Dirt: Complicated Culture
This algorithmic repetition isn’t just a fashion trend; it’s the prevailing spirit across multiple cultural domains. What Mull observes about clothes, the critic Ted Gioia has been analyzing in music, where the Spotify era delivers what’s already tested and popular while the opportunities for new artists diminish. Instead of entering a process of d... See more
Ross • Can We Resist the Age of the Algorithm?
The social sector acts on culture-level concerns in the domain of governance. One example is the sudden mid-20th-century dominance of "historic preservation" of buildings, pushed by organizations like the National Trust for Historic Preservation in America and English Heritage and the National Trust in Britain. Through them, culture declared that i... See more
Stewart Brand • Pace Layering: How Complex Systems Learn and Keep Learning
Thanks to taste regimes, we get more joy out of the everyday. We also adopt a new mechanism for social distinction and status signaling. A taste regime provides social links and holds a taste community together, and sets apart one taste community from another.
Ana Andjelic • The Business of Aspiration: How Social, Cultural, and Environmental Capital Changes Brands
