Remix Culture
Remix culture is making something new out of something(s) old.

A criticism of the remix culture is that the outcomes are often insignificant and lack a real message, however it was argued by Marshall McLuhan in the Medium is the Massage (1967) that the medium is what holds the importance, "Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media... than by the content". In digital media the ability to post content that is instantly available to anyone who can then edit and create something new from it can be more important than the message of the content.
"Good artists copy, Great artists steal."
-Pablo Picasso
Fair Use & Copyleft
(above)
Spending Time With Poster Boy
Poster Boy is a street artist whose main medium of work is collage of advertisement posters, remixing highly circulated imagery to create a satirical commentary.
The rise in popularity of websites such as YouTube has created an increase in amateur film makers, that create and distribute their material virally over the internet. With this has comes a culture of re-editing the original material.

One question that remix culture raises is what counts as fair use and what qualifies as theft.

Fair use is:
the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances.

code of best practices in fair use for online videos


The document states that remixing material counts as fair use when the resulting video has a different meaning from its origins with its own cultural identity. However if the resulting video has no significant changes made to it, it does not fall into fair use.
(above)
House of the Rising Sun, Old School Computer Remix
The original song, first created by The Animals has been remixed using different instruments, in this case outdated machinery to create a new variant on the original.
Copyleft is:
a general method for making content free, and requires that all modified and extended versions of the program be free as well.

Public domain software is copyrighted material that is available to anyone. However, when the source code of a program is provided there is nothing stopping a user changing it and redistributing it choosing not to make it freeware and to become the proprietor of that information. Work that is copylefted is first copyrighted but then terms about distribution are added to this. These give everyone the right to modify, use and redistribute the code. Importantly it is also inclusive of any program derived from the original code.
(above)
GNU Operating System
GNU is a free software that is protected under copyleft in order to allow the audience freedom.
(above & right)
Faber Castell, Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Mona Lisa
In a recent advertising campaign Faber Castell commissioned artist Chan Hwee Chong to recreate some of historys most famous paintings using pen in a single spiral.
(above)
As an example of remixing I created this image. It is made up from a collection of photographs and illustrations.