Severin Matusek

And while the mainstream discourse around AI continues to revolve around speed and productivity, it’s not surprising that the most interesting stuff seems to occur when creatives reject this framing entirely.

If AI is able to suddenly pump slop into our environment it’s only because we already turned on the faucets ourselves.

Flatness, like scalability, is efficient. The same culture flows through the same pipes to the same net-average consumer. But since when did efficiency become the sole metric by which we judge art? Filterworld represents the idea that the messiness of culture can be optimized and that only what is optimized for shareability is worthwhile. I... See more

As awful as all this is, the workarounds themselves are often delightful and clever, testaments to the wit and grace of marginalized communities. For example, sex-workers call themselves "accountants." Homophobia is called "cornucopia" and "LGBTQ" becomes "Leg Booty."

This creativity isn't limited to people I admire or agree with: anti-vaxers have a... See more

Both represent a form of aspirational displacement . This is the idea that when you can't afford a house, you buy mystery boxes that might contain a rare variant and then that’s good enough. It’s a way to perform relationship to consumer culture.

There’s no reason to believe that this type of caution will pay off. The supposed sure shot of IP is currently misfiring: in 2023, Disney’s The Marvels fell more than $64 million short of breaking even, and its Indiana Jones sequel drastically underperformed. The Flash, for Warner Bros. Discovery, lost millions, and the company’s Shazam! Fury of... See more

Marie Berger