[SIC] 211: An Art Form Made of All the Other Art Forms

Volume 5, Number 3

Sep 22, 2022

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Hi all,

There was an influx of new subs this week, driven largely by a shout out in [SIC] Talks alum Matt Klein’s epic “The Creator Paradox” edition of Zine, which I contributed to. Welcome new folks, and if you haven’t seen the piece, please check it. Matt and I had a ‘director’s commentary’ chat about it as well; in place of [SIC] Talks returning (it will!), have a listen.

The Zine piece, has prompted a lot of discussion this week, which has been great, including PSFK asking “Is this new glut of production resulting in a distrust of anything not stamped with institutional or historical approval? Is platform atomization resulting in a hegemony of easy-to-engage-with sequels? What’s a creator to do to stand out vis-à-vis the Nth iteration of Batman?”

A spate of coverage lately has reinforced the point - including Vulture’s “Pop Music Is Regurgitating Itself Faster Than Ever” and Slate’s “What Is a 'Legacy Hit'? A Chart Flop Back in the Day That’s Now a Classic podcast episode.

There’s a glass-half-full reading of the situation, which is that the old is suffocating the new (which will be mean less ‘new’ in the future), but I don’t see things that way - and Matt includes some important prescriptions we can collectively follow to make sure I’m right.

One of the big ones that’s implied is that we should feel duty-bound to search for the new and to share our discoveries. Which is my M.O. around here.

To that end I’m especially grateful to friends who contribute stories for me to share - this week that’s Piers, Matt, David, Celeste, Iolanda, Ben, Jeremy and Ed. And of course I’d appreciate it hugely if any of you take a sec to share [SIC] with friends, colleagues, family—anyone you think will dig it. Likewise, critiques, concerns or suggestions - send ‘em!

Last thing - I’m going to Montreal for the C2 Summit next week (s/o Erik and JF for the suggestion), so if any of you are in the city, give a shout.

Ben

Before….

======[SIC] 211: An Art Form Made of All the Other Art Forms======

Zeitgest / Gestalt

032c talks to Ian Cheng about our “Great Anomic Era” / 032c
Corollary, from Piers Fawkes: The rise and rise of Korean culture / The Guardian
FatFIRE is the new wave. You make a ton of money, spend a ton of money, and retire with tons of money /Protocol
But do old people enjoy spending money less? / ThinkAdvisor
82% of Gen Zers say the idea of doing the minimum required to keep their jobs is pretty or extremely appealing — and 15% of that share are already doing so/ Axios
Hence? "Boomerang kids" are on the rise / News Nation Now
And 6PM is the new 8PM / NYT
Either way, from The Technorati: don’t objectify yourself. Thinking of yourself as an observer is better for your happiness than obsessing over being observed / The Atlantic
The relief of missing out: Anticipated anxiety is a big reason why more people are avoiding the news / Nieman Lab
Related; a new Pew Research Center study say 33% of TikTok users now say they regularly get their news on the app, up from 22% in 2020 / Pew
A group of 72 TikTokers have organized on Discord with the ambition of forming a union / Insider 🔏
Meanwhile, whatever happened to the It Girl? / The Face
Are we at the beginning of the end of influencers? / Embedded
Sick of Dimes Square discourse? Want to read just one piece that captures it? Among the Reality Entrepreneurs is here/ The Point
Also in code: There’s a rise in “algospeak,” which is using “codewords, emojis, and deliberate typos [...] to avoid detection by apps’ moderation AI when posting content that is sensitive or might break their rules.”/ Forbes
Related: A tribute to the good Twitter bots, including art bots, literature bots, earthquake-tracking bots /Quartz
Amazon Has a Fake Book Problem / David Gaughran
And Telegram Has a Serious Doxing Problem / Wired
Corollary: How achievements took over the video game industry / Fast Company
Also related: “Save Scumming”, explained / Dirt

World Order

Google searches for “how to leave Russia” skyrocketed / Business Insider 🔏
Pray for warm weather during Europe’s dark, expensive winter / FT🔏
Hence, heat recycling is the hot new thing / Axios
Related: the Dezeen guide to solar power explains the different types of photovoltaics from the well-established to the more experimental / Dezeen
For companies, a good climate plan can be a recruiting tactic / Protocol
Now, Zürich is Europe’s new capital of cool / FT 🔏
While student housing in the UK is hitting a crisis point. A national housing shortage, inflation and soaring rents means that UK university attendees are being forced to defer or drop out / The Face
Denver will provide 140 people experiencing homelessness $12,000 with no strings attached as part of a universal basic income test / Axios
Eric Adams wants tech to stay in New York City. He hosted a private dinner with tech leaders, asking them to stay and invest / CNBC

