gateclosers & gateopeners

The Gatekeeper is important because they provide the friction. The Gatekeeper is not truly exclusionary, rather they introduce labor to access the culture, they introduce a rite of passage, of initiation. The gatekeeper creates the fence which the enthusiast happily hops and stops the dilettante.

Keith never makes a fuss about caring either. Instead, he subtly creates a sense that, if you're there, you belong there, not because you've elbowed through some arduous gatekeeping process, but because your comfort is being seen to, and all you have to do is enjoy it. That feeling, Keith understands, never goes out of fashion. The most stylish amo... See more

Brent’s defense of gatekeeping is a defence of something larger: your toil. “The labour that goes into organising and maintaining a reference library is not to be discounted... it is work that you – as a designer – have done and you shouldn’t be giving that away.”

While the hipster hides and protects their discoveries, the creative director shills them: as a consultant, as a meme trader, as a curator etc.

The critical distinction is that today's gatekeepers derive authority not from institutional power but from demonstrated discernment. Cultural capital now flows to those who can navigate overwhelming abundance with skill and intention.

Viewed one-dimensionally, the other concept that requires clarification is gate-keeping. Only seen to be a fence, its hinge is forgotten. A gate is the passage between interior and exterior, from one space to another, private to public, mine to another's. It is both about keeping out and allowing in. The current conception of “gate-keeping” is excl... See more