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• 1 2015-08-29T22:55:43-07:00 Critical Commons + Scalar 9 plain 2015-11-15T00:45:58-08:00 Although Critical Commons was originally conceived as a destination site, greater utility was quickly recognized in the site's ability to serve as a host for media that is uploaded for the purpose of embedding in external publications. Like most blogging platforms, Scalar has a limited capacity for accepting uploads, which effectively prevents storing video files on the Scalar servers. Users who require larger files (especially video, audio, or high resolution images) are encouraged to upload these files to Critical Commons along with a commentary that substantively transforms the media in accordance with best practices in fair use. As soon as a piece of media is publicly viewable within Critical Commons, Scalar users may search for the clip using Scalar's media importer, which captures the embed code and associated metadata via Critical Commons' RSS feed. Both files and metadata from Critical Commons are then integrated into Scalar's layout and visualization tools. Storing the uploaded media files on a different server from the Scalar publication introduces an additional layer of protection for authors and publishers in the event of a copyright challenge. Scalar authors are encouraged to make assertive and responsible use of media quotation and to extend the scholarly practice of electronic publishing to the realm of curation. Scalar's “structured media view” was created specifically to support the gallery-like presentation of media collections, creating a compelling visualization of the media included in a given project and providing alternative points of entry to a project.
  
  The conjunction of Critical Commons and Scalar is beneficial in several ways that are relevant to the present argument. First, scholars who are freed from anxiety about potential legal challenges may undertake different sorts of critical projects, perhaps motivated by the ability to quote extensively from original media sources. Second, the basic architecture of Critical Commons presumes that media that has been used in one critical context should be available for others to use in subsequent projects, creating possibilities for competing analysis or alternative, critical recontextualizations. In other words, the price of the fair use infrastructure provided by Critical Commons is willingness to freely share the basic components of one’s research with a broader community. Finally, the software-based process of ripping (de-encrypting), selecting, excerpting, and transforming scenes from commercial media may be properly regarded as a form of critical making. Media that is wrenched out of its safe narrative container is thereby defamiliarized and transformed, not only for the legal purposes of fair use but in terms of its potential as an object of critical analysis.