Image by Warner Brothers Pictures.

Alex Dahl:

Inception is excellent not because it is unparalleled — previous films have already taught us to question reality — but because it is uniquely enjoyable. Despite the requisite inclusion of summer-action-blockbuster explosions, its real fun comes from a wild experience that challenged me to keep up with my shifting perceptions. Beginning with an exposition that changed the apparent roles of characters and reality multiple times, to a layered climax with so much tension and speed that two seconds seemed to unfold over twenty minutes (in more ways than one), I had the rare continuous feeling of cerebral and visceral enjoyment.

Emotional intensity is enhanced throughout by Hans Zimmer’s music. It too is not necessarily profound, but is always sublimely appropriate. The score does exactly what it is supposed to do: add value without distraction. But what elevates it from appropriate to excellent is the key integration of Edith Piaf’s “Non, Je ne Regrette Rien.” While primarily supporting the story, her haunting voice resonates through scenes like no other plot device could.

It is impossible to avoid comparisons to Memento, one of Nolan’s earlier films. Inception is more enjoyable, because of the delightful recurring cycle of confusion and clarity throughout. The film is so well-crafted that every detail feels right. Transitions, clothing, architecture, and locations all seem to make sense, even when in dreams that are really impossible.

As Cobb explains, “It’s only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.” I was occasionally aware — like the characters on screen — that what I was seeing wasn’t real, only a carefully constructed dreamscape. I thought some about the clever imagination behind it, but its curiosities didn’t seem out of place. The triumph of Inception is its simultaneous clarity and inscrutability. Even if only a dream, I wished to stay in it longer.

Image by Warner Brothers Pictures.

Ian Hirschfeld:

Christopher Nolan has delivered his best film to date, a mind-altering action thriller that’s filled with suspense. Inception, which lasts over two and half hours doesn’t feel like it’s too long, but rather just right. The pacing is perfect, as the film quickly moves from scene to scene. The plot is fast to unfold and the meat of the story takes hold. Filled with intensity, action packed fight and chase scenes, and cool special effects, makes this brain teaser one of the best “question reality” films to come out.

The film’s biggest strengths are its feeling of urgency and attention to detail. From the start, I knew I had to carefully watch every scene as best I could. Even still, Nolan was able to craft a story I was never able to fully guess, but was always able to appreciate. As the story continued to its powerful climax, the complexity of time within the movie, and the relationship of actions between characters, became increasingly important as the film dealt with multiple realities of our subconscious. These relationships that had a butterfly effect through each layer of reality kept me on edge as I watched the protagonists struggle to complete their mission.

Nolan does an amazing job of telling a story that I easily took as believable and plausible without any nudging. He spared me any trouble about knowing the science of it all by completely avoiding how any of the technology within the story works or how inception even came to be, but rather focuses completely on how everything functions within our minds. I was soon grasping at the thought of “what is reality” and how I perceive my surroundings. More importantly the thought that “my ideas” may be false, even implanted by someone else.

I have no doubt that Inception will be a continued success throughout the rest of its time in theaters, and possibly even after. Nolan and his cast have created a deep fiction that will surely stick in every viewer’s head. Like all great mind films, I felt pushed to question my reality, and now, even my dreams.

Image by Warner Brothers Pictures.

Logan Dwight:

After seeing Inception, I can safely say my mind is officially bent, maybe even broken. Did I like the movie? Yes, I may have even loved it. There is no doubt in my mind that this is Christopher Nolan’s best production to date. It is intelligent, well-executed, immersive, and wholly unique. With that said, the film has left me with an odd and unfamiliar series of emotions. I did not walk away in awe, as so many other great intellectual films have done to me in the past. Rather, I walked away with my mind at a standstill. I knew I had to think about what I had just seen, but for the first time in my life, I had no idea where to even begin.

From the outset, Inception does more than just immerse you in its fiction – it flat-out drowns you in it. Within the opening minutes, there is this inescapable sense that you should be paying fervent attention to every tiny detail. The concepts introduced here are all-encompassing, reaching beyond the film’s core fiction into the real world. In many ways, the viewer is just as large a part of the experience as the actors themselves. It not only encourages, but requires you to ask questions and seek your own answers, lest you get lost in a sea of ambiguity. I often felt like I was piecing the puzzle together one step ahead of the film itself, only to be proven wrong and led in an entirely new direction. Inception runs for 148 minutes, and I was at full attention for all of it.

