Transformative Works and Cultures Interview with Elisa Kreisinter
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| Interviews by Fans | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Transformative Works and Cultures Interview with Elisa Kreisinter |
| Interviewer: | Francesca Coppa |
| Interviewee: | Elisa Kreisinter |
| Date(s): | 2010 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom(s): | |
| External Links: | interview is here |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
In 2010, Elisa Kreisinter was interviewed for an issue of Transformative Works and Cultures.
Some topics discussed were gender, politics, Sex and the City, and vidding.
Some Excerpts
Jonathan McIntosh first introduced me to mash-ups. I was familiar with feminist video artists' use of appropriation and the history of Soviet montage, but video mash-ups updated all that about 40 years and distributed it on the Web. Jonathan and I were both involved in video activism and, at the time, he already had a body of mash-ups he had made and posted on his Web site. While I didn't have the resources to explore gender issues in depth by making a documentary or creating a TV show, I had enough critical thinking and tech skills to remix a douche-bag Burger King commercial [link] I also experienced how helpful remixes were in the classroom in teaching media literacy, and began to create them myself because there was so much fucked-up material to work with. I remember specifically a plethora of MTV and Axe body spray ads that were so ripe for remixing. So I got involved because I had the support of a friend and I wanted to see more people working with these ridiculous commercials.
I'm definitely in awe of and inspired by female fan vidders, the community that has evolved around the practice, and the writings that have emerged, and this is something that we try to acknowledge on the blog. PRVs are different in that they don't rely on music or a narrative subtext to tell the story. PRVs are critical of an aspect of the story, like Edward's creepy, patriarchal behavior being accepted as romantic, or Carrie Bradshaw's failure to question her repeated unfulfilling relationships with men. Jonathan and I weren't fans of Twilight or Sex and the City, respectively. Instead, we were concerned with the accepted gender norms we saw existing in these narratives and sought to correct them: he by killing Edward, and me by editing out the men. So while vidders and remixers both rely on pop culture texts, vidders come at it from the perspective of being a fan. You can still be a fan and be critical, but I think the intent of a remix is always to critique while vids do that and other things too, like expanding or contributing to the existing story.