The ability to create something new out of an existing work creates a great amount of power in the user. The choice of referent and message can have a great impact and can convey a message so clearly and intensely.
For example, I watched Live Free and Die Hard over the weekend. The ‘bad guys’ in the film create a kind of supercut of various presidential speeches to convey their own message. A poor quality video of this can be found here :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SHd1wkF8Uo&feature=related
As you can see, the message is intensified in its delivery from the actual mouths of American presidents. Rather than delivering the message themselves, they use the power of remix to reinforce the message. In using the referent of the presidential speeches, the remixers make a completely new, opposing message to that of the originals.
This can work to take power away form the authority of a figure. For example, this supercut of a speech by Sarah Palin shows only the parts where she is breathing,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9kfcEga0lk
This makes her look silly and takes away anything that she might have said that could be relevant or credible. This kind of remix takes power away from the speaker, and delivers only the message that the remixer intends.
Can you think of other ways that remix can add or subtract the power of a message?
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