Class 7: A Patchwork Culture
Watch: Notorious (Tilman Jr, 2009)
Reading: Jonker, Julian. “A Black Secret Technology.” Critical Digital Studies: A Reader. Toronto: University of Toronto Printing Press, 2008. Print.
As I began to look more at culture and the role technology plays in creating different consumption patterns I wanted to touch on one culture than references itself heavily. In order to examine hip-hop culture I decided to screen the film Notorious (2009) the biopic about the murdered or assassinated rapper Notorious B.I.G. A big part of hip hop involves sampling and building on the existing works in the genre, and the film helps to show how the collaborative and creative process essentially created patchwork of cultural artifacts that were based on a multitude of authors and sources. The article by Jonker appropriates the title of an album for its main thesis about a “Black Secret Technology.” The idea is just stating that black culture has had an advantage in being an outsider to “white culture” in America. By having an outsider’s perspective “black secret technology is taking white technology apart and not putting it back together properly.” This type of multi-authored media is exactly what I look at next week with Girl Talk.
Edited: January 18th, 2010