This is not to say that the film is confusing. At no point did I feel lost or out of step with the events unfolding on screen. Christopher Nolan walks the razor’s edge of having a story that shifts between many disparate elements, yet holds together with tight formation and focus. It pushes forward with furious momentum, and left me making footnotes of elements I would have to revisit later. It was clear to me that I would be thinking Inception over for weeks to come. Then the ending came around, and, with an air of inexplicable finality, brought my brain to a halt. I still had so many questions, but I was at a loss as to how to answer them. Any attempt to decipher the details seemed feeble and hollow.

This is the great success of Inception. It is not a film that is meant to be thought about, but rather, a force to make you think. Much like the film’s premise itself, Inception has planted the foundations of an idea in my mind, and even now it grows. It cannot be brought to light with logic, but must instead be felt and lived. This is truly a film for the subconscious mind. Inception is a completely unique property, and film design at its best. Every scene, every moment is carefully paced out, and only serves to lead us further into some grand mental trap. I fell in willingly.

Just what design is has never been easy to define. AIGA, the professional association for design, doesn’t even attempt a definition in its mission statement. Their mission booklet, however, does offer a list of various “communication designers—visual designers, identity designers, environmental designers, information designers, editorial designers, package designers, motion-graphics designers, interaction designers, customer-experience designers, strategic designers and others.” This unwieldy collection of specializations begins to reveal the breadth of the design discipline. Yet its many examples still leave a definition elusive. The mention of “others” opens the door for an infinite number of additional title. This list isn’t so authoritative after all.

The limitation to “communication” designers also holds back exploration. AIGA restricts themselves to just this category, but the “designer” label is applied to many more activities. There’s sound, story, and game design, as well as fashion, interior, and landscape design — just to name a few more. While we’ve been comfortable to have jobs with these titles for many years, it’s curious that we call people “designers” without knowing what that really means. To find a definition, we need to think bigger than any one of these specializations.

What designers across the entire spectrum have in common is an understanding of both problems and people. Regardless of specialization, designers recognize the challenges of a particular circumstance, relate to how their audience experiences the situation, and then design solutions in response. For example, graphic designers must recognize the problems that visual communication can solve, and understand how people react to their solutions. Product designers need to see how people use objects, and build things that work in their lives. Film designers have to understand the emotions of their audience, and craft an experience that activates the right feelings at the right time (in this way, I consider film directors to be designers at heart — the good ones, anyway).

The definition of comprehensive design, then, is using knowledge of people for problem solving. Specializations — any adjective that appears before “design” — create executions within larger design problems. One comprehensive design problem, for example, could be presenting the products of a news organization to the public. To solve the problem, many specializations will be engaged for specific executions. Graphic design can produce visuals for web or print, but strategic design decides which medium is appropriate. And still, because graphic designers and strategic designers should all be designers, they can provide input on every part of the comprehensive design problem.

This common understanding of problems and people grants designers the ability to be informed critics for any specialization. Graphic designers, for example, shouldn’t need extensive experience with film to offer insightful suggestions on how to improve a movie — from story to cinematography to music. While training and experience create specializations that do have great value, the fundamental basis of comprehensive design also allows excellent cross-disciplinary criticism and creativity. Tom Ford, a fashion designer and former Creative Director of Gucci, founded a film company and directed A Single Man to positive reception. Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, Ford is an alumnus of Communication Design at Parsons the New School for Design. J.J. Abrams has built a career of writing and directing for television and film, but also designed the first poster for Star Trek and composed the theme music for Fringe along the way.

Abrams embodies a common character trait of designers: the control freak. Control freaks may have a reputation for insanity, but creative control is a force for good. Why would you risk someone else getting it wrong, when you could ensure it’s right? This is the mark of a passionate designer, and is also evidence of design’s cross-disciplinary foundation. A graphic designer may start with just a logo, but then develop ways in which the logo is used. This leads to print materials, and those involve specifications of papers and inks and bindings. All of that is followed by developing the website, which in turn influences the design of corporate offices. Along the way, the communications strategy inevitably comes up, along with product positioning and management structure. The best designers think of everything.

Comprehensive designers and studios — ones that think of everything — not only get more work, but also increase quality for their clients. Comprehensive design requires that every aspect of a job be considered together, and therefore work in harmony. Implementing all of a project’s components forces you to improve your decisions, instead of just saying, “That’s someone else’s problem.” Print materials are then sure to match the website, and the logo will convey the same feelings as the product names. In addition, comprehensive design is inherently more efficient: no wasted time explaining the same information to different people. This also creates more confidence that everyone is on the same page, contributing to the excellence of the finished product.