The Speculative Future

Nvidia has a new gaming chip that uses AI. The next generation “Ada Lovelace” graphic cards, named after the British mathematician / Quartz
From Celeste Blewitt: “A really interesting discussion on AI, art and what's to become, how it does/ doesn't work and where the gaps are in creating the art.” [’AI Art Is Already Here And The World Is Already Different’]/ NY Mag
Related, from David Bloom: “The idea of “IA,” intelligence automation (which uses tools to help people be smarter), versus AI, which tries to make machines smarter” Midjourney founder says ‘the world needs more imagination’ / Venture Beat
How ad agencies are using AI image generators—and how they could be used in the future / AdWeek
Also, from Jeremy Toeman: AI Portraits Imagine How Celebrities Would Look If They Were Alive / MyModernMet
And DALL-E 2 will now edit real faces, and users are going wild / Creative Bloq
While unsurprisingly people (mostly men) are using AI image generators to create highly specific, erotic imagery / Rolling Stone
Also unsurprising: BeReal is contemplating monetization / Daily Upside
While Tiktok Grew Up, per OKCool’s new trend report / Google Docs
Another from David Bloom: “Perhaps the most compelling use case I’ve seen so far for NFTs/tokens in entertainment” [The New Creator Playbook: Jumpstarting Communities Through Tokens] / Substack
The SEC believes that the U.S. government has jurisdiction over all Ethereum transactions / Decrypt
Will “Cybersickness” mean early death for the Metaverse? / The Daily Beast
How to Delete Your Personal Information from the Internet / HuffPo

Pop Cultures

What will an independent Yeezy look like? / Glossy
The Kardashians could show Kanye how direct-to-consumer works / Quartz
Meanwhile, Ye’s on TikTok now / TikTok
While his camp Tests Market For His Song Catalog, Seeking 35-Times Gross Profit / Billboard
Tho maybe his camp forgot to tell him?! / Hypebeast
Elsewhere, Future sells publishing catalog to influence media partners in eight-figure deal / Music Business Worldwide
Also diversifying: Brad Pitt makes his debut as a sculptor / The Art Newspaper
And also cofounded a cashmere brand that’s now available / Selfridges
Oh and Skin Care's Newest Celebrity Entrepreneur Is... you guessed it, Brad Pitt / Allure
How Quality Control Made Lil Baby the Latest Star of a Rap Dynasty / GQ
In direct contrast: how a Digital Rapper’s Flubbed Roll-Out Is Everything That’s Wrong With the Music Business /Variety
Halsey and Live Nation are making makeup a bigger part of live music by debuting “in-person try-and-buy makeup experiences” / The Future Party
From Ben Pruess: Glenn Martens at Diesel is doing things with denim — the fabric of democracy — that are genuinely transformative / NYT
While Levi’s prompts consumers to ‘buy better’ jeans and wear them longer for the planet / The Drum
Related: 33 Ways to Dress More Sustainably / Mr Porter
The jeans of the young and stylish are unzipped and unbuttoned / NYT
And underwire and push-up bra sales signal a 'Return to Sexy' /WSJ 🔏
And baseball caps are back … in the office? / FT 🔏
From Iolanda Carvalho: “Movie talks:” What China, Marvel, and Avatar Tell Us About the Future of Blockbuster Franchises / Matthew Ball
IE: If You Work in Film and TV, Get Ready for Layoffs / Bloomberg 🔏
After the Crypto Crash, Has Hollywood Given Up on NFTs? / Bloomberg 🔏
From Celeste Blewitt: ‘Have Film And TV Got Gen Z All Wrong?' / BBC
Another from Celeste: “Interesting take on the Roblox gaming platform and the engagement of many luxury brands” [Why Fashion Loves Roblox] / BoF 🔏
Related: a digital Carolina Herrera dress worn by Karlie Kloss just sold on Roblox for $5,000 / Vogue Business
The eclectic twin-brother art duo known as The Haas Brothers talk through the vision and creative process behind their sold-out project, Multibeasts / NFT Now
Related: MoMa To Sell $70 M In Art To Buy JPEGs / Decrypt
From Ed Cotton: “A man well ahead of his time:” Chauncey Hare hated work culture, and his way to "quiet quit" was by photographing fellow workers and their cubes. After a solo, MOMA show, and a Guggenheim Fellowship-he slammed the art world and becomes the anti-artist. / Hyperallergic

Media Happenings

The Atlantic goes Hollywood, pushing aggressively into film and TV projects as part of a wider licensing revenue push / Axios
Worth noting, tho: streaming has poured millions into documentary filmmaking — but with strings attached / THR
This map shows which media company owns your favorite show / Vox
“Gifs are cringe”: How Giphy’s multimillion-dollar business fell out of fashion / The Guardian
The Dubious Wisdom of “Smart Brevity:” the Axios founders’ new book makes the case for condensed communication—in an increasingly complex world / The New Yorker
RIP: Bustle shutters Input (and Mic) / AdWeek
Related: Inside the NYT worker drama / NYMag

