Mixer-Subverter :: an Online Improvisational Video System

This paper describes the Mixer-Subverter; an online system that allows children to integrate the activities of play (from giving to stealing; from sharing to forcing to receive) and the activities of video editing (creating, juxtaposing, controlling) into a neverending process of mix and subversion. It invites the storyteller within each one of us to compose and visualize movies, images and sound environments while writing a story. In addition, the Mixer-Subverter encourages playful collaboration in an exchange network of unique media artifacts. The operation of the system is based on improvisational principles; an idea that there is not a particular plan or goal to the editing process. Instead, pieces that populate the Mixer-Subverter's media space acquire their meaning through their patterns of use and practices of exchange [1, 2]. This paper is a report on a work in progress. As such, it presents the underlying rationale and provides a description of the first prototype version of the system.