In my spare time, I like ridin the web wave, surfing for quotes, pictures, songs, inspirational and collaborative websites. I have a blog with my roomates where we share our findings with, (you can check it out here if you want). In my stumbles, I found a couple quotes that have been chilling here on my desktop sticky note for months now in hopes that I would find more to share on this blog. But it's just nearing the end of the week and I figured I should share the ones I do have now before it's too late:
"I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things."
— Mother Teresa
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation" - Oscar Wilde
I feel that these quotes comment on remix culture even though they may not have necessarily meant to when they were said. I mean, I am sure Mother Teresa was not expecting to make it onto a remix blog in 2011, but I feel like she speaks wise words that has a lot to do with the remix nature of our culture today. This one relates to the controversies that surround music remixes I feel. Mashup artists and music producers perhaps cannot sing or play a traditional instrument, but they certainly can mix and produce beats to make something else... "great things" that would only be possible through collaboration of different talents.
Oscar Wilde's quote seemed to be an obvious one, relating to the idea that we are all a collaboration of other people's ideas, words, thoughts, stories and emotions, making each of us a remix of our surroundings. It is what makes us all different - we all experience/read/watch/listen to and learn a different combination of other people's creations. No one is alone or pure in thoughts. We all build off of what we see and hear, creating our own thoughts based on our surroundings, even if we don't realize it. I know I live my life based on the quotes I have read or the advice someone has given me... the knowledge and real experience of others. I believe that we all do this, and I believe this is what the basis of remix culture is all about.
You know what's really interesting is the fact that so many quotes and perspectives by pivotal, inspirational people have to do with collaboration and community, but at the same time, such people themselves more often then not become appropriated by the larger cultural dialogues to become pinnacles of individualism (Mother Teresa, who was probably one of the least selfish people ever, is now recognized as a figurehead for individual achievement). Not to mention you can now buy endless merchandise with her image or quotes such as this one on it, suggesting she's been, in some way, transferred into a commodity. It's kind of macabre that these two you mentioned have themselves become 'remixed' in terms of identity and ideology into purposes that are (thankfully not exclusively, particularly on the part of Mother Teresa) largely quite different from their original purposes.
ReplyDeleteThat said, the last thing I wanted to do was sour a post centred around such beautiful and inspirational quotes, so I apologize if my two cents took a turn for the morose. :)