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The age of average

alexmurrell.co.uk

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Re: The age of average

#361

Post by JohnBooty »

On why automobiles all look the same:

    dimensions are agonisingly chosen to please 
    the needs of the wind tunnel, to adhere to 
    government safety regulations, to properly 
    accommodate the average American family’s 
    collective weight of 78,000 lbs., and to 
    allow for enough cargo space for all their 
    crap
Look, I know we have an obesity problem. But the collective weight of the average family is not 78,000lbs!

I'm thinking they meant 780lbs (354kg) although even that seems a bit high.

Re: The age of average

#362

Post by trgn »

crazygringo wrote: post #272
Al-Khwarizmi wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Art nouveau buildings from the early 20th century are almost universally considered nicer than today's buildings, and yet they're no longer made. Not because we think modern buildings are nicer, but purely for a matter of cost. I suspect the same is the case (even if to a lesser extent) in electric toothbrushes and other items of our daily life.

> almost universally considered nicer than today's buildings I can't agree with that. They're a fascinating curiosity, but they're also awfully gaudy (no pun intended). The ornamentation is extremely excessive by the standards of any common style since. Not because of cost, but just because of taste.

Art nouveau can be seriously intimidating, some of the interiors seem genuinely frightening to live in.

Nonetheless, it was one of the last art movements with a true vision, and most importantly staying with the theme of the article, divorced from concerns of practically and unit economics. It's unlikely we ever see something similar arise.

Re: The age of average

#364

Post by dragonwriter »

ensemblehq wrote: post #274
bumby wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They generally have higher insurance rates although I'm not clear on what's driving the model.

> They generally have higher insurance rates

Because they are on average driven by people who rate higher risk for other reasons, not because color is part of the model.

Otherwise, a popular hack would be to get insurance first, and then paint a car red/yellow if that’s what you wanted.

Re: The age of average

#366

Post by vmladenov »

squidsoup wrote: post #331
Last5Digits wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for this advice. Upon some self-reflection, I think I realize now that I've fallen into this exact trap. The few movies I've recently watched have been the kind of formulaic drivel that I know I'm sick of, and yet I've never felt any desire to watch genres I'm not already familiar with. I seem to get some perverse kind of satisfaction from reinforcing my nihilistic view of the current state of things while…

> I seem to get some perverse kind of satisfaction from reinforcing my nihilistic view of the current state of things Oh, you're going to love Béla Tarr, maybe start there.

It’s a bit fiendish to nudge an unsuspecting victim towards Satantango like that :P

Re: The age of average

#367

Post by titzer »

epups wrote: post #243
titzer wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even if those things have converged aesthetically? But they haven't converged aesthetically any more than preferences have been absolutely overwritten , overridden , and overprinted by whatever is most easy to produce today. Your comment somewhat assumes that where we are is the ultimate endpoint of some long process, when in reality fads come and go. Tastes change. What is out there now is no more inevitable than…

> Sure, maybe its just nostalgia, but there were plenty of trends and aesthetics from my younger years that are just nowhere to be found. Why? Because when people renovate, they go with the aesthetic de jure, what's available and what the social pressures are. Hardly anyone is going to renovate a 1980s basement and put in...1980s carpet. And were people in the 1980s using furniture from the 1940s when they renovated?…

> embrace the fact that things change and will always change.

Living in a European city for a few years got me thinking about what the sources of changes are. Everything, and I mean everything requires maintenance, or it will crumble into dust. That maintenance is like a running cost. For (what we consider today to be) high-value jewels of the past, we pay this cost, because we like having these amazing things--like cathedrals and churches and minarets and bridges and monuments and works of art. This maintenance is literally fighting the forces of entropy. Fall behind, and it will crumble and disappear. When it crumbles or is old or broken, or even destroyed--e.g. after WWII--will you rebuild what was there, as it was, or do something new because it strikes your fancy?

In Europe, they draw the line very differently than in North America. Much of the old is maintained, rebuilt, preserved. Because it is considered wealth in itself. Because people fight these forces of entropy, honor their past, and heck, maybe even like things? As an American, I see we do not do this. We seem to hate things. We hate buildings and bridges and doorknobs and pipes[1]; partly because most stuff is built like cheap crap--no matter the era--so of course it falls down and needs to be rebuilt. And it is, the cheapest way possible, usually. Today it seems to be being rebuilt all in a particular way. I dunno, I just think America's total disregard for the past is infecting the rest of the world.

[1] Not above-ground power lines, poles, and endless ugly nests of wires, though. Obviously. Those friggin power lines are going to be the absolute last thing that anybody tears down.

Re: The age of average

#368

Post by trgn »

FrustratedMonky wrote: post #311
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…

What we must come to terms with is the fact that we are all inexorably drawn towards the realm of Plato's Forms, and this convergence is not something we can avoid or deny. It is not a matter of mere coincidence or happenstance, but rather an inherent feature of the world we inhabit. Regardless of our individual beliefs or perspectives, the Forms exert a profound influence on our experiences and perceptions, shaping…

> all inexorably drawn towards the realm of Plato's Forms

I almost retched reading that. All the examples in the article are of the most bland, disposable junk imaginable. I think the common interpretation of Plato's ideals is one of an aspirational, idealized world, beyond our grasp. Seeing such perfection realized in mass produced crap is baffling to me.

Re: The age of average

#369

Post by megmogandog »

JoeJonathan wrote: post #73

Three things: 1. The author's entire brand identity follows this format. ("Hi. I'm Alex Murrell. I'm the Strategy Director at Epoch. And I make the complex clear.") 2. This is not a new observation. Apart from the articles he linked to, this is an old conversation, especially among urbanists. Already in the early twentieth century, Frankfurt School critical theorists were worried about the commodification of cities,…

Sure, these types of critiques have been around since the Frankfurt School, but I think that just shows how ahead of their time the members of the FS were. Adorno gets criticized for painting with too broad a brush, but I feel like he was just making the right points too soon. For example, his remarks on the film industry make perfect sense in the context of contemporary superhero movie trends, even though they might have been exaggerated at the time. And clearly the message hasn't gotten through.

On your last point, are the hideous 5-over-1s being built in your HCOL city affordable? Because the ones I'm seeing certainly aren't. Ugly, undistinguished, cheaply built, and still expensive!

Re: The age of average

#370

Post by groby_b »

titzer wrote: post #221
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…

> Even if those things have converged aesthetically? But they haven't converged aesthetically any more than preferences have been absolutely overwritten , overridden , and overprinted by whatever is most easy to produce today. Your comment somewhat assumes that where we are is the ultimate endpoint of some long process, when in reality fads come and go. Tastes change. What is out there now is no more inevitable than…

This is a core point.

It most stuck out to me when the article talked about car colors - most cars are black or white because car makers mostly make black or white. Buying a car with a splash of color is hard. Red is your best chance. Followed by butt-ugly blues.

You cannot meaningfully choose according to your taste because choice is restricted. (Related, try to buy furniture that isn't a fucking cheap imitation of mid-century modern)

And that happened because offerening the most bland and inoffensive looks will be bought by the vast majority of people who don't care about taste, or don't have any. (How would you develop taste if all the choices are the same)

It's bland things for bland lives reinforcing more bland choices in product design. Mixing all colors gets a dull grey, and that's where we're landing.

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