"Mixed" Media?

So, I'm not sure if you "get" this by now, but I'm a huuuuuuge music fan. It drives me, literally, whether it is walking to/from campus, doing household chores, or literally driving to Michigan. I compose to music, and while I don't necessarily consider my work "mixed media" as of yet, I've flirted with the idea. Someone on my thesis chair suggested I compose music to "accompany" the thesis, and I may eventually do so. I also toy with the idea of employing music during readings, but I'm worried about the music distracting or taking focus away from the words. Anyways, I do feel there are growing opportunities to re-purpose "text" or re-engage text via music.

For example, there is the resource Who Sampled Who, which is a pretty thorough examination (with links) of how new "texts" are constructed with old "texts." This may not be true "mixed" media, but it does play with the notion of process and how one "central" text can result in many differing results.

Along those same lines of "it may be mixed media but not by the book," I think of this. It's kind of sad to think of it now, as a key member recently (and by recently, 9/8/10) left the band, but this was a song writing contest. Based on the "text" supplied, those interested were to "compose" to the text. In the contest's own words, "What if we let you, the crazy and demented DT fan, interpret one of our charts to try and guess what the song we've written actually sounds like before anybody has gotten to hear it?" The chart, if you don't click on the link, contains information like key/time signatures and "feels"--for example, there is a section called "UK Rise" and another section called "Crimson Climb." Each of the songs that were selected as "winners" are solid compositions (well, if you're into the whole prog rock/metal instrumental thing), but none of them are near dead-ringers for the final product. I think, even though this may not be by-the-book mixed media, it does provide a good argument to mixed media's value and that it is not "distracting"--people, generally, don't produce the "same" thing (which English [or language] being generative kind of "proves"), so it's really interesting to see how "disparate" parts (in this case, just text descriptions with tempo markers and other vague musical annotations) can result in "beauty."

Think of how ekphrasis works--reading the poem in isolation may provide one picture, but if the picture is on the page (or the poem written into the picture), you add layers of additional depth by simple juxtaposition alone.

I think it will be cool once we hit the "mixed media" part of this semester, as I'd totally welcome the opportunity to have additional "texts" within my text--I may have to break out the pink Kodak camera, my acoustic guitar, and my insane falsetto.

-Glenn