Women's Life Link Be Well, Be Happy, Be YOU!
Along with new technology, digital technology particularly, comes the desire and the ability to re-do, re-hash, dress up, re-create and re-produce media of all shapes and forms. This remediation is not always for the better; sometimes it’s a sideways step, sometimes it’s completely over the top. But what it always does is create something new, this is regardless of whether or not we recognise it or can compare it to what has gone before.
This whole construct had me thinking. What if we viewed ourselves as a medium ready and willing for re-mixing or remediating? The opportunities are endless and there are different ways of approaching this, different levels of remixed media.
You might like to be quite transparent in your initial remix. The same as you can take your developed photos and scan them into a digital format, where the photo still remains the photo but updated in technology; you can make small upgrades in your attitude, education and openness. You will still look the same; however, with a change of attitude, increased knowledge and openness, you may find your new format more compatible with what you want to achieve.
Of course, that may not be enough, take the next step and make some physical changes. Keep faithful to the original but make some improvements; hair, clothes, shoes, make up. See yourself with a translucent quality, like looking through a pane of frosted glass. Emphasise the differences without erasing the old. Just like taking those photos and adding them to Instagram.
However, like the remediation that exists in digital technology you could go all out and create a new medium that absorbs the old you. This could be in the form of a new career, traveling to a place that the old you would never have gone to, or facing fears and doing things like skydiving or swimming with sharks. Turn your passive film into a computer game; participate and take charge of the narrative.
Whatever way you decide to re-fashion or re-purpose yourself there always remains the fact that you will be creating something new. The new medium, or new you, can not efface the old but will remain in a constant dialectic. I guess that this is a way of reminding yourself of where you have been before, to see the changes you have made and to continue evolving.
So, why not take an outside peek at what you look like now and see what you would like to re-mix? You can take it step by step. Why not add some music too, and create a soundtrack just for you.
