Kirby Ferguson is a Canadian filmmaker, writer, and speaker whose work covers creative works and
popular culture
Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of cultural practice, practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art f. pop art
F is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet.
F may also refer to:
Science and technology Mathematics
* F or f, the number 15 (number), 15 in hexadecimal and higher positional systems
* ''p'F'q'', the hypergeometric function
* F-distributi ...
or mass art, sometimes contraste ...
; particularly
remix culture
Remix culture, also known as read-write culture, is a term describing a culture that allows and encourages the creation of derivative works by combining or editing existing materials. Remix cultures are permissive of efforts to improve upon, ch ...
. He is best known for his documentary series ''Everything is a Remix'' and ''This is Not a Conspiracy Theory''.
Career
In 2010, Ferguson created the four-part web series ''Everything is a Remix'', which discussed issues of
fair use
Fair use is a Legal doctrine, doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to bal ...
and how creative works derive inspiration from existing works. The inspiration for the series came from Ferguson seeing the media portray derivative works as taboo.
Defining remix culture, Ferguson states, "It's about whether or not you can recognize chunks of other people’s work. And if you look closely enough, every work contains pieces from previous works." Ferguson believes that creativity is based upon three elements: "copy, transform, and combine". These building blocks are the basis for all novel ideas. On the topic of
music samples in popular music, Ferguson points out that the reuse and inspiration from other musical sources has happened since the early days of popular music. He argues that musicians have been doing this across genres and time, most clearly with the reuse of classical folk music in rock music.
In a follow-up to ''Everything is a Remix'', Ferguson explored ''
Star Wars: The Force Awakens'' as an example of remixing in popular culture. Ferguson's work led to a
TED talk
TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...
titled ''Embrace the Remix'', which expands upon the ideas in ''Everything is a Remix''.
Ferguson's second documentary series, ''This is Not a Conspiracy Theory'', covers the culture and tools surrounding
conspiracy theories
A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources:
*
...
.
From 2021-2022, he updated his "Everything is a Remix" series.
Filmography
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferguson, Kirby
Living people
American documentary film directors
Year of birth missing (living people)