[SIC] 126: Nanobusiness Serendipity

February 4th, 2021

Maybe it’s cause I grew up in the snow and NYC’s white winter blanket is sparkling in the sun, but I’m feeling the vibes today. Hope you are too, where ever in the world this newsletter finds you. Lots to read as per usual, including a particularly psychology-forward opening section. To that end, thanks Iolanda, Ken and the other Ken, Kevin and Carsten for suggestions this week. And a big apology shout out to Marcella Farman-Dietz for her heat lamps link from [SIC 125], which I forgot to mention in my intro. 🤦‍♂️. Sorry, Boo.

As promised, [SIC] Talks today is with Ken Miller, an old friend and the editor / curator responsible for the excellent new photography book Pictures, which I bought and can highly recommend. We’ll talk imagery, brands, indie magazines, Saturdays@Phillips as a progenitor to the modern hype cycle and stuff like that. It’ll be fun. Come join us at 4p ET on my IG Live, or find it thereafter in my grid @dietznutz. Til then, enjoy. - Ben

=====[SIC 126]: Nanobusiness Serendipity=====

Mind Games (Start Here):

• From Iolanda Carvalho: "I’m a total Halo…" 24 Cognitive Biases cluttering your thinking. I’m an “optimism” meets “available heuristic,” personally.  (yourbias.is)

• Tim Harford’s takes are always among my favorites and this long read about how we fool ourselves is cultural and fun. (FT)

• [SIC] buddy Sara Fischer with fire media trends (including Substack and Clubhouse, natch): makes clear never been easier to sidestep the press. (Axios) 

• On the subject, via Protocol: The two most interesting consumer startups now are Clubhouse and Substack, per Elad Gil. Can they replace Twitter? [[SIC] note: I’m very active on both, so … YES?!] 

• Via 2pm: why brands will grow to love Clubhouse (Ad Week)

• Related: Elon was on Clubhouse so naturally, shares in the wrong Clubhouse spiked this week (Yahoo Finance) 

• On the opposite side of the spectrum, from Ken Wyn: “A testimony from a close friend of mine… Amazing.”

  Pauleanna Reid | Ghostwriter @PauleannaR

  I met my new (romantic) partner in #clubhouse. Here's our story including what I've learned from being open and available to receiving love in the most unlikely online space.

• Corollary: The Serendipity Society is a network of researchers who created a platform to develop serendipity research as an independent field of study, including an expanding list of serendipity-related publications.

Trends:

• The Tracking the Trends for 2021: A Guide to China’s Next-Generation Consumer” white paper is downloadable (Jing Daily)

• Also there's, via Declarative Statements: Ben Evans’s “Great Unbundling” Report

• Elsewhere in trend reports: Dentsu’s “Brave New Normal” one-sheeter. 

• Via Gen Yeet: Radical Content is a mini trend report by Joshua Citarella, an internet culture researcher and one of the most astute observers of Gen Z’s online behavior.

• And Sean Monahan’s trend report in Buffalo Zine is downloadable and you should read it, too. 

• Related: Venkatesh Rao’s Domestic Cozy 13 (Ribbonfarm) 

• And The Dirt’s “Dancing Through the Coup” post (Substack)

• Which segues into genius filmmaker Adam Curtis explaining it all in The New Yorker.  

• Related: Curtis’s “Hypernormalisation” is a perennial reco... (YouTube) 

Digitalism:

• Via Lean Luxe: Tim Cook says we don’t (really) need all this data (GQ) 

• So Lean Luxe crosstown rival Manchester City signed an AI expert?! (Daily Upside)

• Via Kouch Culture: We’re getting closer and closer to an actual science of the meme. (Input)

• Epic VR storytelling is coming, said Within's Chris Milk, but the bar is really high (Protocol)

• Via CCI: “Vidiyo” is a new music video maker from Lego using Universal’s roster of artists to let children to express themselves creatively. (Lego)

• From Iolanda: Let AI be the judge [of your drawing skills] (Geeky.news) 

• Or, just own the art via Frieze’s Anniversary Sessions, a three-day digital festival of conversations, cocktails and music.

• Elsewhere, via Future Party: SoundCloud’s first gaming and music festival, The Player One, is set to jump on the Twitch and Fortnite bandwagon.

Platforms and Medias: 

• WPP is partnering with TikTok to get early access to advertising products in development on the app (Adweek)

• Flipboard says they put journalists in charge of the algos. (The Drum) 

• Via Nieman: A+E Networks wants to kill off “the demo” (NextTV)

  

Film Scenes: 

• A first look at the post-pictorial future of photography, [SIC] Talks guest Ken Miller’s new book PICTURES shows that photographs can also be almost anything. 

• Deanna Templeton’s  “Secret Life of the American Teen” (The FACE) 

• Martin Andersen turns his lens towards the life-long fans of Tottenham Hotspur (It’s Nice That) 

• From Carsten Meijer: “your last one....pixels, pictures and stuff...made me think of this [hyperdetailed analysis of ‘Girl with the Pearl Earring.’ Zoom in and drop out…” (YouTube) 

• From Kevin Johannesen: “I'd love to see a theatrical film based on this experience helmed by Stanley Kubrick (RIP), or alternatively, Wes Anderson.” (NYT)

• White Riot: When UK Punk Rock Fought White Supremacy (Hyperallergic)

• Ten of the best art documentaries to watch right now (Christies)

• S/o old [SIC] buddy Joseph Patel: How Questlove (and Joey)’s ‘Summer of Soul’ Tracked Down Rare Footage of the Landmark Harlem Cultural Festival (Variety) 

