First Blog Post: KK Shauh

"Everything is a Remix"

After watching the documentary "Everything is a Remix" in class, it got me thinking about the definitions of creativity and originality. According to google, creativity is defined as, "the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work" while originality is defined as, "the ability to think independently and creatively.'' As far as I can remember, I have never questioned the notion of original content but instead I just took all the music I listen to, art I see, the books I read, the food I eat, and ideas I hear with a grain of salt. Now, however, I wonder if anything is truly original and I am leaning toward the answer no. 

This lack of true originality, however, is not necessarily a negative thing because it is, in many cases, inevitable. When we delve deeper into the concept of originality and pick it apart, the result is no originality. Everything comes from something. We are all a sum of our experiences, our knowledge relies on the knowledge of others, the ideas we have are based on the theories of former individuals, and the list goes on-and-on. 

Take music for instance, there are thousands and thousands of musicians who write their own songs and technically they create their own melodies and harmonies. But, there are many instances when we hear new songs that instantly remind us of another song written and composed by a completely different artist. The same goes for movies, like this documentary showed us, many scenes recur in a multitude of other films. In addition, many films are based on works of literature and vice versa. 

I found the idea of this documentary incredibly  thought-provoking as I began going through music and movies in my head trying to find connections. It also led me to analyze life as a domino effect, one thing leads to another and thus it is fair to assume that everything around us was inspired and came from that which came before it.