Recommendation: Everything Is a Remix

Everything is a Remix is a documentary that encapsulates a great deal of what I think about creativity. The three areas of creativity that I write and think about the most are great examples of the film’s thesis.

The thesis is that creativity isn’t as mysterious as many people think it is.

Creativity comes from effort and mindset. It is a process that can take years or decades but it is accessible.

Who is it for?

Being a documentary about art, you might imagine that this film is for artists. That is true. It is a film for anyone who has a deep interest in creativity and innovation in any field. He explores many different areas where creativity has been applied to make new things.

This film is definitely for anyone who has creative hobbies like tabletop role playing games.

It is also for people who make a living with artistic creation. The last part of the film is for you especially.

What’s it for?

Kirby Ferguson’s intent was to explain the process of creative innovation, creativity in general, debunk some false narratives about creativity, and to explore some of the challenges that creative people face today.

The film is split into several parts. Originally, it was seperate videos. Once he finished the series, he assembled together into a single film.

The message of the film is that creativity is not a magical, mystical, experience that only some special people get to participate in.

Does it succeed?

This film does indeed succeed in expressing the point in a way that is engaging. It kept my attention and I found myself thinking of how his concepts applied in all the things I love most; RPGs, music, and stories.

The main argument could be made in a single three or four thousand word essay but I think the combination of images, music, and narration make the point in a powerful way.

The film itself, how it was made, what it looks like, the manner in which it is edited is delightful example of his thesis. That reinforces the message.

What is it about?

The primary thesis of the film is that creativity comes from a known process.

Copy. Transform. Combine.

He provides many examples of each element. Those examples include genres of music, technology, phone apps, and video games. In part three, Kirby shows how game designers copy ideas from just about every where, transform them, and combine ideas from other games to create new games. If you want to get the idea in the shortest time possible, and don’t have any interest in the examples provided, that section alone will suffice.

When you know the Way broadly, you will see it in everything.

Copy. Transform. Combine. Kirby makes a strong case that this is how creativity happens.

It’s not rocket surgery. It’s not mysticism. It’s not the muses dancing with Apollo. It is a repeatable method accessible to anyone willing to do the work. Innovation doesn’t come from lone geniuses. It comes from creative people copying other people’s creative work, transforming it and combining it with other ideas. It is collaborative, even if our collaborators are long dead.

This Copy-Transform-Combine process is how Dungeons & Dragons, heavy metal, and sword-and-sorcery fiction were created.

Robert Howard copied the genres of historical adventure stories, pulp action stories, weird horror stories, Icelandic sagas, and mythic hero stories. He transformed them in his early years of writing. He combined them together to create the stories of Kull and Conan.

Black Sabbath copied blues rock and roll played through distorted amps. Transformed it with Iommi’s tuned down guitar and heavy strings. They combined it with grim subject matter and occult imagery to create heavy metal.

Dave Arneson copied Dave Wesley’s Braunstein game. Transformed it by making it a medieval game. He combined it with monsters from legend, Tolkien, Universal monster movies, and sword-and-sorcery fiction. Gary transformed Dave’s rules with ideas of his own. He combined it with plastic toys from Japan, Warner Brothers cartoons, fairy tales and more.

The Old School Renaissance copied the D&D ruleset, transformed parts of it with things like slot based encumbrance, and combined it with ideas from other games, and more recent fiction and films.

Once you see the pattern, it’s everywhere.

The machines are coming, but let’s not worry about that too much yet.

The last part of Everything Is a Remix is about AI. AI is a contentious issue in the creative world right now. Some of what Kirby has to say may make some people mad. He makes a subtle point that the machines do two things that humans do. Copy and combine.

It is terrible at transforming. Kirby makes the obvious point that AI has never lived and it doesn’t feel.

Art is about emotion. AI doesn’t know what it’s like to gasp in terror, scream with delight, or wallow in self-pity. Machines don’t understand emotion or possess emotion. It can’t Transform that which it copied with something it lacks. It may be less of a threat to creators who are dedicated to the Transformation part of the creative process.

If you trained it only on the stories, and poems that Robert Howard read, would it invent a character like Conan?

If you trained it on all the images that HR Giger ever saw, would it produce concept art for Alien?

Can AI truly transform something it’s copied into something with meaning and emotional resonance? I’m not sure it has to. Humans apply meaning and emotion to random events produced by nature.

It’s a difficult subject and I certainly don’t have the answers. I seem to only have a lot of questions.