A recent hot topic is popping up frequently in the media which is about the potential replacement of human-made music or art against machine (AI) generated music or art. Are machines / artificial intelligence so much better innovating and what is distinguishing human from maschine made music finally? Are we arriving at the end of arts?
Quite recently, the ARTE documentary “Tracks: Edit, Mashup, Remix – Sind wir am Ende der Kunst?” delved deeply into remix culture, questioning the boundaries of originality in modern art. It follows the concept that all art builds on what came before, featuring creators like Kirby Ferguson, who argues that remixing is not only inevitable but essential to innovation. The film traces remix culture across music, video, and digital platforms, where artists reinterpret, blend, and refashion existing works.
1. Historical Context: The documentary discusses how artistic evolution has always involved borrowing, with examples from Renaissance art to early hip-hop, showing that transformation rather than pure originality has long driven cultural shifts. By comparing today’s mashups to past innovations, the film challenges the traditional notion of originality.
2. Digital Transformation and Accessibility: As digital tools have democratized content creation, remixing has become accessible to anyone, transforming platforms like TikTok and YouTube into remix hubs. This shift has brought with it a flood of reinterpretations, which the documentary argues both challenges and invigorates creative fields.
3. Intellectual Property and Artistic Ownership: One of the documentary’s focal points is the tension between remix culture and intellectual property laws. By featuring artists who navigate these legal and ethical challenges, it highlights how remixing can sometimes border on infringement yet simultaneously opens new dialogues around artistic ownership and collaboration.
4. The New Aesthetic: Remixing is shown not just as a form of homage or reinterpretation, but as a fresh aesthetic approach. Through visuals and music, the film demonstrates how remix culture has created its own unique style, blending genres, and blurring lines between original and derivative work.
5. End of Art or New Frontier?: The central question remains—whether remix culture signifies the “end” of art or merely a new chapter in its evolution. Interviews with artists and experts suggest that while traditional boundaries might be dissolving, the essence of creativity endures, redefining what it means to be original.
In essence, the documentary presents remixing as both a reflection of and a challenge to artistic conventions, ultimately viewing it as a progressive force reshaping the art world in the digital age.
In 2020, Jean-Michelle Jarre, a pioneer in electronic and synths-based music, released a smart-phone App called "Eon" that is continuously generating a flow of computer-based music which is not repeatable, organic and original. "Eon is a live-App and grow forever in everyone's own singular space-time continuum", as Jarre said. This App is ground-breaking again as it, already in 2020, was generating music by a machine algorithm that is innovative, original, non-repeatable and not a remix. Moreover, it generated also "Canvas" but in a much more elegant way and not just as 8 sec. repeats of a video clip. However, the success of the App was limited as still people are listening to many other types and sources of music. Therefore, this "AI-generated music" was not wiping away the rest of the music on earth (yet).
The young generation being exposed to TikTok, SnapChat and many other "innovative Apps" may at some point come to the conclusion that the remixes and repetitions of common themes are boring them more and more. Actually, recent trends indicate that younger generations seem to look for a meaningful live and some people of this generation tend to lose connection to the ever rolling Instagram pages showing the same content in different ways. Maybe, there are different future pathways possible how the current and perception by consumers like us will develop. One way, according to Tech companies like Meta or Apple, maybe that internet consumers are tight into the "Metavers". Another option may also be that people do not jump on this train and maybe more interested in the beauty of our planet earth. Some of the values of "Gen Z" are more in-line with the second option.
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