Hinton: Bale remix reshapes reality

‘ ‘ ‘ On Monday, TMZ released audio of a Christian Bale tirade from the set of ‘Terminator:… ‘ ‘ ‘ On Monday, TMZ released audio of a Christian Bale tirade from the set of ‘Terminator: Salvation.’ After the director of photography walked through Bale’s line of vision disrupting his scene, the Dark Knight launched into a verbal flurry of anger and obscenity at the man, questioning his professionalism and threatening to quit if the D.P. made one more mistake and was not fired. The whole ordeal lasted almost four minutes. ‘ ‘ ‘ On a film set, extended hours and the general ubiquity of Murphy’s Law excite tensions and prolonged, graphic censure is nothing uncommon. Bale could have exercised more restraint, but I’m sure I would be hard-pressed to find an objector who has not been reduced to similar paroxystic fury at, say, a child’s insubordination or an intoxicated friend’s insistence on making out with a girlfriend’s little sister. ‘ ‘ ‘ The outburst pales in comparison to much more famous displays of wrath such as David O. Russell’s tantrum at Lily Tomlin on the set of ‘I Heart Huckabees.’ Bale’s rain of fire would likely have quickly faded from the cultural consciousness. ‘ ‘ ‘ However, the new faces of media had different plans for the strapping Welsh actor. Less than 24 hours after the audio of the incident was released, RuPaul producer and Perez Hilton fave RevoLucian posted a remix of Bale’s abuse. Titled ‘Bale Out,’ the track features Bale’s liberal use of profanity fitted and beat-matched into a rather danceable electro banger. ‘ ‘ ‘ If I did not know the origin of Bale’s audio, I would have assumed the American Psycho himself had participated in the recording. Not to be outdone, LA-based electro group, the Mae Shi, released a far more produced offering titled, ‘R U Professional.’ The artists behind one of my favorite releases from 2008, HLLLYH, the Mae Shi provide most of the audio for the remix but intersperse it with Bale’s caterwauls. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ As imitators line up with less inspiring Bale cuts, I remain thoroughly impressed with the quality and turnaround time of these tracks. Both RevoLucian and the Mae Shi had, at most, a day or two to put these songs together. We really should have seen this coming.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ YouTube released an in-site ability to remix video last year. Girl Talk’s pop-history-blender ‘Feed the Animals’ was a fantastic success in 2008. And thanks to the cheap, quality set-ups offered by companies such as Rane, Serato and Ableton, anyone can be a DJ. ‘ ‘ ‘ Although remixing is by no means a new phenomenon, this recent flourishing of outlets and support for chopped-up media suggests that we are no longer content with linearity in our art and history. What Foucault and Nietzsche failed to bring to popular awareness, a gang of kids with keyboards and laptops are beginning to accomplish. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ It goes a little something like this: You know how your dad always told you that history was written by the winners right before you stepped out on the mound in your Little League championship game? Well, this misused quotation illustrates the artificial construction of linear, narrative history. Setting up the world’s events as a story always privileges the storyteller’s viewpoint. ‘ ‘ ‘ The problem, though, isn’t subjectivity. It’s the linear form that forces events into a timeline. In fact, history is not a causal chain but a wide domain of things that occur and may or may not be related. However, as the forms of history and the art that represents it are generally linear ‘mdash; words have to be read in order, pictures seen in sequence ‘mdash; it is very difficult to present history as anything but. ‘ ‘ ‘ Consider French poet Stephane Mallarme’s famous poem ‘Un Coup de Des.’ Attempting to overcome the linearity of the written word, he constructed a piece that sprawled across panels, was written in different sizes, fonts and featured erratic placement so that there was no obvious order in which to read it. A throw of the dice does not abolish chance: We ultimately have to choose one way to read it, but that does not exclude all of the other equally possible and valid ways of reading. ‘ ‘ ‘ Such is the case with history. Girl Talk, the Mae Shi, RevoLucian and all other remix makers are no more than Mallarme’s heirs. As Christian Bale’s rant becomes a dance track, we are forced to examine the narrative by which we are given Bale’s outburst. The Dark Knight flipped out on an innocent artist because he is a jerk,’ we are told. ‘ ‘ ‘ A throw of the dice ‘mdash; this is just one way of reading the event. After remixing this event, however, it breaks down into its phonetic atoms and loses the charges of judgment instilled by media-hawks such as TMZ and Perez Hilton. Sure, these tracks came much more out of humor than concerns for the nature of historicity and truth, but that doesn’t mean remixing is not reshaping the way we see the world. E-mail Erik at ech15@pitt.edu.