taste
Cole Smith: “ And my third recommendation is just the idea of sampling yourself . Sampling yourself is so fun to me, because you might make a song, and it sucks, but instead of throwing it in the trash, you chop it up and use it as a sample. I highly recommend it.”
Blackbird Spyplane: It’s interesting to think about how to apply that idea outside... See more
Blackbird Spyplane: It’s interesting to think about how to apply that idea outside... See more
Bringing a kid into our declining world is terrifying
The question of our time is how do you artistically rebel — and win — against a totally flat cultural landscape? And before my readers, who I assume are all approximately 36 years old and very tired, say, “so what, who cares?” This does matter. I mean, just look around right now lol. You know things are bad when even OpenAI President Greg Brockman... See more
Link
And the most dangerous thing for platforms is not racist garbage. It’s unmonetizeable content. The “metric” that will matter most going forward will not be the numbers at the bottom of a post or video, but the human beings in a room that left their house to experience something.
But what we consume does, truly, matter. It’s essential to appeal to the people in our lives, and remind them of the importance of seeking out imaginative work that might stoke the fires of their own creativity.
Because we aren’t just talking about entertainment here, or distraction, or leisure. We’re talking about the narratives that comprise the... See more
Because we aren’t just talking about entertainment here, or distraction, or leisure. We’re talking about the narratives that comprise the... See more
The Hollywood Originality Edition
Logging off
It’s easy to forget that we used to find music, movies, photography, and books entirely offline. You’re more likely to discover something truly serendipitous and surprising flipping through vintage magazines at your local public library than endlessly scrolling an Instagram feed that’s already tailored to your taste. Stroll through an... See more
It’s easy to forget that we used to find music, movies, photography, and books entirely offline. You’re more likely to discover something truly serendipitous and surprising flipping through vintage magazines at your local public library than endlessly scrolling an Instagram feed that’s already tailored to your taste. Stroll through an... See more
Escape the algorithm | Dirt
The Beasties were the ultimate curators and culture merchants, although they never perverted their creative universe with gross buzzwords like that.
Between their genre-smashing albums, their iconic videos, their fashion exploits like X-Large, and their magazine Grand Royal , you could say that they were running a “lifestyle brand” of sorts.
The... See more
Between their genre-smashing albums, their iconic videos, their fashion exploits like X-Large, and their magazine Grand Royal , you could say that they were running a “lifestyle brand” of sorts.
The... See more
The Beastie Boys Edition
In fact, Chayka treats the concept of “taste” throughout with a preciousness I doubt he actually is unsophisticated enough to hold. He cites contradictory definitions, mobilizing Voltaire one moment to say that taste must be cultivated and effortful, and then Montesquieu and Agamben the next to say that taste works by rules we do not (cannot?)... See more
bookforum.com • Kyle Chayka Looks at Our Supposedly Flat New World
I stand alongside Chayka in looking for strategies to pushing in the other direction. But I can’t help rolling my eyes when he talks as if it’s any kind of novelty for artists (much less “influencers”) to find their visions stymied by commercial demand. Again, one advantage of the algorithmic version may be that it’s externalized in ways that become easier to spot and critique.
As much as I share his concerns, this book repeatedly made we want to yell back at him for willfully underplaying obvious exceptions and counterarguments.
Chief among these is to what degree Chayka’s “flattening” is anything new. When he writes, “If anything, mass culture lately appears more aesthetically homogenous than ever,” he seems to forget... See more
Chief among these is to what degree Chayka’s “flattening” is anything new. When he writes, “If anything, mass culture lately appears more aesthetically homogenous than ever,” he seems to forget... See more
bookforum.com • Kyle Chayka Looks at Our Supposedly Flat New World
But that eternal present is a lie, an illusion, a fabrication of the digital interfaces. And this not only destroys our sense of the past but also undermines our ability to think about the future.
In an environment without past or future, all we have is stasis.
So it’s no coincidence that culture has stagnated in this eternal digital now . The same... See more
In an environment without past or future, all we have is stasis.
So it’s no coincidence that culture has stagnated in this eternal digital now . The same... See more