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Culture Is Stuck

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Re: Culture Is Stuck

#41

Post by revscat »

Olreich wrote: post #23
samwillis wrote: post #4

I was discussing this with my my wife this morning, she had a good phrase for what's happening - "The homogenization of culture". I think she's right, the algorithmic curation of how we consume media has replaced the self and community curation of before. That "algorithm" has become the homogenising agent. I fear how AI based generative media may continue or even amplify this effect. Imagine a future where the algori…

It only feels homogenous. The algorithm is just giving you the same stuff you’re willing to interact with because it’s working. If you interact or look for different things, the recommendation algorithm will give you that instead.

That’s kind of the point though. You aren’t exposed to new things any more. When FM radio stations were a bigger part of the music poolrooms, for example, new artists would get promoted by local stations, or new albums by established artists. I discovered the guitarist Eric Johnson because of Q102 in Dallas because of this, for example.

Now that discoverability vector is gone. Not that it was perfect in the first place: they were influenced by record company execs and internal politics, I’m sure. But it was something.

Another part of it seems to be that financial stresses are so high that people don’t have the freedom to pursue the new.

Re: Culture Is Stuck

#42

Post by m0llusk »

This is evocative of the efficiency against resilience balance mentioned in another front page article today:

https://blog.nelhage.com/post/efficiency-vs-resiliency/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35586607

With this metaphor collections of long appreciated arts become foundational while the fringe which may develop new aesthetics efficiently meets the needs of the cultural fringe while not being resilient as long term broadly appreciated artistic works.

Re: Culture Is Stuck

#43

Post by r_hoods_ghost »

NoraCodes wrote: post #28
r_hoods_ghost wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things which existed in the 90s. Zines. Check. Micro fiction. Check. Demo scene. Check...

Sure, and big hairdos and synthesizers existed in the 60s, but we still associate them with the 80s.

But the things you listed are all quintessentially 90s. Sure they might still be around, or like zines had a bit of a revival recentlt6, but they're hardly novel or "counter cultural" in any way, unless you call gen-x nostalgia counter cultural?

Re: Culture Is Stuck

#44

Post by dbspin »

prohobo wrote: post #31
dbspin wrote: post #26

The culture is here, it's just not evenly distributed. My own view as a writer and artist, is that there's a relatively consistent amount of creative innovation being done at any given time. It's access to it and promotion of it that varies. Whats happened since the 90s is that rents have consistently risen - meaning physical scenes are enormously less likely to emerge, and (as the author rightly points out) algorith…

Can you share some of that stuff? Where are these great movies I've never heard of? Where are the great books - can't people publish on their own nowadays? I can attest to good music being made, but it's still very slow to evolve compared to the 2nd half of the 20th century.

Re: publishing, sure you can self publish. But your job at that point is no longer as a writer. Your job is now marketing. The potential for people to see your work is directly related to your ability to sell it and arguably not at all related to your capacity to create it. It's not that good work isn't self published, its that there's nothing to make it stand out from the literary equivalent of drop shipping. The audience can't find it if it isn't being promoted. You're not just competing with every other self published work - from AI generated texts to the branded writing mills of 'authors' who pay drones to push out texts at scale under their name. You're also competing with the entire industry of online entertainment. Every brilliant thing made throughout history available instantly for streaming, purchase or pirating, and sold with every penny big content has to promote it.

As for my own work, I have a small group of friends that I write with in person, and I perform in person occasionally (most recently in the fantastic writers cafe Laidak in Neukoln in Berlin). I'm utterly terrible at marketing, and my work doesn't fit the demographic criteria for contemporary publishing, so you can't find much it anywhere online or off. That's likely true of a whole generation of writers who aren't creating didactic autobiographical morality tales. I don't want to dump stories or books that take months to write into the void of self publishing, but I'm a writer so I still write.

In terms of music - I just spent a few days in Berlin listening to live work at venues like Trixxter. If you're open to experimental live performance there are a whole bunch of scenes in small live venues. Again, not sure how you'd pick it out from the both the dross and the heavily promoted work online.

In terms of film, again my reference is Berlin - there's a whole scene right now that you might call antifilm (I have no idea if it has a formal name). Small films shot verite from life, without a budget, and wilfully rejecting any kind of formal aesthetics (think Dogma on steroids). Wilfully horribly shot on bad cameras, but often incredibly interesting in terms of their engagement with life as its lived now, hauntology, post internet art etc. In terms of specific filmmakers Jean-Michel Brawands work is interesting. There's a whole community around Sputnik Kino and similar small events.

