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Everything is a Remix Part 4 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

This is one of the most engaging and well-edited documentary series I’ve watched. I highly recommend you to watch all four parts if you have an appreciation for culture.

Everything is a Remix explains how every work of art, music, inventions, or some other idea isn’t so original as one might think. Instead, creating culture begins by borrowing and building upon other people’s ideas over time. Culture is more of an evolution rather than a big bang.

“Copy, Transform, and Combine”

Hunter S. Thompson learned to write novels by copying Hemingway word for word until he figured out a formula and created his unique voice. Likewise, classically trained artists and musicians learn the styles of the old masters first before they could develop their own style.

If you wanted to have credibility in the fine arts world, you needed to demonstrate competency in basic still life, anatomy, figure drawings, and the color wheel. Just take a look at Pablo Picasso’s earlier works. As a musician, you needed to learn composers starting from the Baroque era, instead of learning just pop music.

Let ideas roam free without the restriction of intellectual property laws.

Intellectual property (IP) laws slow down the progress of culture and humanity. Artists learn and gain inspiration by copying the old Masters. They incorporated elements of the old masters’ style and put their twist on it before they can create an original.

Continue reading IP Laws Don’t Help You

It’s the last week of month four of Praxis and time flew by! To recap, this month was about consuming content and feeding my brain with a healthy diet of philosophy, economics, culture, and history.

This final week will focus on how everything in culture is a remix. Additionally, I’m watching a short series about how everything is a remix by Kirby Ferguson. I highly recommend everyone to watch this because he explains why culture has slowed down and how it progresses. Continue reading Week 4 of Module 4: It’s the Last Week of Month 4!

In the last lecture of the Commerce and Culture podcast, Paul Cantor defends each new media of art as the next form of high culture. Continue reading Pop Culture and a Defense of Violent Video Games

The Commerce and Culture podcast provides an Austrian economist’s explanation of how culture would not exist without free trade and advances in technology. Continue reading Culture Exists Because of the Free Market

• Film developed quickly in the first thirty years of it’s existence due to a relatively free market
• Movie studios were unlicensed unlike radio
• The government limited the number of stations owned
• It was illegal for a network to own more than five stations
• The feedback mechanism from the consumer is important

• Movies are a prime example of commercialized art
• It was a novelty and the first films were random clips of things like people walking or trains moving, and they had no story
• Film was a reason to overcome contempt for commercial culture
• Academia lagged behind in accepting film as a form of study
• Scholars didn’t consider films as an art form because it had no solitary artist creating one work all by himself
• The single creator mindset was from the classical era, and it was only legit art if it was written and directed by one person alone
• One critique of Hollywood was the films had no artistic unity
• Casablanca was one example and it had nine directors
• It was thought that too many directors would spoil the broth, so to speak
• Hollywood and art is unpredictable
• Some produce brilliant works when given free rein and no direction, others failed

Have you ever wondered why bad art sells for millions? You’ve probably also wondered how society reached this point. First, let’s look at the events leading up to this phenomenon.

These are my notes from the seventh lecture of the Commerce and Culture podcast. Continue reading Why Crappy Art Sells

• 19th-century novels were rejected by academics because it was considered vulgar like pop culture today
• Mass production of novels reached wider audiences
• Poor literacy rates increased due to mass printing and better printing presses
• Niche marketing came about because of modernism
• Niche marketing provided collectibles and higher quality goods
• Niche was a throwback to patrons

I’m on the fifth lecture of the Commerce and Culture podcast by Paul Cantor. This episode explains how capitalism increased the literacy rates of the poor during the 19th century.

Here are some of the basic points he made. Continue reading Capitalism Made Learning Accessible