The quality of work is also improved by a recognition of design beyond your specialization. Thinking of design as a comprehensive system opens your eyes to inspiration in the whole world around you. If you’re designing a website, don’t just look at websites that have come before, as that only perpetuates monotony and stagnation. Instead, find new solutions and delightful innovation by looking at how the sun falls on buildings in your city, or the way rivers flow around boulders within them. Jonathan Snook, a web designer and developer, based elements of an earlier version of his website on a 1950s diner. Examples of inspiration are everywhere, just waiting to be discovered.

Designers should think and act in this comprehensive way as much as possible. Recognize the position of your specialization within the comprehensive design field, and embrace an understanding of problems and people. Use this ability to navigate between specializations, and confidently criticize shortcomings from any source. While one person may not be able to do everything on a given project, seeing how your domain interacts with every component is essential to achieve the best result. Without this mindset, you’ll miss opportunities to be inspired, control your work, and provide for clients.

AIGA, with only a limited list instead of a definition, identifies the most important trend for future designers as “wide and deep: meta-disciplinary study and practice.” Be everything, or be left behind.

Remixing is not just a simple term used by DJs and producers that mix-and-match beats and rhymes. Rather, it is an idea that drives a person to create something new from the old world around them. It is an idea that has been instilled within our culture since the very beginning, from the time the first person whittled a stick to a point, to the person who made BeatSneaks. It is the driving force towards our culture’s progression and innovation, both socially and technologically. Through remixes we have gone from nomad hunter-gatherers, to world exploring empires, to countries full of passionate artists, designers, and engineers.

What does it mean to remix? It means you are living a process. A process of curiosity, reflection, and creation, that pushes the limits of human innovation. This process is what has allowed our society to evolve and mature creatively, which in turn advances our technology and betters our morals. It is a process that gives every person the chance to remix the world to his or her imagination’s end. Furthermore, a person can share their remix to inspire and be used by others. It is this opportunity for constant creation and collaboration that makes remixing a powerful force.

When done correctly, remixing can be used as a way to strengthen your brand and create profit for you and anyone you collaborate with. Kayne West, the self-made music producer and hip-hop artist, began his career by producing tracks for other musicians while in college. Through remixing tracks for other known artists, his popularity rose to the point where he could release his own album, The College Dropout. Since then he has had continuous success with his music career, much of which is built off of remixes. One recent successful song, “Stronger” from his album Graduation, is a prime example of his ability to creatively produce great music through remixing.

"Stronger" single album cover.
Cover Art by Takashi Murakami.

West remixed electronica with hip-hop. He sampled vocals from Daft Punk’s “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” which are used during the chorus and in the background beat. He pulls inspiration from a phrase by Friedrich Nietzsche, “What does not kill him, makes him stronger”. He also worked with Timbaland on the percussion for the song and used parts of “Cola Bottle Baby” by Edwin Birdsong. He then co-produced an extended outro with Mike Dean. The end result was a song that won a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance, and was the number one single in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Turkey, and New Zealand.

“Stronger” not only gave his album tons of exposure, but by heavily sampling Daft Punk, giving them song credit, and involving them in his music video, West gave Daft Punk a heavy push in the hip-hop community and further strengthened their already prominent mainstream recognition. It was a win-win situation for all parties involved, and more importantly a great piece of art was created as a result.

Remixing is also a tool to be used for social change. Shepard Fairey, an artist well-known for his unconventional and anti-establishment art, often remixes photography and graphic design for social and humanitarian causes such as Darfur. His most recent success is the Obama Hope Poster, which is based off of a photograph of the now President, and has since then become one of the most iconic images so far this century.

In his book Designing Obama, Scott Thomas, the Design Director for Obama’s campaign, writes:

“Fairey’s use of the word ‘change’ in the poster highlighted a central campaign theme, but it was his use of a stylized version of Obama’s face that showed how an image could both reinforce a message and convey an entirely different level of meaning. Using reds and blues, Fairey’s portrait configured Obama’s body, face, and eyes to communicate to the viewer that he was a man who was looking forward to the future…”

Obama Hope poster.
Illustration by Shepard Fairey.

Fairey’s work started off as a remix of a photograph but soon became an image that inspired hope in millions of individuals. There was a renewed belief in the power of voting that lead to the largest group of voters ever in the age bracket of 18-29 to vote for a single candidate, and the second largest youth voter movement in the history of the United States. But even though Fairey created an influential image that became the heart of Obama’s campaign, he came up against the biggest opponent of remixing: copyright laws.

