Found footage implies a devotion to find the hidden meanings in video material. It plays with the marginal, or with counter-cultural meaning excavated from culturally iconic footage. With the advent of the digital and Web 2.0 technologies, the sharing and creation of works that are reminiscent of the found footage movement has been democratized. Remix is the act of rearranging, combining, editorializing and adding to the originals to create something entirely new. Today’s audience is not listening or watching , it is participating. Remix is the very nature of the digital.

The Compiler collection reflects critically on the creation of versions and remixes, the use of found footage and the reinterpretation of past events and artefacts. In this way, it relates to the methods of media archeology or the use of archival material to create new meanings in the context of digital media and media art. The possibility to approach old material in this manner is thanks to the dissemination of tools able to modify digital images and sounds. Added to that the sheer infinte availability of online source material and the many dedicated amateur artists. The growing tendency among amateurs to pursue image manipulation and remix techniques and the dissemination of these aesthetic practices throughout the Internet sheds new light on the contemporary and historical use of these practices in the art world, particularly among the artists who explore net-art.

There is a creative imperative in contemporary consumerist culture to be a prosumer as new media theorist, Henry Jenkins, put it. Not only a passive consumer but an active producer. But there is the issue of copyright with these user-generated materials. The concepts of authorship and originality are still floating around in our discourse. Therefore, the Compiler Collection of which we feature several videos brings together works that address the production of versions.