Re: Culture Is Stuck

#45

Post by dbspin »

throwaway4aday wrote: post #40
prohobo wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you share some of that stuff? Where are these great movies I've never heard of? Where are the great books - can't people publish on their own nowadays? I can attest to good music being made, but it's still very slow to evolve compared to the 2nd half of the 20th century.

> It's not the culture thats stuck, it's the media. Movies, books and widely played music are all closed avenues for 99.9% of artists. There's no way you'd get any kind of distribution worth the effort to produce such a large artifact. The most creative writing I've seen in the past 15 years has all been done as a series of posts or articles. The best genre bending music all seems to fly under the radar of most peopl…

Completely agree with this take. Promotion is orthagonal to creation, both as a talent and an activity.

Re: Culture Is Stuck

#46

Post by throwaway4aday »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #12
samwillis wrote: post #4

I was discussing this with my my wife this morning, she had a good phrase for what's happening - "The homogenization of culture". I think she's right, the algorithmic curation of how we consume media has replaced the self and community curation of before. That "algorithm" has become the homogenising agent. I fear how AI based generative media may continue or even amplify this effect. Imagine a future where the algori…

AI generating personalized, unique media would not be homogenization. It would be the opposite - the death of shared culture.

It might find a balance point by creating a multitude of sub-cultures and genres. Just look at the Balenciaga meme explosion that happened recently. Those kinds of mashups are becoming incredibly easy and are a rich breeding ground for new ideas.

Re: Culture Is Stuck

#47

Post by dbspin »

xmcqdpt2 wrote: post #36
mach1ne wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. When watching How I Met Your Mother, I am always astounded that it was filmed in 2005. Practically nothing has changed in daily lives since then.

Well, I for one think it's very easy to tell that it was filmed in 2005. Men are wearing "baggy" pants by todays standards, are close shaven and no one is wearing athleisure.

'Athleisure', or at least wearing a tracksuit or tracksuit mixed with jeans as a daily driver has been popular since the early 90s. It was popularised by the British rave scene in the late 80! The primary difference now is its pastel coloured.

Re: Culture Is Stuck

#48

Post by tuatoru »

te_chris wrote: post #37
dbspin wrote: post #26

The culture is here, it's just not evenly distributed. My own view as a writer and artist, is that there's a relatively consistent amount of creative innovation being done at any given time. It's access to it and promotion of it that varies. Whats happened since the 90s is that rents have consistently risen - meaning physical scenes are enormously less likely to emerge, and (as the author rightly points out) algorith…

Auckland had the same thing with art and a fun party and music diy scene from the late 2000’s through early 2010’s. Extinguished by the property bubble by about 2015. Lots of fun at the time. Bit of a wasteland now.

Even more so in the mid 70s to mid 80s.

Re: Culture Is Stuck

#49

Post by dbspin »

te_chris wrote: post #37
dbspin wrote: post #26

The culture is here, it's just not evenly distributed. My own view as a writer and artist, is that there's a relatively consistent amount of creative innovation being done at any given time. It's access to it and promotion of it that varies. Whats happened since the 90s is that rents have consistently risen - meaning physical scenes are enormously less likely to emerge, and (as the author rightly points out) algorith…

Auckland had the same thing with art and a fun party and music diy scene from the late 2000’s through early 2010’s. Extinguished by the property bubble by about 2015. Lots of fun at the time. Bit of a wasteland now.

That's heartbreaking. I volunteered at a place in Templebar called Exchange Dublin from 2010 - 2013, forcibly closed by the council on spurious grounds (along with dozens of other spaces) in 2014. We hosted literally thousands of DIY gigs, exhibitions, storytelling events, interest groups, hardware and software hackathons each year. All donation based, often free. People - tourists and locals alike loved it. The city came alive because of such places, and now they're gone Dublin is a pretty grim environment.

Hate to hear about the same happening in other places - and for exactly the same causes. One of many reasons we need to decommodify housing, before we recreate serfdom.

Re: Culture Is Stuck

#50

Post by ericmcer »

Was the transition from 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s normal and what we should expect? Or was it an exception and a "stuck" culture is just a return to reality where fashion and music don't change dramatically every 10 years.
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