Market-ations

Stagwell launches new consultancy to help brands navigate political and social issues/ The Drum
TayLo on YouTube targeting TikTok with a better deal for creators / WaPo 🔏
Meanwhile, Twitch announced that creators can no longer stream themselves gambling on sites that aren’t licensed in the US / Twitter
And Spotify started selling audiobooks/ Morning Brew
Samsung and ‘The Tonight Show' made a Fortnite game / AdAge
Nike’s popularity has continued to wane in mainland China. But is its collaboration strategy also partly to blame? / Jing Daily
New Balance Bets On U.S. Production / YouTube
A 'dystopian horror story.' Inside the thriving underground market for used Amazon seller accounts that's causing chaos, identity theft, and distrust in the company's massive online marketplace / Insider 🔏
Amazon’s defense is that it found ten billion counterfeit product listings in 2020 / Amazon
While a 'Vindictive' couple deleted hotel chain data for fun / BBC News
And Wegmans ends self-checkout app bc too much shoplifting / CNN
Corollary: fashion brands are strategizing to avoid a discounting ‘bloodbath’ / Glossy
A local car wash chain that’s been putting NFTs to the test is seeing numbers they’ve never seen in their 11-year history/ Coindesk
Ledger’s now got hardware wallets available at every Best Buy / Ledger
Notable, since Crypto is just tech stocks now / Bloomberg
Related: Plaid’s 2022 Fintech Spotlight report covers personal finances to crypto, alternative payment methods, and more / Plaid
Can brands grow without ads? / The Overthinkers
From Piers Fawkes: BMW launches FREUDE.FOREVER, a print magazine that aims to “redefine curiosity and sustainability” / BWM Group
While Travelocity launched “Wanderlab”, a #brandstudio / LinkedIn
And LinkedIn hired a head of original programming / Variety
LinkedIn's Future Is a Joke. The professional network has more than 850 million users but a dearth of non-cringey content — a huge content arbitrage opportunity versus other social platforms / Bloomberg 🔏
[SIC] homie Ed Cotton lays it out: ”The Creative" or "Is Creative"? / Linkedin

Superficial Interest

Looking for D.C.’s most sacred skate spot? Follow your ears/ WaPo 🔏
The Best Thing in Skateboarding Right Now Is This Old Green Bench / VICE
Or maybe it’s the absolutely unhinged weekend-long Dime “Street” Challenge in Montreal?! / IG
Mail sorter by day and dance-music producer at night, Richie Weeks has had 30 years of a double life spinning tracks / NYT
Should We Be Uncomfortable With Furniture at Art Galleries? / Hyperallergic
Willo Perron’s show at Matter is going to be unsettling, if so / Matter

Food / Drink

Times food writers and editors ate their way across the U.S. to find the 50 restaurants that most excite them. Here’s the list / NYT
While, from Ben Pruess: “You need to take the family to get some of those sluts”: Fans camped out in Fort Greene for hours to get a first taste of Atlanta’s Slutty Vegan burger chain / Eater
I Eat Meat. Why Was Killing My Own Food So Hard? / Bon Appetit
Vegan or otherwise, we’re all paying the beef tax / Seth Godin
Hence consumers who are giving up meat and turning into vegetarians because of high beef, fish and poultry costs / Bloomberg 🔏
But America still values their grocery store trip / PSFK
From Piers Fawkes: Alicja Kozlowska surprises grocery shoppers with her latest embroidered felt series / Design Boom
Shake Shack put Hot Ones on the menu /Digiday
How uncanny instincts turned a style maverick into the Björk of food / The New Yorker

Friends Section

[SIC] homie Devon OJAS profiled as “The Man Whose Sound Systems Make You Feel Like You’re On Psychedelics “/ GQ
Mishpucha OG and [SIC] homie Piotr Orlov’s edition of Herb Sundays and the accompanying essay / Spotify, Substack

Useful Diversions

Watch: Tonight at 6p ET, it’s A24’s double-feature premier of Instinct (with Bodies Bodies Bodies as a lead-in)
Read: The 8-Ball Almanac, which will give you the story in the words of the 8-Ball zine crew. It will not be reprinted, so get in before October 18 / Before Or Never
Listen: The Face launched a new podcast series which pairs creative people with the legends who’ve inspired them / The Face
Do: Head Hi’s new Brooklyn space opening party / Google Docs

Corollary story sources this week include, in no particular order:

Morning Brew / 1440 / Protocol / Daily Upside / Nieman Lab / Morning Consult / Milk Road / Today in Tabs / Garbage Day / Music Redef / Lean Luxe/ Culture: An Owners Manual / The Future Party / Magasin / Contagious / Motive Unknown/ Understanding TikTok / Exec Sum / Blazer / Dirt / Public Announcement

After. The only constant is change.