Unlike Kayne West, who collaborated with Daft Punk when remixing their work, Fairey grabbed the photograph of Obama he used as inspiration off the internet. Rather than seek out the person or organization that owned rights to the photograph, Fairey used it knowing full well he was going to gain profits from sales of posters, stickers, and other prints. It was not long before the Associated Press pursued a lawsuit against Fairey for copyright infringement. Their claim was that the pose of Obama in the poster was extremely similar to their photograph, which was later proven true. Fairey is currently in the process of settling in court with the Associated Press for credit and compensation from the work.

The ability to remix gave Fairey the privilege of creating socially influential art, but at the same time he disregarded copyright laws and gave no credit for the work that inspired him. Is it a big deal he did not give credit to his inspiration? Possibly. Should he get sued for something that was used for good? Probably not. But our society is capitalistic, and where money is made, people and organizations will do anything to get “their” share of it.

Fortunately, there are those who see remixing purely as opportunity, and embrace it rather than sue it. Tomoaki “Nigo” Nagao, a producer and DJ, saw great potential back when Nike came out with the Air Force One shoe franchise. Originally designed for basketball players, Nigo saw the value the shoe had in the growing hip-hop market. He decided to take a chance, throw copyright laws out the window, and remix the Air Force One into a shoe he knew would explode in the hip-hop community.

A Bathing Ape shoe design.
Photo by KareemsKicks.

Nigo proceeded to blatantly rip-off the base design for the Air Force One by simply taking the Nike Swoosh logo and replacing it with his own shooting star. He then designed limited edition runs of various shoes that were made not only with unique color combinations, but unique materials as well. He formed his own company called A Bathing Ape, and began selling his remixed shoes. They started selling like wild fire and Nigo was able to expand his company to become a full-line clothing store. Today, A Bathing Ape is a multi-million dollar brand with several clothing lines and stores in Hong Kong, London, New York, Taipei, Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Singapore.

As A Bathing Ape started gaining success and profits from their shoe line, Nike decided to retaliate. Instead of suing Nigo for copyright infringement of their shoe design, Nike looked at what made his shoes more appealing: the various color combinations and the different shoe materials. Nike spiced up their Air Force Ones in a similar way but with their own designs. Remixing helped the rebirth of the Air Force One, which is now one of the most famous shoe franchises in the world. More importantly, it allowed for the birth of a new and innovative company that continues to be highly successful.

Remixing is a powerful tool for change, expression, and business. The more people who remix the world, the more powerful the process of remixing will become. As businesses and individuals come to understand the benefit of remixing as it relates to profit and innovation, they will start to encourage it and utilize it more often than not. Part of the beauty of remixing is that it is open to anyone, whether you are an independent artist, a multi-billion dollar corporation, or someone who simply envisions a better product. No matter what, you have the ability to remix so long as you have an idea and the determination to carry it out. The level playing field offered through the internet has allowed many people and companies to thrive and become successful purely through their creativity and innovation.

Right now is one of the best times to get into the process of remixing. The growth of our culture is rapidly changing, and is only gaining more momentum. Whatever industry you are in, take a look around and remix your words, your art, your product — create the next iteration to inspire those around you, and contribute to the evolution of society. So long as collaboration continues, Remixers have a bright future in the freedom to challenge the status quo, continually innovate, and creatively push culture.

No, actually, it wouldn’t — in fact, it would suck really hard. The truth is, now is the greatest time in all of human history to be alive. Seriously.

Why? It’s simple: everything is awesome. Stop and think about it for a moment: we have computers that you can keep in your backpack, phones that can surf the internet, cars that connect to satellites so that we don’t get lost while we drive, and social networking tools that allow us to keep in touch with people we would otherwise never see again. Despite all the hardships and turmoil abound in the world, being alive today is actually pretty good.

Let’s start with an obvious case study: the iPhone. Apple truly did change the mobile phone landscape when they launched the original iPhone back in 2007, but they did so much more than that. The iPhone, and devices like it, have led to a shift in the service expectations of consumers everywhere. Suddenly, internet on the go became a need and a right, not just a privilege. We were so quick to embrace the innovation, yet the conversation that surrounds this technology is often overwhelmingly negative. It’s not only the technology geeks; we’ve all done our fair-share of complaining regarding 3G signals and Wi-Fi availability.  Mobile internet has lost its wow-factor, like the aftermath of falling in love: the honeymoon is over, and all the glamour has worn off.

Yeah, except you’ve totally married the most amazing person on Earth, and now you’re just being selfish.

