This document summarizes Anna van Someren's work on new media literacies and remixing Moby Dick. It discusses how remixing is a new media literacy that has historical precedent in how much of classic literature was produced by recombining previous works. It presents a case study on a youth performance of Moby Dick adapted and remixed by Ricardo Pitts-Wiley, involving input from teens. It proposes teaching guides and classroom activities to help students understand remixing and its role in media and how this can transform teaching of classic texts like Moby Dick.

1. Anna van Someren
New Media Literacies
Comparative Media Studies
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Moby-Dick Remix:
Appropriation as a New Media Literacy

2. re-imagine re-think
repurpose
re-work
mod recombine
remix
vid reverse-engineer
appropriate
mash-up
adapt
machinema
re-contextualize

3. m ash-ups
fan videos, vids

4. m ash-ups
fan videos, vids

5. idea of engaging with the dynamic text
has historical precedent

6. idea of engaging with the dynamic text
has historical precedent

7. idea of engaging with the dynamic text
has historical precedent
much of our canon of revered literature was
produced by recombining previous material

8. quot;A man might write the works of others, adding and
changing nothing, in which case he is simply called a
'scribe'(scriptor). Another writes the work of others
with additions which are not his own; and he is called a
'compiler' (compilator). Another writes both others'
work and his own, but with others' work in principal
place, adding his own for purposes of explanation; and
he is called a ‘commentator’ (commentator)....Another
writes both his own work and others' but with his own
work in principal place adding others for purposes of
confirmation; and such a man should be called an
'author'(auctor).quot;
-13th Century Franciscan, Saint Bonaventura

12. not new, but easier, faster, more prevalent

13. The current emphasis on digital remixing makes
visible the degree to which all cultural expression
builds on what has come before.
-Henry Jenkins

14. schools still embrace the “lone author”, “artist genius”,
the myth of the original creative work

15. schools still embrace the “lone author”, “artist genius”,
the myth of the original creative work

16. schools still embrace the “lone author”, “artist genius”,
the myth of the original creative work
teachers need language, frameworks to investigate
the ethical and legal implications of remix practice

17. http://www.pz.harvard.edu/Research/GoodWork.htm

18. http://www.pz.harvard.edu/Research/GoodWork.htm
HGSE Project Zero: Good Play
Young People, Ethics, and the New Digital Media:
A Synthesis from the Good Play Project

19. Good Play’s
5 ethical categories:
1. identity
2. privacy
3. ownership / authorship
4. credibility
5. participation

20. Good Play’s
5 ethical categories:
1. identity
2. privacy
3. ownership / authorship
4. credibility
5. participation

21. if we hold onto the idea of the autonomous artist,
we also miss the opportunity to provide conceptual tools
needed to analyze and interpret creative works

23. participatory culture trad. media lit
fandom scholarship critical thinking

24. participatory culture trad. media lit
fandom scholarship critical thinking
Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture:
Media Education for the 21st Century

25. participatory culture trad. media lit
fandom scholarship critical thinking
Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture:
Media Education for the 21st Century
•multitasking •appropriation •visualization •judgment
•play •transmedia navigation •simulation •networking
•performance • collective intelligence •negotiation •distributed cognition

26. participatory culture trad. media lit
fandom scholarship critical thinking
Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture:
Media Education for the 21st Century

27. participatory culture trad. media lit
fandom scholarship critical thinking
Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture:
Media Education for the 21st Century
materials for informal practical interventions for
learning (online) the classroom context

28. Moby-Dick Teaching Guide:
exploring how a better
understanding of remixing might
transform the teaching of
Melville, Moby-Dick and literature

29. Moby-Dick Teaching Guide:
exploring how a better
understanding of remixing might
transform the teaching of
Melville, Moby-Dick and literature
“why Moby-Dick?”

31. Wyn Kelly
Senior Lecturer, MIT Literature
Melville Scholar

32. Ricardo Pitts-Wiley

34. original text

35. original text
training school
youth r e-write

36. original text
training school
youth r e-write
Ricardo script
drafts

37. original text
training school
youth r e-write
input from teen cast
(language)
Ricardo script
drafts

38. original text
performance
training school
youth r e-write
input from teen cast
(language)
Ricardo script
drafts

39. original text
performance
training school
youth r e-write
input from teen cast
(language)
Ricardo script
drafts

40. Moby-Dick Then and Now, plot description

41. Moby-Dick Then and Now, plot description

42. Melville’s Moby-Dick

43. Melville’s Moby-Dick
Ricardo’s
Moby-Dick

44. Melville’s Moby-Dick
Ricardo’s
Moby-Dick
NML Moby-Dick
Teacher’s Guide

45. Melville’s Moby-Dick
Ricardo’s
Moby-Dick
classroom activities
NML Moby-Dick
Teacher’s Guide

46. Melville’s Moby-Dick
awareness of remixing in
contemporary culture
Ricardo’s
Moby-Dick
classroom activities
NML Moby-Dick
Teacher’s Guide

