How to Remix the Future

Chapter 6 moves from futures depicted on screen to the audiences who take them up and respond to them by highlighting grassroots cultures of video remix that have flourished since the early years of the digital age. The speculative modes of cultural production and reception among science fiction media’s feminist fans showcase queer possibilities that emerge from efforts to push back against the pressures of dominant media temporalities. Their creative methods are the focus of this chapter, which highlights a practice that has emerged from obscurity to some influence in the last ten years: the subcultural art form of fans making music video, or vidding. The chapter uses the term “critical fandom” to center the affective and political temporalities of creative fan works that reimagine the racialized and gendered economies of digital media production and consumption. It analyzes several fan videos in depth to develop a theory of the form, then turns to queer, feminist, decolonial engagements with the television series Battlestar Galactica (2003–2009). Finally, the author’s own video remix practice is discussed as a way to incorporate the insights of this form into scholarly production.