[SIC] 140: Cuter Computer

May 13, 2021

Hi all,

Digital worlds abound this week, their cuteness/gamified nature increasingly boding more sinister (or at least cynical) intents. Meanwhile, the oldest brands access the newest hype cycles, artists and studios leapfrog format constraints, Doge knockoffs blow up, and samurais pick up trash. Lots to absorb, in other words.

To that end, thanks to Jeff, Nick, Cam and of course my unofficial deputy editor Iolanda for referring stories this week. Appreciate you opening my aperture (and build my record collection). Keep the suggestions coming, all - they’re appreciated.

No [SIC] Talks today, but I’d invite you to return to my convo last week with Paul Munford from Lean Luxe. It was the discussion of what makes a modern media company, for me. You can find it in my grid @dietznutz, along with all the past conversations, and the archive of my weekly chat with Ben Pruess, under the “Mad at Marketing” banner, too. LMK what you think. [SIC] Talks back next week at 4p ET on Thurs 5/20.

Finally, special shout out to Katelyn Donnelly from the excellent Declarative Statements newsletter, who joined [SIC] list at the in-conversation recommendation of Jordan at Silver Linings Opticians, your new cult eyewear plug in NYC. Thanks both of you. And if anyone else feels like turning friends and colleagues on to this missive, I’d love that. Here’s a button.

xo Ben

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Games not Games: 

• Not Boring on the internet as the grand game.

• More on gaming as the next social media (Wunderman Thompson)  

• But, but! via Maekan: The negative impact of gamification is beginning to reveal itself. Gamification has long been a favorite strategy amongst the tech world for ratcheting up metrics. The pitfalls are now revealing themselves. (Wired)

• IE: Via Public Announcement: How Pixar Uses Hyper-Colors to Hack Your Brain. The animation studio’s artists are masters at tweaking light and color to trigger deep emotional responses. Coming soon: effects you’ll only see inside your head. (Wired) 

Virtual Worlds:  

• Via Jing : Wabi-sabi, Metaverse & Future of the Virtual World (Pandaily)

• Virtual nightclub Eschaton creates "feeling of a rabbit hole" by combining theatre with gaming design (Dezeen)

• Via Future Party: Roblox hopes to create digital overlays of physical tours so people can travel with artists, and also find a way to allow artists perform concerts in the game actually live. (Forbes) 

• Not to be outdone, Via Patent Drop: Facebook got a patent for porting physical objects into virtual reality (US Patent & Trademark)

Art: 

• Via Jing Daily: Clearing The Dancefloor: How Club Culture Became A Museum Piece (The Guardian)

• Via Kouch Culture: David Hockney created a digital sunrise unveiled on London's famed Piccadilly Lights which were also synchronized with over 70 electronic billboards worldwide (Arch Paper)

• And via Highsnobiety - Creator Projects' M.M.S. (Much.More.Shit) box includes works by 12 artists — including a ten-pack of condoms by Jenny Holzer

Fashion: 

• Hermès Makes Fitness High Fashion On WeChat (Jing Daily) 

• Related: how Hermès Invented Hype (GQ)]

• What Luxury Brands Can Learn from Lanvin’s Blind Boxes (Jing Daily) 

• From Cam Farrelly: "It's shameful that i bathe in your weekly awesomeness and don't contribute anything, so want to start making amends [with this]" (Carolina Herrera)

• Via 2PM: Is The RealReal launching its own fashion brand? (WWD)

• Via Maekan:  Are fashion brands the next to jump on the "content house" bandwagon? (Vogue Business)

• Related: via BoF” Renzo Rosso Aims to Unite Italy’s Fashion Industry (Bloomberg)  

• But are luxe brands pushing too many collaborations? (Business of Fashion)

Music: 

• Via Music Redef: The Post-Brexit New Wave by OG Fluxblog gawd and [SIC] buddy Matthew Perpetua (NPR) 

• Elsewhere in UK Music: Virgil Abloh’s set design for Headie One’s Brits performance called out drill music stereotypes (itsnicethat)

• Meanwhile, stateside; via Music Redef: The sound of summer 2021 is sample drill (Lyrical Lemonade)

• Via Backseat Freestyle; Black Thought talks to The Paris Review about his writing. 

