When I tackled this project, I wanted to give equal weight to the theory behind its creation and the process by which it was created. While I know others in this class may have tackled weightier material using technology far in advance of this, I know my limits and I know what I'm good at. I am good at writing and I am good at teaching writing. Therefore, this project became less intimidating to me when I thought of it less as an analysis of a digital artifact and gave equal weight to the idea that I was examining how my writing process and my writing presentation differs when technology and the Internet come into play.
Analysis of Meaning
First, I chose a subject that is relatively easy to tackle. I wanted to discover how meaning for an isolated artifact is constructed on the Internet when we start with few clues and try not to prioritize one method of analysis over another. In order to do a formalist analysis of the image, I had to expand what the definition of a form actually is. I'm sure many New Critics are rolling in their graves. However, the symbols and tropes we see today are loaded with historical and cultural baggage. Even when ignoring the franchises within the image, we still had to dig back in time to find out where the "cute bear" trope came from. The pins and the distressed looks on the bears' faces helped to establish meaning, as did the repeated symbolism of the cartoon heart and the childlike colors, but we quickly see that form includes some discussion of origin. Maybe it's a corporate form of semiotics, like the kind suggested in William Gibson's Pattern Recognition in which the main character, Cayce, has some sort of autonomic response to corporate logos to the point that she has to file off the Levi's imprint from the buttons of her jeans. While a (almost) purely formalist approach gave us some insight into the meaning of the image, digging deeper into the franchises showed a synergy that actually showed that the two franchises mirrored one another in a very profound way. Who knew that the Cenobites were the exact opposite of the Care Bears? Apparently, Ed Harrington did.
Also, I have a new appreciation of the artists behind these creations. I didn't dig too deeply into Mr. Harrington's identity. I just let his artwork do the talking and will await whatever response I get from him, if any. But it seems like creating these kinds of images is his passion and he's good at it. He shows thought with his creation where he understands that a tension exists in these mash-ups that resonates with people. If we go back to the definition of remix from Navas, "Generally speaking, remix culture can be defined as the global activity consisting of the creative and efficient exchange of information made possible by digital technologies that is supported by the practice of cut/copy and paste." Because of access to technology that allows picture manipulation that is easy and an efficient way of spreading one's art are both available, remix becomes a more viable form of art beyond just music or writing, as it has traditionally been. And Mr. Harrington's article in the A.V. Club is just one example of some kind of recognition.
Therefore, just like in more traditional forms of analysis, meaning comes from multiple sources that overlap at times. Those sources, however, are in flux based on how and what people are creating, and take some effort to trace sometimes. I'm sure if I didn't receive any help from experts at my university, it may have taken me longer to find out where this image came from.
Analysis of Process
Writing information for a website with the challenge of trying not to create a (intentional) hierarchy of information presented many challenges. For one thing, there are pages on this website that will repeat, or at least echo, points made elsewhere on other pages. This is intentional because I had to imagine the myriad pathways one might take to reach the information. I realized that I had to make sure some important information was echoed on different pages to keep my user from getting confused or missing important points. In theory, one could start at the first page of the Hellraising Bears site, click one link, and learn something of value about how meaning is constructed for the image, and then leave.
I created this mirror process site as a way to discuss issues of organization that were not relevant to the analysis of the image. It got confusing, but I know that attempting this kind of paper in a traditional format would have been more confusing. If I took the text copy from this website with each page presented in the order I wrote them and used a traditional Work Cited page for the links, the paper might make sense, but any writing instructor would tell me I'm tackling too much, to narrow my focus, tighten my organization, and maybe make this into two papers. Yet the presentation here shows both the Hellraising Care Bears site and this process site are mirrors of one another, just as the Care Bears and Cenobites are. The technology allows us to create new ways of presenting information that allow us to think of information in new ways, making different pathways of meaning.
These new ways have to be mastered, of course. I'm more used to writing a straight-forward research paper and had to find solutions to design issues, which are issues I never would care about if I had written this paper traditionally. But I'm sure that this same issue came up when people moved from pen to typewriter, or from typewriter to word processor. If it's treated more as an opportunity than an obstacle, I'm sure many writers could benefit from writing up their research in the form of a website.
I'm not saying that finding a relationship between a horror movie and greeting card characters is some huge revelation, but if new rhetorical structures can be devised, think what happens when topics that aren't full of lulz are explored.
If you aren't done and want to read more about the mash-up, click here.
But if you've had enough of caring bears and uncaring S&M demons, click here and come back any old time you want. Take care and thank you for reading!
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