In 2009, the EYE Film Institute invited the public to remix 21 film fragments from the Dutch early cinema collection. In 2010, Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky) debuted his remix of Dziga Vertov’s Kino-Glaz/Kino-Pravda at the Tate Modern in London. From Chandler McWilliam’s computer-generated Silent to Ross Whyte’s electroacoustic “glitches,” film’s first decades have been found and reformed online. These remixes mark the proliferation of digital film archives and video-sharing platforms. They intervene amid vigorous debates about copyright law, fair-use, and the aesthetic and political possibilities of remix culture. But these films also raise crucial questions about the affinities between old and new media, early film and contemporary digital culture. EYE gave the following explanation for their own (institutional) interest in a remix “contest”: Continue reading
KATHERINE GROO 