• On the dark side of EDM, via Lefsetz Letter: The beer brand Tuborg and David Guetta made a song featuring fake Rihanna and it’s exactly as cursed as you’d expect. (YouTube)

• From Jeff Carvalho: to mark their 40th year, Dischord 200 is a Box Set containing reissues of Dischord’s first 6 releases (Minor Threat twice, Teen Idles, SOA, Youth Brigade + Government Issue) in their original 7″ vinyl format 

• Vaporwave has been dead for years, per Felt Zine (Instagram) 

• Speaking of, via Friends From New York: it’s 10pm. Do you know where your children are?  (Insta-grace)

Film & Video: 

• Via Elevator: 20 Essential Films from the American New Wave (Far Out) 

• NYC Skate / downtown doc All the Streets are Silent is coming July 23rd (Deadline) 

• Also via Cam Farrelly: “Better Days: The Story Of UK Rave” will premiere via Twitch on May 28th. (Resident Advisor)

• Bracket fam [Adult Swim] Dives Into Films (Adweek) 

• Via Future Party: Hollywood continues the story with high-profile companion podcasts companion podcasts enrich what’s on screen in many ways. (Hollywood Reporter)

• In the Messy Land of Internet Video, the Editor Is King The seams are the whole point. (Vulture) 

• 25 Edits That Define the Modern Internet Video and create the vocabulary for an absurd, ingenious art form. (Vulture)

Tiktok

• Via Nieman Lab: Journalism is still getting digital editions wrong (tk.gg) 

• Via Marcus Bosch: 📈 51% of Gen Z (under 24) get their news on TikTok, reports the Washington Post.

• YouTube spending $7 million on 2 new journalism programs (Axios)

• Corollary: Via Benedict Evans: 'Philip DeFranco' and YouTube news-influencers. Prepare to feel old. (CJR) 

• Elsewhere, TikTok is testing a tool for brands to recruit employees, sources tell Axios.

• Who to recruit? The Style Tribes of TikTok, of course! (GQ)

• How to capture them? Via Marcus Bosch: Here's how to edit iPhone photos using TikTok's favorite formula. (Mashable)

• What to feed them? The Vegan Food Trends Taking Over TikTok, From Dairy-Free Cheese to Plant-Based Chicken 🐓

TalkTalk:

• Via 2PM: Clubhouse finally launches its Android app (TechCrunch)

• Via Platformer: Five takeaways about Ximalaya, China’s largest audio platform. If you’ve started to doubt what opportunity is for Spotify — or Clubhouse — read about what Ximalaya is doing. (Tanay Jaipuria)

• Though, via Protocol: Clubhouse has a blocking problem it’s gotta fix. The app's black badge was meant to identify trolls, but has instead "created a system of self-moderation, in which the thorny questions of online speech are devolved to its users.” (The Atlantic)

• Corollary? Daisy Alioto took over Today in Tabs yesterday, posing the question: Is Yuppie Scum back? (Substack) 

• A sample Daisy pick: [SIC] buddy Michael Williams ‘hilariously’ interviewed in Hodinkee

• Speaking of friends: via 1440: Breaking down the "hey bestie!" phenomenon (Vox) 

• The photographer and director Richard Kern as told to Gossamer.

