StarveTheSystem2
2 HN recommenders · recommended in 4 months, 2013–2025
36:25 · 298K views · Jun 25, 2012
Kirby Ferguson's film argues that creativity is built from copying, transforming and combining existing works, examining music, film and technology. It makes the case that everything is a remix.
HN brings it up in discussions of originality, invention, copying and attribution, including AI art.
4 comments from Hacker News
> doesn't seem to have broken any new ground, only mashed together two existing technologies I'd argue that new inventions are created by mashing existing technologies, often emerging or bleeding edge, and creating something new. Henry Ford didn't invent the combustion engine, transmission, suspension, etc, but he did mash these things together into something new. What we are seeing in the video and research is something new and pretty exciting if you take it a couple steps further. Think about replaying these signals, building a play book, etc. ps. If you have some time to kill, I would check out this video called, "Everything Is A Remix", which talks about this idea @ this video
You will enjoy this documentary (Everything a Remix). this video Hardly 'scientific'... but how do you quantify copying.
Yep, you're right. As a writer, marketer, creator and consumer of content, I enjoy thinking about things like this. I've witnessed my work being plagiarized and edited before. I personally accept it as just the way reality is– some people are lazy about attribution, and other people like feeling talented and special when they diliberately share others' content without attribution or remixing. The answer to "Why doesn't anyone care"- it all boils down to incentive structures. "Parody accounts" can steal with impunity. "Casual randos" can steal with impunity. - If you're an artist, and faceless, nameless folks plagiarize your work, going after them actually makes you look insecure or clueless. (Metallica and Napster come to mind.) - If you get plagiarized by someone Bigger, Badder and More Powerful, then that's a news story in itself- you're the underdog, and everybody loves to root for the underdog. The best response to plagiarism, in my opinion, is to make more art. Some artists get very offended by this- they feel that they are entitled to all the attribution to all their work forever and ever. And that would be a beautiful world, I guess, and maybe discussions like these help to educate people. I also can imagine a world where- when you make a joke that's been made before (online), or you post an image that's been posted before, a sort of reverse Google / reverse image search will reveal to readers where the origin of the remix is. For anybody who is curious about this sort
Indeed, one could argue that everything is a remix of pre-existing expressions. This, of course does not rhyme well with current copyright laws. this video