alexi gunner
@idlegaze
cultural strategist
writes idle gaze; a newsletter exploring the undercurrents of the modern zeitgeist.
founder @ idle gaze consulting
cultural futurist @ RADAR
alexi gunner
idlegaze.substack.com
After all, cities are where people are supposed to have serendipitous encounters—as the writer and critic Jane Jacobs said, “The metropolis provides what otherwise could be given only by traveling; namely, the strange.” By comparison, the cliché goes, people become more atomized the farther they move from urban environments into the clinical, safe,... See more
Allie Conti • We Really Should Hang Out More Often
If you pay attention to the right kind of weird, it will tell you where old values are crashing into new ones, and those new values are what you can build the future on top of. The most successful brands tapped into our new values before we even had the words to describe them, and they got an outsized return by betting on them early.
The Only Prediction That Matters to Me as a Brand Strategist in 2025
One of the issues with late twenty century thinking is the mentality that nature is good and disruptions from nature are bad. Nature can be in terms of actual scientific nature but also anything with similar characteristics, such as free markets in financial markets. COVID-19 has really flipped a lot of minds, as it's been undeniable that the... See more
Vitalik Buterin • #188 – Vitalik Buterin: Ethereum 2.0
IT WAS SAID that if you were a criminal, a member of some tinpot political party, an agitator for a minority interest group, a drug addict, a property speculator, a forger or bootlegger of any kind, an artist, a fashion designer, a writer, underground film director, musician, or just plain crazy, Berlin was where you would eventually end up. It
... See moreDave Hutchinson • Europe in Autumn
What is a scene? It is a group of people who are producing work in public but aimed at each other. The metal bands in Karlshamn, where Schuster grew up, were a scene. They performed on stage — but the audience was mainly their friends who played in other bands. If they were anything like the other local scenes I’ve seen, they challenged and sup
... See moreHenrik Karlsson • Scene creation engines and apprenticeships
Cities are synonymous with modernity not just because they usually contain the latest technologies or play host to the latest trends, but because they socialize us into modern people who seek status, validation, and uniqueness.
David A. Banks • The City Authentic: How the Attention Economy Builds Urban America
Or Grant McCracken put it,
”If you are under 25, popular culture is on perpetual spin cycle. Everything is in motion. Except you.”
Memes by definition are idea viruses. And it feels like our cultural immune system is able to move on quicker and quicker. Perhaps built in remixing features on platforms have helped the viruses spread, but has
... See moreMatt Klein • Vol.16: Rachel Greenspan: Fake Authenticity, Meme Fatigue + Reply Guys
Why Photo Booth Just Hits Different Now
In 2005 Steve Jobs tested Photo Booth in designer Mike Matas’s office, taking silly images with its effects. Introduced with macOS Tiger, it captured the spirit of early Apple: simple, intuitive and fun. It encouraged creativity and instant sharing long before smartphone selfies... See more
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