Appropriation Alliance Introduction

Welcome to the Appropriation Alliance website! This organization and the people behind it are dedicated to the emergence of Critical Remix as a new art form. This site will host an online journal, provide links to resources, cover newsworthy events and highlight the best new works in the world of Critical Remix. We encourage this new form as a tool of personal expression perfectly suited to the media-driven world in which we live.

The Internet has created an illusion of multipolarity in our media. Yet, the vast majority of content is owned and delivered through video by a handful of organizations on behalf of powerful economic interests. These corporations and political figures count on ownership of the ‘airways’ to allow their propaganda to go unchallenged by the populace. By creating an alternate universe wholly divorced from history or context, organizations like BP manufacture an identity completely removed from reality, one in which they can reinvent themselves as a business that goes, “Beyond Petroleum. ”

Critical Remix can undo the spell by taking that same polished, controlled message and putting it into a more useful, truthful context, one which can illuminate context and history, retaining a sense of humor along the way.

Critical Remix is in truth a kind of reporting, comparing statements in a manner similar to a writer who contrasts quotes from a politician within an article. Unfortunately, those who engage in this practice remain on the periphery, ignored by news organizations and accused of piracy. Such attacks could not be further from the truth.

After all, Critical Remixes are obvious confections created from existing media which announce, even scream their identity as Remix. The same cannot be said for mass media, be it in the form of advertising, news delivery or political discourse. The assumption of truth is at the heart of the propaganda power of media, and this assumption is the very antithesis of Critical Remix.

To advance this form of expression through dialogue, to explain how Critical Remix is different from propaganda, and to shed light on the ways that media outlets try to limit or control remix, are essential reasons for the creation of the Appropriation Alliance. Join us in dialogue to help recapture freedom of expression, and stand with us in defiance of those who would gag the voices of dissent. Since no one person or perspective can be enough, we call out for many voices to raise a chorus against the drone of the media masters.

Contribute and add your voice to the chorus!