• Related boundary pushing: via 2PM:  On Substack, you can never go too far (The Atlantic)

Marketing:

• Chinas graying population might provide an opportunity for brands (Jing Daily) 

• While branded content is the path to Gen Z (Content Commerce Insider)

• Why Email Became the Channel of Choice for Audience Engagement (Advertising Week)

• Following on last week’s chat with Paul Munford, via 2pm it’s the The Food52 growth story (FastCo) 

• Speaking of quick growth: Is this the summer of the pop-up store? (The Drum)

• Via Vogue Business: Harry’s Partnership With Ashley Graham Shows Celebrity Deals’ Evolution (Bloomberg) 

The Wave: 

• Via Declarative Statements: The Ultimate Guide to the Creator Economy, if you're into that sort of thing. (Antler) 

• Elsewhere via High Tea: Patrick Rivera in his article on Crypto x Creator Economy. Key Quote: “The creation of crypto economic networks that move beyond today’s mantra of "come for the creator, stay for the network" and become "come for the creator, stay for the economy”. Building community-first folks, is now the real deal for everyone.” (P.Mirror)

• So now that you’re a creator, here’s how to quit your job in the great post-pandemic resignation boom (Bloomberg) 

• And since you’re a YOLO investor now, Snack, a 'Tinder meets TikTok' dating app, opens to Gen Z  investment dollars (TechCrunch)

• Brands create, too! Via After School: A24, whose Lady Bird, Midsommer, and Euphoria and whose merch routinely sells out — is making makeup now. (GQ UK) 

• Related? There’s a liquor renaissance coming. (FT) 

• But, from Nick Dodziuk: Here is a link to a thorough article regarding construction lumber prices  …  anyone trying to reno their house it is going to hit them hard. Ripple effects are potentially pretty big for all construction and small scale housing ... ex: Price of OSB (think cheap wood sheeting material as roof substrate) went from $12 to $40.” (Substack) 

• Related, via Declarative Statements: How the Middle Class Became Downwardly Mobile. (FT) 

NFTeasers: 

• Rimowa’s got an NFT (BoF) 

• While musician Imogen Heap has created a collection of six audiovisual NFTs that are carbon negative and hope to "set the bar for what digital art can and should be" (Dezeen) 

• And NFTs are coming to eBay. The online marketplace announced it will allow the sale of non-fungible tokens for digital assets. (Quartz) 

• Via Inside Cryptocurrency: As outlined in the DOGE imitation’s “WOOF paper,” Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin was gifted a whale position of 50% of the total SHIB supply, in crypto’s latest weird turn. It’s now worth $8.2 Billion. 

The Mind of Iolanda (all submissions from Iolanda Carvalho):

• "Two little gifts for you, 'cos I suspect we share the same fun-ctional relationship to words and writing, both with some really nice ideas for your [SIC] titles… 😉. And no, I don't think you need to improve your writing, but the table is really cool! (Visual Capitalist)

• “Cheugy” comes full circle... (CNET) 

• Serious Game (Future Today Institute) 

• "Historically, we defined an entertainment company around its core offering. It’s clear today that these company definitions are no longer right." (Matthew Ball) 

• "Perhaps no other form of advertising is more adored than key art; it sparks our imaginations as cinema-goers, adorns our walls, and distills the legacy of some of the greatest films into a single image." (Muse by Clio) 

• Interesting report on the power of generations in Economy, Politics and Culture. (Visual Capitalist) 

Flotsam & Jetsam: 

• Via 1440: Meet Japan's trash samurais. (YouTube)

• Via Maekan: A Japanese firm installs edible insect vending machines to local acclaim. (Manichi) 

• Via Kouch Culture: Pantone launched a urine color chart to help Brits with their hydration. (The Independent)

• In other hydration news, I got a shout out in the new Rubyverse dispatch, which is once again excellent (Ruby Hibiscus)

• In advance of Memorial Day’s upcoming At Home Campout, fave brand Snow Peak on the impact of your first camping trip. 

• Speaking of camping, Is Mars Ours? (The New Yorker)

• Since it's graduation season, a column I wrote 23 years ago upon finishing college. I feel like I should hate it for being arch and dismissive, but I actually don’t. (The Daily Pennsylvanian) 

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