Mixed, mashed-up capitalized Culture in theory & practice.

This goes towards two, coincidentally related, momentous occurrences within the past 24 hours. First, I sat down for some coffee with Aram Sinnreich. Second, someone has proven to be so successful in organizing all the music that I enjoy that I’m seriously considering buying one of them iPods.

Over at NYU’s department of Culture & Communication it is Aram who fills Siva’s shoes. Not an easy task. Having recently finished his dissertation, he’s the type of guy that manages to balance academic credibility with commercial clout. Writing in understandable English, he breaks the ice with:

“the emergence of new musical aesthetics and practices based around networked media technologies, from remix music to file sharing, [...] “configurable” technologies and practices compel us to reexamine our assumptions about both cultural production and social organization.”

I finally understood my first entire sentence of a PhD dissertation. Who’d thunk that it would be possible to write about such a thing as “configurable culture” without defaulting to an opaque philosophical pissing contest?! Well done. I’m looking forward to the book that no doubt will blossom from this.

Besides marrying contemporary aesthetics with the underlying technologies for social organization (right?), Aram also doctored a great course on video games together. I didn’t ask him for permission to post the syllabus, so instead you can show your love at the class blog. For now, just keep an eye on him.

Second, on the heels of talking about mash-ups, I was forwarded a glorious URL today; one that pales others:

http://milkcratebreaks.blogspot.com/

It contains an enormous collection of all those songs you’ve heard before, but only in bit and pieces. An all-you-can-eat-buffet of the chill, funky, relaxing, happy sounds that form the foundation of the music you enjoy. If you were wondering where it all happened first: now you know. In addition to detailed descriptions, each album is also available via a free-file service.

So, there you have it: mixed, mashed-up Culture, in theory & practice. Respect.