Digital Remix Ideas

The last time we had class, I talked about my woman as steel magnolia idea. So when we talked about our digital remix, the first thing that came to mind was combining a magnolia with steel. I'm not sure quite how to do this yet, but I think I would start with a picture of a magnolia (or some other flower) and then try to make a kind of x-ray (like the pictures we were looking at in class last time) to show steel underneath.

Another idea is to use my avatar from second life. She has two distinct appearances: one as Jane Harvy, her delicate alter ego, and the other as Dixie, her superhero self. I could have Jane looking in a mirror and seeing Dixie as her reflection.

I also have a vague idea of doing something with androgyny. Dixie is a bit masculine with her large muscular frame, but she still has feminine curves. I might take a picture of a man and then make it more feminine or vice versa.

All these ideas are theoretical at the moment. I don't know much about the practical aspects of photoshop, but maybe y'all can help me and let me know which one seems most feasible.

We are what we buy

The advertising chapter rang true to me, especially when it explained how consumerism is so embedded in our culture that we define ourselves by the products we buy. This is the commodity self, "the idea that our selves...are mediated and constructed in part through our consumption and use of commodities" (Sturken and Cartwright 279). I've heard this idea expressed in different ways alone, such as a line from a song in the musical Rent. "When you're living in America at the end of the millennium, you're what you own." (Obviously, the song was written in the nineties, but the sentiment hasn't changed.)

The book also points out that advertisers constantly have to come up with new strategies to gain our attention, since we have the ability to ignore commercials. I don't have TiVo, but when a commercial comes on one channel, I flip to another. One effective technique is embedding products within TV shows. The WB, the teen network to which my peers and I were glued in high school, pioneered some of this product placement. It began with Felicity, a show about a sheltered girl who defies her parents' expectations by following a boy to a college across the country. Noel, Felicity's geeky but loveable RA, is a Mac guy. He loves computers and drools over Macs. (This was at the time that Apple came up with the colorful iMacs). This love of Macs factors into Noel's relationship. One clue that he and his high school girlfriend are no longer compatible is that she bought a PC. He meets a new love interest in the second season and helps her decide on a computer. When she picks a mac, Noel knows that there is a possible relationship there. He sums this up with the line, "I guess you're a Mac girl."

Although the Mac product placement was most blatant in Felicity, I noticed that every computer in every show was a Mac. The message was clear: Cool kids use Macs. This is the type of mixed message explained on page 277. Getting a Mac (especially one of the colorful ones) is a way to express your individuality while being like everyone else. This simultaneous desire to be an individual and pressure to conform is a constant struggle that adolescents face and is perfectly reflected in Mac advertising.