Remixing The Remix

by Mallory B Taylor

Let me start off by saying that this post will not be offering any types of musical remixes (as the title may suggest) but instead will discuss the ideas of what would be considered “remixing” in research.

If you haven’t heard of Kirby Ferguson or the “Everything is a Remix” video series I suggest you take a few minutes to check it out here:

http://everythingisaremix.info/watch-the-series/

Watching Kirby’s videos I not only learned a lot about the music and film industries but I gained a new outlook on research as well. I have been told countless time this project or paper needs to be original, but is that possible? Every research paper is based off of prior studies which is highlighted in the literature review, is it correct to call this research paper “original”? No…the work we as researchers conduct based off of previous studies and theories would be a remix of someone or others’ ideas to produce another product. The vocabulary we choose to explain our work may need a good thinking over. If everything is indeed a remix, our research based off of other research which is based off other research and so on is without a doubt remixing the remix-and is far from “original”. So before you tell your students you are expecting original research papers or projects remember what it really means to be original and embrace the beauty of a remix.

-Mallory