REAPPRAISING THE RESIDUAL

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Reappraising the Residual

            What is reappraising the residual exactly?  It means finding the worth of materials that some may label as “old stuff”.  In order to understand this we must first understand that people involved in selling or buy “stuff”  all have a different conception of its worth.  The worth may be monetary to some, have emotional value to others, or even a political value to others.  Curation is a lot like appraisal but the value might be linked to history of a people or a nation.  It is curation that is a type of appraisal that attempts to put a value or price on museum pieces, prehistoric bones, vases, clothing and hieroglyphics.  This stuff may have been bought for a very small price, example: baseball cards 5cents a pack with bubblegum and then sold in today’s market for tens of thousands of dollars.  This makes many of us shake our heads and wonder how old pictures of baseball players could end up being valued at that much money.  Certainly baseball is part of American Culture.  Is it that Americans attempt to re capture the good old days or Americano culture that actually has driven up the price or is it more? 

Many people would like to know what makes a piece valuable.  If you decide to collect you might as well collect what will be valuable in the future but there does not seem to be a formula for what will be determined to be valuable.  One thing that certainly does contribute to the negotiations for “old stuff” is the internet.  EBay or Amazon.com is used to help people buy and sell without much formality.  With forums to sell your belongings on such as these is it any wonder that we as a culture have become retro-crazy. 

Another medium that is used to sell things is You tube.  People who wish to sell their talents, promote existing products, or just share their thoughts on the internet are making videos.  The book “Spreadable Media” relates a story about two friends who rap about Chicken McNuggets.  McDonalds picked up the piece as an advertisement changing very little.  The authors sold their advertisement as well as their talents as rap artists.

Television has a show called Antiques Road Show.  In this show people bring all of their treasures that have been around the house forever.  The person who has the treasure tells a story about it, there is an expert who gives a value based upon his experiences.  Missing from this scene is the Auction House and the collector.  The value is probably an educated guess but the show is widely watched and has had some amazing consequences.  All of a sudden people are looking at things they once considered trash as objects of value.

You Tube perpetuates hybrid audiences.  Material, nonmaterial, and digital goods can be given as gifts.  Many subscribe to the idea that digital media has started a new hybrid means of

exchange.

            Residual Culture is a concept that recognizes that culture changes at variable rates.  Even though certain aspects of our culture may no longer be an actual part of the mainstream culture we can still be influenced by things, events, places, or people from that time in our history.  Raymond Williams (1977) suggests that change in culture influences is only understood by its ebb and flow.  Williams also indicates that there are four types of cultural practices:

Emergent

Dominant

Residual

Archaic

            The digital media has altered people’s relationships with the past though collecting and recycling “stuff” from the past. It is through this stuff that people connect with their own cultural roots.  Some people are interested in the history of their old stuff because they may receive monetary gain from it but some are interested in the “stuff” because it links them to a past that is uniquely their own.  Take for example Ancestry.com. This web site is unbelievably popular. Ancestry.com is a website for people who are looking for their roots.  They use digital technology to explore their own personal history.  As they explore their own history they are also exploring the culture that they are from.  There is something inherent in our need to explore where we came from and who we are.

            Residual Economics is a term for what the value of the cultural objects that are no longer in the cultural mainstream.  Since many look at antiques and old stuff as monetarily valuable.  We have recycled superman, batman, Spiderman, and countless other Marvel Comic Heroes.  The interesting thing about the recycling of these heroes we have used movies, videos, and video games to represent them to our culture.  These retro-heroes are as popular if not more popular when they were first created and put in print.

            Finally, WWE Classics on demand were found their niche in fans who wanted to know where their favorite wrestlers came from and were also going.  Fans in areas that did not have actual access to early wrestling matches fought by their favorite wrestler began trading their own media.  The promoters may have had control over their own areas as far as the matches went they could not control what the fans had acquired on their own.  Which brings up the argument about intellectual property and if the wrestling promoters should have some control over media and media rights.  Television itself has preserved our past but it has also brought many legal issues as to who owns what, what can be seen, and who it can be seen by.  Ironically, the modern media is an important part of preserving past and our ability to remember that past.