Customize It!

For this assignment, I explored what it means to “remix.” According to Kirby Ferguson, everything in life is remixed. We take other existing ideas, change their appearance or sound, and construct it into something of our “own.” As I watched his Ted Talk, I thought about how I could remix something around me into a new form. For this post, I located a white paper cup in my room and decided to transform it into something completely different. I was then able to connect the ideas from the week’s lesson and apply it to my remixed object.

While I was looking at the white paper cup, I thought about its various uses. For many people, a cup is used to hold a beverage. For me, I put different beverages in it (hot or cold) and even put my cereal in it since I don’t eat it with milk. At a glance, some identifying traits of this object are that it is white, made of paper, cylinder-shaped, and can hold 16 fluid ounces. This version of a cup most likely has been remixed repeatedly because the first cup was invented centuries ago. For the sake of this mini assignment, I remixed this cup into a different function: a stick-on wall pencil holder.

While the idea of a pencil holder sticking onto the wall is not a new invention, I tried to make it somewhat unique. Instead of using a nail or a command strip, I used regular packing tape to stick it on the wall. Why did I stick it on the wall? I’m not quite sure, but I thought it was a cool idea. When I went to Office Depot before the start of the school year, I saw a pencil holder that looked like this one. It had a magnetic strip on its back and clung to the wall. While I was adjusting the cup onto the wall, it reminded me of Ferguson’s remixing idea. I didn’t create this idea but rather borrowed it from something that already exists. While it could still be used as a cup, its new function serves as a pen/marker/pencil holder. The average person may look at my remixed creation and ask why I would stick a cup on a wall next to my desk. However, once writing utensils are placed in it, they can infer that it is a pencil holder instead of a typical drinking cup.