Opening My Website Development Details

I can’t count the number of time I have come across a nice blog or website and wandered: how  was this constructed, what software powers it, what plug-ins are running, where did the icons or other graphical elements come from. So in the spirit of open web development and sharing I’ve decided to post the details of how I built my site just in case you feel like incorporating or remixing any of the elements into your own web project.

Below I have  listed a rundown of how I constructed  rebelliouspixels.com. It is my hope that this practice of opening up the details will one day become standard especially among bloggers and sites that are powered with open source platforms like WordPress.

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Presenting at the Mashup/Remix Conference 2009

I have been invited to give a presentation on political remix video works at the Mashup/Remix Conference held at Moritz College of Law at Ohio State University in mid March 2009. The event will focusing on law, politics, culture and art and is sponsored by I/S: Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society and by the Wexner Center for the Arts. it will also feature an impressive list of participants including Mindy Faber and Francesca Coppa both of whom were involved in the 24/7 DIY Video Summit with me this February at USC. Sould be an exciting event!

Video from Talk at Ars Electronica 2008

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Here is the video of my talk on Political Remix Video at Ars Electronica 2008 in Linz Austria for the New Cultural Economy Symposium. The title of the presentation is “Building a Critical Culture with Political Remix Video” and there is a youtube playlist on my user page including all the videos I present in case you want to favorite, comment on or share them.

I try to showcase Political Remix Videos that, I think, transcend the standard topics of government, elections or policy and instead highlight issues of racism, injustice, environment and mainstream media. I felt it was important to present and discuss works that focus on issues relevant to marginalized and oppressed communities inside the United States - specifically videos by Jackie Reem Salloum, The Black Lantern and Theodore Lyons.

I would also like to note that at the beginning of my talk I neglected to include a shout-out to the African American hip-hop communities that perfected and popularized remix as a art form and helped infuse it into our culture over the past several decades. An important point that, I think, should be included in any discussion of remix culture. Oh and in the talk I mispronounce Aaron Valdez’s name, apologies for that Aaron.

You can watch my talk above or via the video stream coming directly from the Ars website in wmp format.

For a good round-up of the rest Ars Electonica 2008 check out the report for Rhizome by Jonah Brucker-Cohen who I met while in Linz.

Political Remix Videos at FSCONS in Sweden

Looks like some of my Political Remix Videos will be featured this month at the Free Society Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden. The event is a collaboration between the Free Software Foundation Europe, Creative Commons Sweden and Wikimedia Sweden. I am told that at the conference my work will be shown (along with other video works) as an example of why sampling and remixing culture is valuable to society and social discourse and therefore should not be subject to legal prosecution.

Audio from Ars Electronica Talk

A quick update from Ars Electronica here in Linz Austria. I gave my talk on Political Remix Video and building a critical culture this Saturday as part of the New Cultural Economy Symposium IV.

You can listen to the MP3 of the talk on the Ars Electronica site and hear the audio from the panel discussion afterward. Here also is the YouTube playlist I used in my presentation linking to all the videos I referenced.

The Symposium IV line-up included Isaac Mao speaking on Sharism, Georgia Popplewell on Global Voices and Elizabeth Stark on free culture movements. Be sure to check out audio from all the symposium speakers including those mentioned above. Video should be available shortly.

Photo by Joi Ito

Remix at the New Forms Festival

My remix Go Army: Bad Guys will be featured as part of the Politube collection at the New Forms Festival this September in Vancouver Canada. Politube is curated by fellow political remixer Frank Lopez of submedia.tv. The discription for the show reads in part:

“Politube features the highlights of the short history of political videos online. From Canadian filmmaker Stephen Marshall’s “Channel Surfing the Apocalypse” to Jonathan McIntosh’s TV commercial mash-ups, the diverse world of Politube lives up to the name of the first web browser.”