First Blog Post- Meeghan Cronin

After watching the film "Everything is a Remix" in class, I took the time to reflect on how I view originality. I came to the conclusion that originality is almost impossible to achieve because you are influenced by other people's ideas since the day you are born. This was a pretty shocking revelation to me. I kept wondering how many times I have unintentionally been influenced by other people's work in the past without knowing it. It made me feel guilty because I began to think I was "stealing" other people's ideas my entire life. Once my mind went to stealing ideas, I began to worry I wasn't as creative or unique as I originally thought. However, I quickly determined that the "unoriginality" is not a bad thing. If being influenced by other people is unavoidable, then it is important to embrace the fact that building off of other people's ideas is the way some of the best creations are produced. During the movie, the man explained that without earlier developments from other computer engineers, the Lisa and the Macintosh would have never been developed by Apple. Even the printing press would not have been invented if Gutenberg hadn't combined the already discovered and widely used paper, ink, and machinery.

Apple and Gutenberg demonstrate that originality isn't necessarily coming up with a new and completely unheard of idea. Originality can be about taking influences, ideas, and concepts, and combining them together to make something new and sometimes something better. The way I look at it is that we are all essentially a "remix" of your parents, friends, and teachers' personalities that you have grown up with. However, what makes an individual unique from one another, is the way the person combines these influences, ideas, and concepts. For example, my sister and I both represent both of my parents' personalities. People often tell me I have my mom's humor and my dad's competitiveness. However, my sister has my dad's humor and my mom's lack of competitiveness. We are both influenced by the same people, but combine their personalities in ways that make us very different people.

Now when I go to a restaurant, shop, or really anywhere, I try to look for where I can find a "remix". It is interesting to see how many places and things are influenced by other people's original ideas and how building upon those ideas have been both negative and beneficial.