47. Melville’s Moby-Dick
awareness of remixing in
contemporary culture
Ricardo’s
Moby-Dick
classroom activities
NML Moby-Dick
Teacher’s Guide

48. (on language)

49. (on language)

53. appropriation: the ability to meaningfully sample
and remix media content

54. Through remixing, people can generate new ideas. It
can be a vehicle for people to comment upon the role of
media and technology in society. Remixing can
strengthen media literacy skills because it can deepen
peopleʼs awareness of an authorʼs purpose and
context. Context is often not well-understood as a
component of meaning. Through strategic
juxtaposition and shifts in context, messages
change their meanings. Remixing illustrates a key
concept of media literacy: that meaning is in
people, not in texts.
- Renee Hobbs
blog interview with Henry Jenkins

57. collaboration, transmedia storytelling,
telling stories across multiple media forms

60. Session 2: Activity - Finding the Sign Posts
When reading a discontinuous text, looking for particular
markers or quot;sign postsquot; becomes important in helping you
navigate through the text. In this lesson plan, we define
quot;signpostingquot; as the act of identifying and connecting
those contextual clues which help you identify what is
contained in the passage.

61. Session 2: Activity - Finding the Sign Posts
Whether it's philosophical musings or purely action and plot,
different signposts point to different strands of
meaning within a single text. The importance of a
particular strand of meaning depends on the goals of the
reader. Someone interested in the outcome of Ahab's quest
for Moby Dick may be looking for very different signposts
than someone who is interested in the practicalities of life
aboard a 19th century whaling ship.

62. Session 2: Activity - Finding the Sign Posts
In this activity, students learn that there are multiple ways
of reading a text which correspond to a reader's goals or
motivations. By connecting the process of looking for
signposts with goals, students develop the new media
literacy skills of networking (by searching for and
synthesizing different signposts according to particular
goals), as well as multitasking (by shifting focus when
needed on different strands of meaning within a single text).

63. Session 2: Activity - Finding the Sign Posts
Related Subjects:
English, media studies
Objectives:
By the end of this chapter, students will:
•Be able to recognize and identify literary terms, including plot, dialogue, tone,
diction, and language, and to recognize and identify shifts in these (NCTE
standards
•Be able to identify and distinguish between different types of literary texts by
performing a close reading of tone, language, dialogue, diction and purpose
(NCTE standards 4, 9, 10, 11, & 12);
•Understand the basics of academic annotation of a text, including identifying
key passages, defining unfamiliar terms, and conducting and presenting
research on historical, literary, or biographical elements of a text (NCTE
Standard 24);
•Begin to acquire a vocabulary of literary terms and apply them to literary texts
(NCTE standards 10, 12)

64. from reading to authoring

65. Sessions 3 & 4: Activity II - Creating your own discontinuous text
In today's world of new media, students have to deal with alternate forms of text. Often
information is presented online as hypertext with links to related or explanatory
information. An understanding of how hypertext works sheds new light on older literary
texts like the Bible and Moby Dick that rely on discontinuous narratives. These
discontinuous, or quot;digressivequot; texts, can be thought of as classic 'hypertext' documents
that include digressions such as genealogies, histories, or philosophical musings within
the narrative itself. This activity asks student to imagine traditional texts as
hypertexts, in order to aid the development of the skill of networking - in this case,
not only the ability to searching for information, but to synthesize and disseminate this
information in a new format.

66. Sessions 3 & 4: Activity II - Creating your own discontinuous text
In today's world of new media, students have to deal with alternate forms of text. Often
information is presented online as hypertext with links to related or explanatory
information. An understanding of how hypertext works sheds new light on older literary
texts like the Bible and Moby Dick that rely on discontinuous narratives. These
discontinuous, or quot;digressivequot; texts, can be thought of as classic 'hypertext' documents
that include digressions such as genealogies, histories, or philosophical musings within
the narrative itself. This activity asks student to imagine traditional texts as
hypertexts, in order to aid the development of the skill of networking - in this case,
not only the ability to searching for information, but to synthesize and disseminate this
information in a new format.
Required materials
* Computer to view video and hypertext examples
* Computers for students (high-tech version)
* Paper and Pens (low-tech version)
* Paper copies of a previously-chosen passage (low-tech version)
* Copies of passage from Annotated Moby Dick

67. www.newmedialiteracies.org
new site goes live March 17th, 2008

71. material is digitized, networked, accessible