But seriously, we’ve got more functionality than we will ever need. Things we never knew we wanted are now right in our pockets, at our fingertips. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an iPhone, Android, or Blackberry phone; consumers today are buying into a market of devices that can surf the internet, play games, take pictures, and call people all over the globe. What else is it supposed to do, fry bacon? These devices are so much more than super-powered Swiss Army Knives. They’re our portal to a globe’s worth of content, everywhere we go. How often do we stop to think about how truly amazing that is? How did we ever live without them?

Think about it. The iPhone alone is an entire personal computing and media device. You can sit in the park, outside, while listening to music, talking to your friends across the country, and surfing the internet. The spectacular feat that is telephone technology aside, how are we not continuously impressed by mobile internet alone? Instead of marveling at how incredible that technology is, we simply sit and fuss over drops in signal quality. Let me remind you that you are surfing the internet, outside in the sun, on a device the size of your hand, and that device is talking to towers that are communicating with global internet servers via orbital satellites. Please be patient, your phone is sending a signal to outer space.

And how is it we have so easily forgotten how monumental such an invention as the Internet actually is? Not to sound like a bitter old man, but I still remember what life was like before we had the World Wide Web. When my father first brought home a dial-up modem, we had to hang up the phones in order to get online. Even then, it was an immensely empowering and exciting tool to be using. In just a few short years, incoming college freshmen will be from a generation that never knew a world without internet. This great innovation, which happened such a short time ago, will be as unremarkable to them as the grass on their front lawn. Many will not even be able to fathom writing research papers without the World Wide Web. Even today, an internet blackout is often considered an acceptable excuse for not finishing a college-level assignment on time. What about the time before personal computers? Imagine requesting articles by mail, and having to write them on a typewriter!

Now, the entire global culture is built around the internet and personal computers. We take it for granted how far we’ve come in such a short time. In less than two decades we have gone from an over-glorified phone line to a fully integrated virtual society, connected in ways our ancestors could hardly even imagine. Through the internet, we have taken culture and information and liberated it. Any person, fact, or piece of media you could possibly want to find is being beamed directly to you at the speed of light. Services like email, Facebook, and Twitter enable us to communicate with people, both foreign and familiar, regardless of time or distance. Google and Wikipedia allow us to answer our own questions, and take personal education into our own hands. No one would deny that it’s been a revolution, but we often forget just how big of a revolution it really was.

Less than 250 years ago, you were considered lucky if you even had electricity. Concepts such as the internet, or even telephones, were hardly even a far off dream. The concept just didn’t exist. Sure, we can look back on those times with a certain sense of rustic charm, but would we really want to live in a world where moving 500 miles away from someone means you’ll likely never see them again? Would we want to rely on couriers on horseback to deliver our hand-written letters? Would we even be able to cope with the isolation? Trust me, it’s better this way.

Take a moment and go through your home. Have you ever stopped to think about how progressive the modern living space is? I’ll use my apartment as an example. At any given moment, I can turn on a myriad of electronic devices and stream news, entertainment, and information into my home live from all over the world. I have climate controls built into my wall that allow me to change the temperature at will. In my kitchen, I have a microwave oven that cooks food by heating individual water particles. I have a bathroom with full running water that pumps from an underground facility at least 5 stories below my feet. And perhaps the most obvious, yet easily overlooked innovation is the fact that I have light and electricity on demand. If you could bring someone from the year 1900 into the modern world, you would effectively blow their mind.

Does this mean we should stop iterating on these products and services? Of course not. Just because something is good, that doesn’t prevent it from becoming better. We should absolutely highlight the flaws in each new innovation. With every new solution, a new set of needs arise to be fulfilled. In no way should we advocate complacency. That being said, being critical does not have to be synonymous with being unsatisfied. Could there be better wireless internet service on my iPhone? Sure there can, and the best part is that there probably will be. Human society and technology are advancing at a breakneck pace, and there’s no reason that we would slow down now. If anything, that’s exciting!

There’s so much to enjoy and look forward to in the 21st century, I could go on for thousands of words more. You can buy cars that generate their own electricity, cook a complete international meal in the comfort of your home, travel the globe in an airplane (or as Louis C. K. puts it, a “chair in the sky”), and entertain yourself with more music and video in a day than most people used to experience in their entire lifetime. The modern world is a grand spectacle of progress. No matter how bad the times may seem, there’s always something truly marvelous to enjoy. If you have electricity, a phone, and access to the internet, you’re already better off than the overwhelming majority of human beings who have ever lived. Everything really is amazing. Today really is the best time to have ever been alive, and it’s only going to get better from here. Let’s all shut up and enjoy it for once.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go sit in the park and play online games on my phone.