New York Public Library Embraces Remix Culture with ‘Remix Residency’ to Celebrate Digital Release of Public Domain Collection

So far, the 21st Century has been all about remixing. This generation certainly didn’t invent using pieces of pre-existing works to create new things. After all, that’s what sampling and DJing is. That’s what collages are. Joseph Cornell and Nancy Spero were remixing before “remixes” were even a thing. What’s changed is that we now live in a remix culture in which everything – from music, to visual art, to literature – is cobbled together from pre-existing work.  Hell, Joseph Gordon-Levitt has built a community allowing the public to do just that over at HitRecord! The New York Public Library, being a place that houses our culture throughout history, has recently embraced this aspect of us. First, by making their enormous public domain archive digitally available for the first time, and second, by creating a Remix Residency for artists to encourage its use.

The NYPL Digital Collections make 672,002 images available for public viewing online. Now, 180,000 public domain images are available for download, which means you can use these images without needing to worry about getting permissions for their use. You can find photographs, artworks, sheet music, manuscripts and more!

But even better than the expanded and more freely-usable images is the NYPL’s new Remix Residency through NYPL Labs, “an interdisciplinary team working to reformat and reposition the Library’s knowledge for the Internet age.” This residency offers artists, scholars, or any other creators who receive it the following:

• A $2,000 stipend
• An opportunity to meet and consult with NYPL curators and NYPL Labs staff
• A work space in one of our research study rooms at NYPL’s historic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building for the duration of the residency
• Promotion of finished work by NYPL Labs

If you are a creator and would love to create a work using the resources the NYPL has to offer, you have until 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday, February 19, 2016 to submit your proposal. Two winners will be chosen in March.

So what are you waiting for, you creative nerds you? Get over there and apply! And while you’re at it, think about giving the NYPL a donation. Or, if you’re outside New York, consider donating to your own local libraries. Efforts like this prove that libraries continue to be relevant, useful resources – even in the digital age.

(via Colossal; Image via NYPL Digital Collections)

—Please make note of The Mary Sue’s general comment policy.—

Do you follow The Mary Sue on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, & Google +?