At the beginning of his
talk Ferguson gave the example in 2004, when a guy named Brain took the
Beatles' "White Album," combined it with Jay-Z's "The Black
Album" to create "The Grey Album." "The Grey Album"
then became an immediate sensation online.
Ferguson explains how the
"The Grey Album" was a remix. It was a new media created from old
media. It was made using three techniques: copy, transform and combine. Ferguson
explains “It's how you remix. You take existing songs, you chop them up, you
transform the pieces, you combine them back together again, and you've got a
new song, but that new song is clearly comprised of old songs”.
He goes even further by explaining
that these techniques of copy, transform, combine are not just the components
of remixing. He thinks these are the basic elements of all creativity. He
believes that everything is a remix.
Overall, in this talk he
explains how Creativity is not about coming up with something that the world
has never seen before — it’s about copying, transforming and combining what’s
already out there. This, however, complicates the idea of intellectual
property. As Ferguson shares at TEDGlobal 2012, “American copyright and patent
laws run counter to this notion that we build on the work of others. Instead,
these laws and laws around the world use the rather awkward analogy of
property. Creative works may indeed be kind of like property — but it’s
property that we’re all building on.”
Watch the video here: http://blog.ted.com/6-talks-about-problems-with-patents/
Great post Vruti. Kirby presents some interesting examples relating to the patent system and how industries have a variety of approaches. Keep up the good work and analysis.
ReplyDeleteThis post does a good job of summarizing the information that was in the video. Kirby does a good job of talking about why expanding from an idea is important in the music industry, however I do not know if this applicable to all industries. I'd be really interested to hear what you think!
ReplyDeleteVruti,
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I really like how you use the specific examples that he brought up in his TED talk. Its kind of crazy to think so many of the songs that we think are unique and creative are realistically based on earlier works. I think the important distinction he makes though is that this doesn't make the remix any less creative.