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The age of average

alexmurrell.co.uk

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Re: The age of average

#201

Post by ElevenLathe »

gizmo686 wrote: post #111
mmkhd wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> look at listings of new apartments And even that is fraught with problems, because in my neck of the woods (Germany) we generally do not buy houses/appartments furnished (and renting appartments furnished is also an exception and not the norm. Even kitchens are empty rooms without cabinets and appliances.). Edit: Even though the AirB'n'B methodology is not perfect, I agree with some of the conclusions. Just like ra…

That is bassically the same here (usa), although we typically include major appliances and cabinets. However, when houses are put up for sale, they are typically "staged", where the seller will rent furnishings to make it look more homely. Apartments are more hit and miss. The bigger complexes will often have a show apartment they keep furnished for toors, and may often used a furnished one for their pictures. Obviou…

Nobody can afford to furnish an apartment the way big complexes stage their model. They rent good-looking but useless furniture from some place like Rent-a-Center. They can afford the rent on it (they pay for it pre-tax, while actual people have to pay for it post-tax) but its such shoddy quality that it will fall apart as soon as you use it. I've never seen anyone decorate their apartment like this. Even AirBnB hosts quickly find out that they can plaster cheap glittery decorative tchotchkes everywhere but the bed and couch need to be something that won't fall apart if you look at it wrong.

Re: The age of average

#202

Post by skeeter2020 »

isk517 wrote: post #149
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…

As much as some openly oppose the idea, and others secretly do, we really are just a single species with fairly uniform tastes.

maybe biologically, but individual environmental factors are very diverse, and I have to believe strongly influence our tastes.

Re: The age of average

#204

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

Re: The age of average

#205

Post by bumby »

YellOh wrote: post #186
ryandrake wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Fwiw, the explicit advice I got from my parents about cars/houses was to never choose a unique looking one. I was told odd-colored cars are more likely to be broken into, and houses that draw attention (if placed in a neighborhood of otherwise very similar houses) are more likely to be robbed. So even if my favorite color was an easy option when choosing a car, I'd probably go monochrome as long as that's what the ma…

There's an old thought that red/yellow sports cars are more likely to get tickets because they are more noticeable. No idea if that's just lore or if data bears it out.

Re: The age of average

#206

Post by ozim »

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…

Article point is that phenomena described are "negative" and that we should look for more expression.

I imagine life where on each step I have to deal with something I have never seen. That would be really tiring. I have my own venues to be creative, living in a world where everything is expression of someone else "creativity" would take all energy from me because I would have to work out too many thing every day.

Re: The age of average

#207

Post by tsunamifury »

andsoitis wrote: post #94
Mali- wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely disagree. The article can be viewed as analysing the effects of globalisation, the growing homogeneity of spaces that starts at AirBnB and cafes and spreads. Something is lost if you visit a new country and the layout is exactly the same as where you live. If I visit Hong Kong and I see a London tube type rail map, I'm going to be disappointed. There is a tradeoff in not immediately knowing how to use th…

The author showed some skylines from a distance and claimed all cities look the same. But that’s juts not true. Hong Kong and London look, feel, and work very differently from each other, even though the latter was a British colony.

City of London and Hong Kong are very much the same. Historical London at large is not. But I think you’re missing the point on purpose here.

Re: The age of average

#208

Post by sakex »

zeroonetwothree wrote: post #105
sakex wrote: post #99

One example that is missing but would actually have been more obvious is the smartphone. They basically all look the same. It seems to me that some winners emerge, which makes other competitors want to replicate the winner's formula. Over time all products end up the same. Trying to deviate from that sameness will either result in customers not being interested or everyone copying you. This may be bad for innovation.

You could just as well ask why do keyboards all look the same? There is always convergence in user interfaces because consumers don’t want to relearn every time they buy a new device.

Sure, the overall shape doesn't give a lot of leeway for design. But other details like the home button (early iPhones), absence of jack sockets, disappearance of navigation buttons (like early Samsung Galaxys), etc. follow the same trajectory.

Re: The age of average

#209

Post by bumby »

marcosdumay wrote: post #184
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,…

AFAIK, the reason cars look the same is that they are optimized to use the same mass-produced parts. Not really because of physical, aesthetic, or usability reasons.

Yes, they often are designed to use a common platform. But I'm speaking specifically to aerodynamic shapes. The body of a car is relatively easy to change in the design phase even with the same underlying mechanical systems, but I believe they still converge on the same basic aerodynamic shapes.

Re: The age of average

#210

Post by tsunamifury »

lvoudour wrote: post #60
fwlr wrote: post #27

The styles that the author reviews are real trends in their market (except the paintings, which seems like an intentional publicity stunt on the part of the artists rather than a genuine trend, and it harms the piece by being the introduction - gets everything off on the wrong foot), though not as all-consuming as they are made out to be. The author then identifies a commonality between these trends, that they are al…

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…

The best way I can explain it is as if we now live in a society that invented time travel and we use it to live the exact same month over and over again. We make small tweaks each loop but nothing substantive. We are comfortable in the control of this space and are now afraid of living in the future that is beyond this time window. Anyone who tries has an extremely hard go of it because they are entirely alone beyond the window. The rest of the society goes back to the beginning of the month to live it again.

I feel like a time prisoner /fugitive constantly trying to break out of this window-loop.

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