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Water cooler > niche crossover
Oct 13, 2024
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the social internet (and rapid, inescapable commercialization thereof) makes it so that you are what you consume, not what you do, not where you go, not who you spend your time with. before if you bought the clothes or the gear without doing it or without being in community, you were a poser. if you monetized or commercialized that interest and put those incentives over expression and connection, you were a sellout. but that doesnāt exist anymore ā democratization and anti-gatekeeping as both ideas and ends of an algorithm to maximize surface area for consumption have made it so that there isnāt a distinct authority on what you can attach to your identity or how you express yourself
but if the extent of our agency in a democratized landscape is to only to consume more instead of producing or connecting, or to produce only to commodify ourselves for money or internet points, then maybe itās a different kind of ābeing influenced by social trends rather than authentic interestā than going to a skate park, or an open mic, or a restaurant, or whatever because we heard about it somewhere and wanted to check it out, and de-centering the internet from what we see on it and how we engage with it is a way to make that healthier or more generative for ourselves, and can create beauty without immediately thinking about how to fit into a box along lines drawn by advertisers
Jan 15, 2025
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i think before tiktok or instagram there was a more homogeneous idea about what was cool bc magazines had a monopoly on the industry. now that the internet has democratized what gets to be cool there are different types of cool, which is the rise of different competing styles. but these styles arenāt really just about like ādo you like low rise jeansā so much as they are āwhat do the low rise jeans say about youā which has caused a lot of aesthetics to be simultaneously tied to a specific identity, in turn marketing and influencing has become increasingly niche. i think that certain influencers becoming enmeshed in their aesthetics hasnāt helped either where if, for example, tara yummy recommended an eyeliner the goth girls would eat it up, but the clean girls might not care, bc that eyeliner would be contrary to not just their aesthetic, but identity. but if tara yummy was emily mariko the opposite effect would happen to both camps, if that makes sense.
TLDR; niche aesthetics and microindivduality is killing mass marketing
Feb 18, 2024
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we are rapidly losing the existence of genuine Subcultures that emerge from a cultural or historical inflection point. hence, trendiness - trends and aesthetics norms are a huge selling point for brands of all shades and stripes, its standing in for what subculture was doing the heavy lifting for. add in the ability to purchase online right thru algorithm machines a la TikTok and Instagramā¦ voila! a captive audience to sell trendiness to
Feb 19, 2024
Top Recs from @indianjones
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So vulnerable, I have to be sincere. European and American art galleries historically are not only promoters of great art, they are creators of markets. That may be where you could shift focus.
Your worth is that you are young, eating rat, living a life of passion, filth, messiness, body horror (per my comment on such) unique and unknown to those with money. They crave you, not for your art. That's worthless to them. The art, as photographs per Sontag in my other rec, is simply a receipt that they owned a piece of your lifestyle for a moment. No one who will buy your art will likely give a fuck about your art. Stop seeking those. Find the Glengarry Glen Ross customers seeking life, escape from drudgery, a need to prove something to themselves. Let your art be that for them.
Enough bs theory, now for implementation. You won't sell your art, but you can sell the frustration, bloodsweattears, dedication, sacrifice that drips from your post. You can do so by simultaneously reminding yourself you are not creating ART but CREATING art. Your work and worth is not on a canvas. It's not the art. It's in you, the artist.
May 11, 2024
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A model friend/client and I stepped out from dinner for a smoke and were having a tipsy discussion about an issue with her company. Some doorman came up to tell us to move because we were blocking the entrance, which we weren't. I was irked, but my friend guessed he likely stereotyped her being in a lover's quarrel. Irked for a different reason, I called out, "Dude, we're discussing business! She's my boss!" In hindsight, I appreciated how he handled what he mistook as a domestic dispute by creating a false diversion to redirect our attention.
Most people get involved in others' drama because they think they know better. Most people don't because they're insecure they're misunderstanding. He was appropriately in between.
Jun 5, 2024
May 19, 2024