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The age of average

alexmurrell.co.uk

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Re: The age of average

#191

Post by HDThoreaun »

ryandrake wrote: post #165
lvoudour wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One can make parallels to other eras, sure, but the current convergence to an "average" is unprecedented in scale and speed. Various eras had a distinctive style that everything revolved around, but at least there was variety (cultural and corporate). Nowadays I can't shake off this weird feeling of sameness emanating from every design. I can hardly distinguish brands any more, I can't tell cultures apart and that's…

Music is another example, which the article didn't go into, probably because it's not visual like his other examples. When I say [USA] '60s music, '70s music, '80s music and so on, you kind of know what I'm talking about. Sure, each decade had its outliers and variety, but you can probably immediately hear in your head the decade-stereotype sound I'm talking about. Each decade had that distinct fashion that the cultu…

Completely disagree. Streaming has unlocked music listeners and artists to quickly iterate so that choice is boundless. Do you really think being stuck with the same sound for 10 years is a good thing? You don't know what 2010s music sounds like because it's completely individualized. Maybe that has its own problems involving increased siloization and could be linked to political tribalization but claiming its "homogenized nothing" is senseless.

I think the issue is you haven't actually found the sound you enjoy. If you just let pop radio take you on your way you're going to get lowest common denominator sound. And streaming has made this effect much worse. Now music radio is only for people who can't be assed to choose their own music, so it's even more lowest common denominator than before.

Re: The age of average

#192

Post by bluetomcat »

nradov wrote: post #151
bluetomcat wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They've converged because we think they're nice. Here is the trap. We think they are nice because globalisation works on a more profound level. The "visible" level of globalisation are the consumer products. What's also transmitted are certain intellectual ideas and schools of thought, certain aesthetics and forms of art. For example, the attempts to explain the economy on an individual behavioural and psychologica…

How is that a trap? Would people be better off if they wanted different things than "the West"? Are Japan and South Korea part of "the West"? Looking around my home I see a lot of stuff designed in those countries.

It could be a trap if you value diversity or it could be a good thing if you value supra-national uniformity across continents, where people act the same way, think and build the same way, want the same cars and want the same visual traits in women.

Re: The age of average

#193

Post by VancouverMan »

Last5Digits wrote: post #135

I'm always wary of articles like this. The feeling of things becoming mediocre strongly resonates with me, but I am aware that there could be a great many different biases at play. When I was younger, entertainment media felt magical. The complexity and depth of experiences I could get from even a second-rate story was immense. I remember staying up late at night to process the last movie I watched, or feeling that r…

[flagged]

Re: The age of average

#194

Post by hoosieree »

ryandrake wrote: post #148
bumby wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've tried making this same point when it comes to auto designs (at least in the competitive, cost-sensitive ones). A lot of mid-sized cars look the same because the design constraints generally converge on the same handful of principles. They've converged not in the aesthetic sense as much as the engineering sense: because they work at a relatively low cost. (I'm speaking mainly about things like aerodynamics here,…

Even if they had to ultra-optimize the aerodynamics so all the cars look like the same bar of soap (they don't have to), they could still at least paint the damn soap a different color. But, no. All you see coming out of the factory are white, silver, gray, black, the occasional red and the occasional blue. What's driving this? That's what the article is about. Is it actually pull from customers, or is it push from t…

There are a lot of good reasons for "the AirBNB look. White walls reflect ambient light and can enhance existing light sources. This can help make up for small (i.e: cheap) windows or limited light fixtures.

Natural wood is durable but not hard and cold like metal or glass, nor will it break down and end up permeating your cell membranes like plastic. Exposed beams make ceilings more interesting visually but also dampen echoes and make a space feel less sterile and prison-like.

Humans have been living in shelters made from wood and stone since the beginning. It wouldn't surprise me if affinity toward these materials shows up somewhere in our DNA.

Not sure about the Nespresso machines.

Re: The age of average

#195

Post by skeeter2020 »

crazygringo wrote: post #123

What the article describes is correct, but I don't think the words "average" or "homogeneity" or "conformity" are the right terms, as they seem to carry negative connotations here. Rather, the right word is "convergence". The point is, people like certain things aesthetically. It used to be that artists and designers were still trying to figure out what looks good, and trying all the things. But now we've tried so ma…

"Convergence" is only true when you use the average of a very narrow distribution. If you take a very complex and multi-dimensional topic like design, ask a bunch of people their opinions and use the average, at best they'll parrot back what they've "learned" is good, and at worst you end up with a product that doesn't embody the collective desires of the group but the ho-hum middle that doesn't satisfy or offend anyone.

