| |
|
|
| |
 |
|
| |
[Image: AP Photo/Julie
Jacobson] |
|
|
If you're still uncertain about mash-ups,
take the now infamous Kiss. If it wasn't sexy, as most agree
it wasn't, then what was its purpose? Clearly the questions The Kiss
raises are far more exciting than the event itself. And that is at
the heart of mash-up perception: being able to distinguish between
the obvious presentation, but reflecting more on its indicative sub-text
and following the associative trails which this reflection generates
in order to reveal a formerly hidden context. |
|
|
| |
In this case specifically, it's clear
that Madonna is no slouch in the marketing department. And she's been
the largely undisputed Queen of U.S. Pop for 20-some years. Now that
her title has been threatened by the up-and-coming pop royales (Britney
& Christina), why not diffuse their power by forcing it into public
submission - as is evidenced by the act of The Kiss. Some would say
this is theoretical speculation, and so to counter it is necessary
to examine the fall-out of the event as evidence: despite whether
or not one likes Madonna or her art objects, one is now forced to
contemplate Madonna (at least for the near-future) by association
any time one thinks about or sees or hears Britney or Christina. As
Mixmaster
Memex Bush explains: "With one item in its grasp, [the human
mind] snaps instantly to the next that is suggested by the association
of thoughts, in accordance with some intricate web of trails . . .
" And so Madonna is able to retain her dominant status in the
realm of perception - even if only for a little while longer. |
|
|
|
Sure, there are parallels to absurdity
as well as absurdism, as evidenced by this new parody song, set to
the tune of "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause" by Jimmy
Boyd: |
|
| |
Why's Madonna kissing Britney
Spears
Onstage at the video awards?
I swear it isn't fake
I did a double take
I guess she won't be getting back with Justin Timberlake
And
Now Madonna's kissing Chris-tina
Aguilera right below the nose!
Has it been so many years
Since the girls were Mouseketeers?
And now they're just Madonna's
Ho ho ho's!
parody by Spaff.com
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
The important consideration now is that
the mash-up process has been activated, and the parody above exemplifies
one set of associative trails which naturally follows. As we may think
in terms of contemporary instances such as this, it may be evident
that the entire cultural trail spun by postmodernism leaves the public
looking for a new way of dealing with information in space, to manipulate
it, organize it, to project ideas out of imagination creating yet
more data objects for others to interact with and to perceive. How
this connects to Bush's article of 1945 is in that this process/activity
extends human intellect not only for purposes of increasing organizational
efficiency - as the industry of PC and software manufacturers would
have it - but also because it expands basic thought processes when
info/data/object is perceived as fluid rather than static. It invites
play in an otherwise rote world. |
The mash-up possesses a potential here
as a practical tool for synthesizing new information out of existent
information. Like Brion
Gysin in collaboration with William
S. Burroughs proposed: introduce object(s); introduce chance element(s);
the perceived result is manifested through 'Third Mind', or the consideration
of mind which would not have existed without the process. In other
words, by short-circuiting orderly linearity, old patterns are broken
and new ones emerge. That's the art: the process. But without the
do-ing, Third Mind, or mash-up, perception cannot emerge. |
|
| |
As Burroughs wrote to Allen
Ginsberg, paraphrasing Gysin, "You can not show to anyone
what he has not seen." This acts as a perfect example of why
You, the visitor of Hyper-Mash, must take up tools and resort to practicing
the process yourself -
only then do you truly take pleasure in the absurdity, grasp hold
of the seeming synchronicities and manifest your own transitions into
Third Mind. In order to cross the threshold one must experience it
first-hand, similarly to the drug experience; there is no genuine
way to theoretically explain the peak experiences associated with
ingesting ayuaska, for example. One must go down the path
of initiation in order to understand it... |
|
|
|