Articles about Songs: 

• Arlo Parks talks to The New Statesman

• While via Music Redef: Playboy Interviews Berry Gordy in 1995

• Via CCI:  TikTok’s Neil Boorman (of the legendary Shoreditch Twat fanzine -look it up) details the new music industry (The Evening Standard)

• Via Future Party: old buddy Jared Gutstadt’s Audio Up Media gets listeners emotionally invested in the artists themselves by making scripted podcast musicals that star the artists and feature their music. (LA Times) 

• If you don’t cast, you’re last: inside big tech’s podcasting goldrush (The Drum) 

Reads:

• Looking forward to Nomorerulers’s Futura-isms (Instagram)

• Via Gossamer: all 80 issues of iconic zine Punk Planet are now online and available for free

• Via Elevator:  (Japanese) Magazines You Can’t Read but Should (Inside Hook) 

Foods: 

• Impossible Foods’ plant-based meat just got closer to the price of regular meat (Future Perfect) 

• While McDonald’s quietly rolls out the McPlant burger in test markets (Voxcom)

• Lab-grown meat will be on the menu for pets soon, too. (The Economist) 

• Corollary: Martha Stewart’s CBD for dogs line is coming as well. (Retail Dive)

Fashions and Beauties: 

• ViaVogue Business: Restaurant merch emerges as a pandemic trend (The Guardian) 

• Which explains why the Ultimate Luxury in Fashion Is a Human Connection (GQ) 

• Related: Ulta Beauty to double Black-owned brands in its stores, feature more Black women in ads (CNBC) 

• While Gucci plans for sustainability (Instagram)

• How sneaker hype culture can become more sustainable (Vogue Business) 

• Nike, for instance, is looking to space for inspiration (Input)

• Via PSFK Research: Fancy some merch from fashionable brands like Moncler, Balenciaga, and Off-White? Well, some savvy liquidators will ship you a box of goods, with a catch… you don’t know what’s inside until you open it. (WSJ) 

• Via Jing Daily: Louis Vuitton’s Inflatable Vest Sparks DIY Trend in China (Women’s Wear Daily) 

• Dior’s failed China livestream Is A Western Luxury Problem (Jing Daily)

• Mend and make new: how the pandemic reignited a repairs revival (FT) 

• Speaking of The FT, they’ve also got vintage menswear trends and tips.

Artists:

• Fave mind-expanding artist Joe Roberts interviewed in Ssense

• Via Public Announcement: Jason Polan’s “Every Person in New York vol 2” is available for pre-order (dashwoodbooks)

• How 62 y/o Kenny Scharf became the “hottest new artist on Earth” (The FACE) Key quote: “In the digital age – and in a pandemic – there’s nothing we fetishise more than an era of spontaneity, a time when you really did have to be there.” 

• Via PSFK Research: ‘Most Expensive Piece of Art in the World.’ The installation, which resides in the New York City’s Grand Central Terminal, is made up of 2,600 college diplomas. 

• Corollary: Real estate developer Stonehenge is making NYC artists an offer that they hope cannot be refused: 20 rent-free luxury apartments leased for one year, in exchange for “commissioned work” (Hyperallergic)

• Via Season Tickets:  “Lauren Halsey’s Generational Currents” is a new profile and interview in SSense.

Variety Section: Fast Cheap and Out of Control:

• Protocol on What Robinhood got wrong with that whole stonk thing. 

• But market insouciance will mean the Reddit revolution will be back (FT)

• Jeff Wysaski, aka Obvious Plant, makes one-off toys he places on  supermarket and drugstore shelves. They’re funny and silly and sad. (Colossal) 

• Libraries are going fine-free. (Reasons to be Cheerful)

• Via Morning Brew: Apparently, there is a major shortage of Grape-Nuts. (NYT) 

• So food is learning to multitask! Via Quartz: MIT engineers have taught spinach to send emails when it senses explosive chemicals in the water supply (Euronews)

• From Iolanda: The future of housing? --- [Print your next crib]! (3dprintingmedia)  

• While from Ken Miller: New Amazon HQ takes the 💩 to new heights (Dezeen) 

• Via Quartz: IKEA’s owner bought 11,000 acres of forest in southeast Georgia to offset its carbon footprint. (CNN)

• Via Future Party: Pharrell is making the process of shipping his new Adidas Hu NMD sneakers a whole new experience... by delivering the shoes with robotic dogs. (Input) 

• Via Future of Transportation:  For sale: 800-mph landspeed record car (Smithsonian)

• Oh, good. The U.S. Navy Has Patents on Tech It Says Will ‘Engineer the Fabric of Reality’ (VICE) 

• Related, via Lean Luxe: What's with the obsession with building utopian cities among tech moguls? (Marker) 

Other fun things: 

• Pentagram's latest logo is designed to be listened to (Fast Company)

• I say it every time but Tales from the Dork Web is actual gold, and #27, about left-field/outsider artists is no exception. (Substack)

• Blackbird Spyplane’s interview with Antonio Ciongoli from 18East on sourcing inspiration and goods from India is great. 

• And via WITI: “The Muppet Show” is coming to Disney+ this month. Here’s a guide to Season 1. (Muppet.fandom)

Finally:

Rest in peace, Alanna Gabin and rest in peace, Ricky Powell. I didn’t know either of you well but many many of our mutual friends are feeling your losses acutely. And Rest in peace Sophie, who I didn’t know at all, but whose music I’ve loved. Condolences to all whose lives and creative outlooks they influenced for better.

=====[SIC 126]: Nanobusiness Serendipity=====