This process is integral to media.[3]
– Media constantly interact with other media by reproducing and
replacing and making other changes.
• New Media constantly justifies itself by remediating old
media.
– http://www.podiobooks.com/
• Podcasting popularity grew through its
remediation of television and books.
Remediation &
reality
• Because media intervenes, or mediates between viewers
and what is represented, meaning is not immediate
Less immediate
I am aware of the
construction.
I see the medium
More immediate because it is less abstract
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMEZ6GO5720
Immediacy
• The intervention or mediation of media delays
the viewers sense of immediacy.
– Viewers do not want a delay, they want to feel as if
they are there; they are seeing what is real.
• Transparent, perpetual immediacy is the goal
• Experience without mediation
Meaning as intended by author
Remediation as
Reform
• Remediation is the way in which one
medium is seen […] as reforming or
improving up on another.
– New mediums are expected to improve upon
its predecessors
– Older media can refashion new media as
well.[4]
• CNN interactive
In Summary
• Remediation is the representation of one
medium in another.
– This remediating can be complete
– Or it can be visible
• Media are continually commenting on,
reproducing, and replacing each other.
• New media will continue to remediate old media
as it attempts to provide immediacy through
transparent immediacy