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In June 2019, I had the privilege of completing a digital humanities workshop with Virginia Kuhn, Associate Director of the Institute for Multimedia Literacy at the University of Southern California. Throughout a short but intense week, we learned about Camtasia, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Premiere Pro. As we haphazardly applied these tools, Virginia insisted that we “think through the medium” by letting our message emerge through experimentation. The time crunch enforced such experimentation, for we were given little more than a day to produce a video essay.
As I gathered and edited footage for this video, I approached argumentation as a secondary, not primary, process. Though all of these materials involve testimony in postwar Guatemala, a topic I’ve studied and written about at length, I wasn’t interested in restating previous arguments. While creating the video, I pieced together a segment, briefly contemplated its meaning, and then proceeded with improvisation, effectively reading and writing the essay simultaneously.
Though this video is far from a final product, it nevertheless evidences the benefits of approaching video editing, a form of digital remix, as epistemic. By playing with image, sound, sequence, etc., I really did expand and reevaluate my knowledge of these materials and their relationships to one another. For example, Rigoberta Menchú’s claim that “El resto es historia” got me thinking about the double meaning of “resto” as “remainder” as well as “ruin.” The “omóplatos,” or shoulder blades, that Daniel Hernández-Salazar references when talking about his images are literally a “resto.” In this sense, his angels visually repeat and resignify Menchu’s aforementioned claim: the rest is history, the ruin is history.
Having enjoyed this workshop immensely, I look forward to implementing video essay and rhetorical analysis into my future courses! Please see Kuhn's influential article for more context:Kuhn, Virginia. 2012. "The Rhetoric of Remix." In "Fan/Remix Video," edited by Francesca Coppa and Julie Levin Russo, special issue, Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 9. doi:10.3983/twc.2012.0358.
Video Sources:
Aguilar Urizar, Yolanda de la Luz. Interview 54335, USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive. Guatemala Genocide Collection. 26 Feb. 2015.
“GAM MAP YOLANDA DE LA LUZ AGUILAR.” USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, 19 June 2019, https://sfi.usc.edu/video/gam-map-yolanda-de-la-luz-aguilar
Guggenheim Museum. “Artist Video: Regina José Galindo, La víctima y el victimario (English captioned).” Youtube, 4 Aug. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeDytcs-wsk
Haroldo Sánchez Sin Reservas | Guatevisión. “Fotógrafo Daniel Hernández-Salazar.” Youtube, 8 Oct. 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_JLQV7i45A
Proyecto lnterdiocesano de Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica. Guatemala: Nunca Más, 24 April 1998, http://www.odhag.org.gt/html/Default.htm
When the Mountains Tremble. Dir. Newton Thomas Sigel and Pamela Yates. Skylight Pictures, 1983.
In June 2019, I had the privilege of completing a digital humanities workshop with Virginia Kuhn, Associate Director of the Institute for Multimedia Literacy at the University of Southern California. Throughout a short but intense week, we learned about Camtasia, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Premiere Pro. As we haphazardly applied these tools, Virginia insisted that we “think through the medium” by letting our message emerge through experimentation. The time crunch enforced such experimentation, for we were given little more than a day to produce a video essay.
As I gathered and edited footage for this video, I approached argumentation as a secondary, not primary, process. Though all of these materials involve testimony in postwar Guatemala, a topic I’ve studied and written about at length, I wasn’t interested in restating previous arguments. While creating the video, I pieced together a segment, briefly contemplated its meaning, and then proceeded with improvisation, effectively reading and writing the essay simultaneously.
Though this video is far from a final product, it nevertheless evidences the benefits of approaching video editing, a form of digital remix, as epistemic. By playing with image, sound, sequence, etc., I really did expand and reevaluate my knowledge of these materials and their relationships to one another. For example, Rigoberta Menchú’s claim that “El resto es historia” got me thinking about the double meaning of “resto” as “remainder” as well as “ruin.” The “omóplatos,” or shoulder blades, that Daniel Hernández-Salazar references when talking about his images are literally a “resto.” In this sense, his angels visually repeat and resignify Menchu’s aforementioned claim: the rest is history, the ruin is history.
Having enjoyed this workshop immensely, I look forward to implementing video essay and rhetorical analysis into my future courses! Please see Kuhn's influential article for more context:Kuhn, Virginia. 2012. "The Rhetoric of Remix." In "Fan/Remix Video," edited by Francesca Coppa and Julie Levin Russo, special issue, Transformative Works and Cultures, no. 9. doi:10.3983/twc.2012.0358.
Video Sources:
Aguilar Urizar, Yolanda de la Luz. Interview 54335, USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive. Guatemala Genocide Collection. 26 Feb. 2015.
“GAM MAP YOLANDA DE LA LUZ AGUILAR.” USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, 19 June 2019, https://sfi.usc.edu/video/gam-map-yolanda-de-la-luz-aguilar
Guggenheim Museum. “Artist Video: Regina José Galindo, La víctima y el victimario (English captioned).” Youtube, 4 Aug. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeDytcs-wsk
Haroldo Sánchez Sin Reservas | Guatevisión. “Fotógrafo Daniel Hernández-Salazar.” Youtube, 8 Oct. 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_JLQV7i45A
Proyecto lnterdiocesano de Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica. Guatemala: Nunca Más, 24 April 1998, http://www.odhag.org.gt/html/Default.htm
When the Mountains Tremble. Dir. Newton Thomas Sigel and Pamela Yates. Skylight Pictures, 1983.
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