Craig Baldwin considers his films a schizophrenic montage of audiovisuals.
Or a means of telling an alternative history in a noncommercial way.
Or a collage of autonomous folk art made of junk.
All of this is coined culture jamming, a form of experimental art that combines bits and pieces of culture, such as the sound of a vacuum cleaner or a clip from a pop song, to create a message that questions mainstream media.
"It's about common citizens reclaiming popular culture and media and giving it their own spin," said Keif Henley, co-owner of the Guild Cinema.
Culture jamming has been around for more than 25 years, but Baldwin's film, "Sonic Outlaws," showing at the Guild as part of a culture jamming-themed weekend, was the first to popularize the idea.
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He said the films being shown take bits and pieces of other films throughout history and retell them through critical eyes.
"It's not exactly what you would call music, but it's certainly experimenting with audio," he said.
Several years back, culture jamming pioneers Negativland sampled a U2 song and created a parody. The group was taken to court by the band's record company, Island Records, which claimed Negativland was infringing on copyright laws. Baldwin said the record company was trying to erase the parody from history.
"'Sonic Outlaws' is a film that kind of told that story," he said.
Baldwin said there is a difference between sampling and bootlegging, and that mainstream media giants are trying to control the technological software.
"People who feel that there is a little bit of oppression can fight back through audio-visual means," he said.
Take UNM media arts instructor Bryan Konefsky, who will have one of his shorts viewed this weekend.
Konefsky said years ago when he was living in Bridgeport, Conn., actor Paul Newman trashed the city, saying it was the armpit of Connecticut. Konefsky and others took down all the signs that said, "Welcome to Westport" - the wealthy city Newman lived in - and replaced them with "Welcome to Bridgeport."
"We caused stark pandemonium on the highways of Connecticut," he said.
His short will be made up of still photographs taken of the event.
"For me, it is kind of personal media archeology," he said. "The idea was, 'What does it mean to take photographs and drag them up into the present?'"
He said culture jammers question why movies are so formulaic.
"We think movies only exist in cineplexes where we go and passively watch," Konefsky said. "Why can't we make our own movies and tell our own stories?"
UNM media arts major Sarah Williams also has a short at the Guild this weekend.
"Basically, it's just a compilation of old 16 millimeter educational films that I re-edited," she said. "It makes fun of the original films and what many of us saw in elementary school as the truth."
She said she plans to continue working with experimental film and is working on something now about society's fascination with celebrities.
"I think so often we lose control over the media," she said. "Experimental film has really given us the ability to reclaim it."