>> Things don't need to be different just for the sake of being different. Because different can also be worse.

Different is worse for the majority and that's a good thing, because it can then be really, really good for a small subset. If we repeat this everyone can get something really good, and have things they really dislike. This is the world I want to live in, emphasis on the living part.

Re: The age of average

#196

Post by epups »

marnett wrote: post #187
epups wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you differentiate "true" convergence, where everyone agrees a certain idea is superior, vs what you seem to describe here, a sort of imposition of ideas?

I also used to think that ubiquity was some sort of evidence of superiority. However, as was briefly mentioned upthread, you realize that often ubiquity has more to do with consumer products and the monopolies that capture markets. And ubiquitous consumer products often do not achieve that status due to superior design, but actually superior profit margins, which in the realm of manufactured consumer products, means…

I don't think we should conflate ubiquity with superiority, but it is easy to see how the latter often leads to the former. Perhaps Western movies are indeed considered very good, even by people from other cultures, which is why they decide to watch them. Or perhaps the cars invented last century, first developed in the West, already found some optimal designs that are simply more efficient, and therefore will be widely adopted.

Your implied explanation is rather bleak, as it seems that capitalism is independent of consumer wants or needs in this perspective.

Re: The age of average

#197

Post by steve76 »

crazygringo wrote: post #123

What the article describes is correct, but I don't think the words "average" or "homogeneity" or "conformity" are the right terms, as they seem to carry negative connotations here. Rather, the right word is "convergence". The point is, people like certain things aesthetically. It used to be that artists and designers were still trying to figure out what looks good, and trying all the things. But now we've tried so ma…

[dead]

Re: The age of average

#198

Post by skeeter2020 »

epups wrote: post #155
bluetomcat wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They've converged because we think they're nice. Here is the trap. We think they are nice because globalisation works on a more profound level. The "visible" level of globalisation are the consumer products. What's also transmitted are certain intellectual ideas and schools of thought, certain aesthetics and forms of art. For example, the attempts to explain the economy on an individual behavioural and psychologica…

How would you differentiate "true" convergence, where everyone agrees a certain idea is superior, vs what you seem to describe here, a sort of imposition of ideas?

I often revist the ideas of Brooks; are we converging on the essense, the "conceptual integrity"? or the superficial, the accidental? I also recognize that there's unlikley to be a single dimension for convergence. The individual will define the balance and acceptable tolerances to it.

Re: The age of average

#199

Post by sangnoir »

thwarted wrote: post #175
sangnoir wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The link between sameness and mass-market capitalism is obvious to me. I was surprised by its absence in the article and comments here. Alternative designs that cater to a fraction (25%) of the population will not have the full benefit of economies of scale, so emd up having higher prices and forced to position as up-market/luxury products - which imposes another set of constraints that also impose sameness (see opti…

A quirky product that succeeds would cease to be quirky. It would no longer stand out. Difference and rarity go hand in hand.

I agree, "quirky" sometimes become mainstream: just as the Gentrification Aesthetic[1] - now popular on AirBnB as noted by the article used to be quirky. However, I meant products that stay quirky will not succeed on the mass market, almost by definition.

1. Bare brick, white walls prominently exposed reclaimed wood

Re: The age of average

#200

Post by marcosdumay »

derbOac wrote: post #75
masswerk wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is contrary to my experience: trends and fashion were short lived, trends lasting maybe half a year, and the fashion of the last season was definitely "out". Nowadays, there's a previously unknown stability and trends shift just minimally. Which enables this "everything looks the same" phenomenon as there is minimal variation over time and lots of room for aesthetics to spread and eventually engulf and embrace e…

There was a piece going around awhile ago about the haunted Victorian mansion that seems relevant to me. E.g., https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2022/10/27/why-victorian... The idea was the world went through a drastic change with WWII and the Victorian mansion started seeming like a ghostly remnant of the earlier age. Antiques Roadshow had a similar podcast where they discussed the "brown is down" phenomenon. Did…

The world before WWI was the one of art-nuveau and the first era of innovation.

I don't know why the English-speaking cultures are so quick into reducing it into "Victorian", but it was recognized as a time of quick change.

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