Remix My Lit
In 2007, a literary remix project called Remix My Lit launched. The idea behind the project was simple yet brilliant: take stories from nine prominent Australian authors, then release them for remixing via a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial ShareAlike licence, and see what happens.
In 2008, the project published an anthology that it called the world’s first remixed and remixable anthology of literature. Through the Clock’s Workings (PDF) brings together the original nine stories with thirteen of the best remixes. Edited by Amy Barker, the anthology is available for free as a PDF. You can also purchase a hardcopy from the publisher or Amazon.
The original nine authors and their stories were:
- Lee Battersby: “Alchymical Romance.”
- Philip Neilsen: “Beowulf in Brisbane.”
- Cate Kennedy: “Renovator’s Heaven.”
- Stefan Laszczuk: “The New Cage.”
- Emily Maguire: “Cherished.”
- Damian McDonald: “Dara’s Firebird Lovesong.”
- James Phelan: “Soliloquy for one dead.”
- Kim Wilkins: “Dreamless.”
- Danielle Wood: “How to Domesticate a Pirate.”
The following writers had their remixes selected for publication alongside the original contributors: Matthew Lowe, Sarah Xu, Ashley Hauenschild, Michelle Almirón, Scott-Patrick Mitchell, Tessa Toumbourou, Sean Williams, Mark Lawrence, Amelia Schmidt, Amra Pajalic, Phillip Ellis, Kirk Marshall, and Angela Meyer.
The project’s website was online from 2007 until around 2015, but then digitally disappeared. Thankfully, the Wayback Machine captured many of the pages on RemixMyLit.com before it went offline. Because I think this Remix My Lit project is so awesome, I’ve reposted some excerpts from the project’s website below.
Here’s what appeared on the project’s “About” page (RemixMyLit.com/about) in 2009:
Most creative disciplines have grappled with the concept of remix. For mediums such as film, and music entire communities of appropriation (legal or otherwise) have emerged. Artists whose creative practice is contingent to the adaptation of and addition to existing creative products populate this space. But other creative disciplines are practically devoid of this creative technique.
Read/Write has always been a dichotomy in literature. The author on one side of the production process, toiling away in solitude to produce the manuscript which is read by many, in solitude. But is there a more collaborative space for literature? Can your pages be Read&Write?
Remix My Lit is a Brisbane based, international remixable literature project. The project aims to apply the lessons learned from music and film remixing to literature. It is designed to explore where remix fits into literature. It will provide a space within the discipline to encourage and foster a community and culture of remix. It will spin out a number of projects, each of which will endeavour to embed legal appropriation of works into aspects of the publishing environment. Remix My Lit is as much a research project as it is an exercise in creative practice.
Here are three frequently asked questions that appeared on the project’s “FAQs” page (RemixMyLit.com/faqs) in 2009:
(1) Remix literature!? How do I do that?
Remixing is really just selecting and editing or combining and re-contextualising.
Think British writer Jeff Noon who considers whether a piece of text can be pushed along a similar pathway to experimental electronic music by way of his Cobralingus machine.
Think writer Nigel Tomm who self-publishes remixed works of Shakespeare.
But here’s the thing: you don’t have to work with classical literary texts, out of copyright, in your remixes. Remix My Lit uses free tools provided by Creative Commons so that you can remix brand new stories from contemporary authors without fear of being sued.
(2) Does the remix have to be like the original?
Be as creative as you want to. Use only one paragraph or character and change that into something entirely different. Use the whole lot making only subtle changes. Change the genre, alter its formal or stylistic characteristics, or revise its meaning or message. Use as little or as much as you like as long as it works but there should remain at least some recognisable characteristics of the original, so that the collaborative aspect of your work will be visible to readers.
(3) How long should the remix be?
As long or as short as it needs to be: flash fiction or a full length short story. Keep in mind though that the Anthology is for a collection of short stories so we will not be publishing say a novella length work.
