Political Remix Video and the Working Class: Broadcasting Voices of Resistance

Closely aligned with the anti-art Dadaist tradition and the Situationist International, political remix video (PRV) consists of found footage video production deploying strategies of détournement that recalibrate carefully considered audiovisual excerpts from the news media, popular culture, Hollywood films, and institutions of power. In general, these creative efforts fortify subversive challenges to the appropriated materials themselves while providing social commentary on a variegated range of topical issues, including critical perspectives on traditional power structures, mainstream media narratives, and stereotypical formulations of gender, sexuality, race, and class. From the onset of social media sites such as Myspace, Facebook, and YouTube, a rich oeuvre of PRVs emerged with a focus on the exponentially expanding wealth disparity and consequent financial pressures upon the working class during the economic downturns under the leadership of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Within accessible, populist, and participatory video formats intended for a more general audience, these video works continue to address the culpability of political leadership and financial institutions in intensifying the conditions of poverty and turbulence in the United States and abroad.