Originality and Remediation

This blog I will warn is a rant dealing with my previous experiences with Bolter and Grusin and that dreadful thing, remediation (not really dreadful). Although some may not have had the same experience I did with remediation- I would like to still endeavor with this blog.

Within the contexts of remediation there can be a sense that everything a person does will never be original. As Bolter and Grusin state "the very fact of remediation, however, ensures that the older medium cannot be entirely effaced [because the] new medium remains dependent on the older one" (Bolter & Grusin). This goes back to the fallacies that were obtained with rhetorical velocity, that rhetorical velocity equals a remix, which in fact it does not. Remediation according to Bolter and Grusin does not reject originality.


With the example of Jane Austin novels being remediated into films there is the sense that the film cannot reject the fact that it is a remediation of the novel. Although the film may try to, "conceal its relationship to earlier media" (Bolter & Grusin), there is the fact that the story was originally from a book. However, it does not mean that the film itself is not an original piece of art. It is like saying that an art student who does a perfect rendition of Monet's View of Vétheuil on a graphic interface is still not a piece of art. The student has to design Monet's original art piece and take it from canvas and put is onto the screen, and not by taking a picture of the painting and uploading the picture onto the computer, but step by step repainting the Monet's work with graphic interface tools.

The remediation of one medium into another may not be able to hide the fact that it is a remediation of another medium, but there are still things that one medium can do that other mediums cannot do. That is one reason why there is remediation, so something else can take place. Bolter and Grusin do not try hinder originality of another medium, but want to state that it is impossible to get rid of a former medium from a medium that is has been influenced by another .   

It is my endeavor to encourage people to be original and not to give up hope even if you do believe that everything is a remediation of something. You are an individual who has your own set of abilities, gifts, and tools. You are made individually and for something great! If you remediate something it does not mean that what you do is not original, it just means that you are adapting something into your own original idea. Keep on being original! 

Thank You For Reading. 

Bolter and Grusin Link 
http://lmc.gatech.edu/~objork3/1101/fall07/remediation.pdf