In an era where humanity's self-imposed, global competition has never been fiercer, the drive to deliver more for less has stimulated the entertainment industry's reliance on remakes, throwbacks, and interpolation. With this release, Birdog engages in and honors the age-old art of remixing classics and disrespecting the giants whose shoulders are stood upon as they roll in their graves. Not unlike the log-rolling event[1] from the television programme "Lumberjack Challenge" on OLN (Outdoor Life Network).

Further:

Consumers of culture are turning to art couched in cultural reference and packaged familiarly, although not necessarily without depth and nuance. The value of, say, a Beatles record lies initially with the subjectively valued quality of music, same as any piece of art. The disruptive value of a Beatles record in 2019, however, is largely added by the fact of its existence in the cultural consciousness. While one's 100th listening of the same great album can still be very enjoyable (and perhaps more enjoyable than the first listening as the album would represent and signal to the listener more than it did on one's first listen — this is a separate discussion), it will likely be less exciting than the first few listens of a newly discovered album of equal subjective quality. The disruptive value of the Beatles record is that it costs much less to listen to in 2019, because all of the work required to create it was performed long ago. Recorded music is higher value than theoretical music. The ratio of costs to quality is much lower than

By cutting one's production costs in creating an experience that is replicable at no cost, one increases the total value of the exerpience. It costs less to sample an orchestra than to hire an orchestra of performers to record the same audio. This is why clearing samples is an important part of incentivizing the perception of remix-as-collaboration. There is value both in the curatorial effort required to find and sample a piece of work and in the initial effort of creating the original work which is being sampled.

Sampling, interpolating, remaking, etc. all leverage the existing value in an artistic work to cut the cost of production. Fortunately, there is a vast wealth of artistic work to sample, interpolate and remake — I don't see humanity running out of inspiration to draw from any time soon.

The one shift that has been perceived in recent history is the transparency of new works' use of old work. A contrasting example of this phenomenon is the difference between Hamlet : The Lion King and A Start is Born (1937) : A Star is Born (2018). It is possible that direct remakes have increased in popularity, but they may be merely enjoying greater spotlight than artistic work which is inspired by previous work.

The digital age has afforded the entertainment complex with an array of tools to create art and steer culture, many of which are perceived to, and may actually, require less overall cost than the tools of yesteryear.

Human condition

On one hand, this cultural acceptance of "remix-art-as-high-art" has allowed for many internet artists to express themselves and provide artistic commentary with the least expensive upfront cost this level of production has ever seen. This can be contrasted with the cost/level of production and the industry standard level of production of the past as well. This ratio (quality of low-cost production : industry standard production quality) will likely maintain stability. The remix-art-as-high-art allows for easy creation of art, but through referencing of previous art.

I believe that this trend of using what has come before and modifying it slightly will continue to dominate industries going forward - at least I hope it does? Recycling and reusing are efficient. Although, perhaps efficiency shouldn't be the concern of artists.

[1] See: www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOeHB_RrSRs

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The French invasion of Russia, known in Russia as the Patriotic War of 1812 and in France as the Russian Campaign, began on 24 June 1812 when Napoleon's Grande Armée crossed the Neman River in an attempt to engage and defeat the Russian army. Napoleon hoped to compel Emperor of All Russia Alexander I to cease trading with British merchants through proxies in an effort to pressure the United Kingdom to sue for peace. The official political aim of the campaign was to liberate Poland from the threat of Russia. Napoleon named the campaign the Second Polish War to gain favor with the Poles and provide a political pretext for his actions.

At the start of the invasion, the Grande Armée numbered 680,000 soldiers (including 300,000 soldiers from France). It was the largest army ever known to have been assembled in the history of warfare up to that point. Through a series of long marches Napoleon pushed the army rapidly through Western Russia in an attempt to destroy the Russian army, winning a number of minor engagements and a major battle at Smolensk in August. Napoleon hoped the battle would win the war for him, but the Russian army slipped away and continued to retreat, leaving Smolensk to burn. As the Russian army fell back, scorched-earth tactics were employed, resulting in villages, towns and crops being destroyed and forcing the French to rely on a supply system that was incapable of feeding their large army in the field. On 7 September, the French caught up with the Russian army which had dug itself in on hillsides before a small town called Borodino, seventy miles west of Moscow. The battle that followed was the bloodiest single-day action of the Napoleonic Wars, with 72,000 casualties, and a narrow French victory. The Russian army withdrew the following day, leaving the French again without the decisive victory Napoleon sought. A week later, Napoleon entered Moscow, only to find it abandoned and burned by the Russians.

The capture of Moscow did not compel Alexander I to sue for peace, and Napoleon stayed in Moscow for a month, waiting for a peace offer that never came. On 19 October, Napoleon and his army left Moscow and marched southwest toward Kaluga, where Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov was encamped with the Russian army. After an inconclusive battle at Maloyaroslavets, Napoleon began to retreat back to the Polish border. In the following weeks, the Grande Armée suffered from the onset of the Russian Winter. Lack of food and fodder for the horses, hypothermia from the bitter cold and persistent attacks upon isolated troops from Russian peasants and Cossacks led to great losses in men, and a breakdown of discipline and cohesion in the army. More fighting at Vyazma and Krasnoi resulted in further losses for the French. When the remnants of Napoleon's main army crossed the Berezina River in late November, only 27,000 soldiers remained; the Grande Armée had lost some 380,000 men dead and 100,000 captured during the campaign. Following the crossing of the Berezina, Napoleon left the army after much urging from his advisors and with the unanimous approval of his Marshals. He returned to Paris to protect his position as Emperor and to raise more forces to resist the advancing Russians. The campaign ended after nearly six months on 14 December 1812, with the last French troops leaving Russian soil.

The campaign was a turning point in the Napoleonic Wars. It was the greatest and bloodiest of the Napoleonic campaigns, involving more than 1.5 million soldiers, with over 500,000 French and 400,000 Russian casualties. The reputation of Napoleon was severely shaken, and French hegemony in Europe was dramatically weakened. The Grande Armée, made up of French and allied invasion forces, was reduced to a fraction of its initial strength. These events triggered a major shift in European politics. France's ally Prussia, soon followed by Austria, broke their imposed alliance with France and switched sides. This triggered the War of the Sixth Coalition.