Overall "aesthetic" systems

version

Well-known member
Something that overlaps with the 2010s thread, or maybe it's a 2020s thing, is the flattening of more or less anything into an aesthetic and the use of "aesthetic" as an adjective.
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
It's a level back from that, right? A fandom wants stuff that's specifically within the universe of the thing that they're into. Like you could write something that dovetails perfectly into the aesthetic of Warhammer 40K, but if it hasn't got the Emperor and Chaos Marines and Orks and Necrons and all that stuff then it's not part of Warhammer fandom, even if it appeals to a lot of the same people. Whereas for people who are into an aesthetic - whether it's a classic subcultural one or a weird semi-synthetic internet one - the aesthetic is basically the criterion.
Yeah good point - fandoms are arguably more about lore consistency than aesthetic consistency.
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
Something that overlaps with the 2010s thread, or maybe it's a 2020s thing, is the flattening of more or less anything into an aesthetic and the use of "aesthetic" as an adjective.
Perhaps this the terminological need for this is from the nostalgic churn rate of previous eras' aesthetics being recycled, rather than there just being a primary contemporary aesthetic. IE now its more a sort of meta-aesthetic, combining and toggling between a variety of pre-existing aesthetics? Could argue its always been like that, all bricolage and no pure creation, but I feel like internet set a global stage for different eras and cultures to have their aesthetics perennially paraded around.
 

version

Well-known member
What comes to mind when I hear the term at the moment is all the stylised war footage set to music you find on YouTube. The 'NATOwave' stuff and those vids of Wojak in various historic battles.



 

version

Well-known member
GIFs are another big one. Someone posting a funny GIF of Hitler or some other monster and it's entirely stripped of any political weight and becomes just another image in a stream of them. No distinction between Hitler and a dog pulling a face.
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
Drug iterations - hash dens, rave pits, weed explosion, skag and benzo transience, booze oblivion; all have their wee codes of purchasing and selling. See familiarity with numbers set around 1-28, 9-36 and 36x36 in levels of severity and risk to wellbeing/life

k-land ketno Tekno techno is the most tragic, if that isn’t an aesthetic I dunno what is and have had it to both Desert Storm and BWPT (top crew of rascals)
 

pattycakes_

Can turn naughty
There's a Polish guy who did synth demos that were the stuff of legend among the online synth nerds.

WC Olo Garb aka Jexus



He was doing it long before vintage synths were the hip preserve of dentists and lawyers and out of reach of the average musician. Amazing cut ups of 80s B movies and trashy TV clips, with all manner of warped analog video fx mashing them all together making for the perfect visual mind fuck to go with his gnarled out synth jams. EBM heads take note.



I bought a Waldorf Q based on this vid.

The Q is a pretty capable beast, but he also specialized in making less revered synths shine as well



Nobody knew much about him for years. He was a like a one man aesthetic system all unto himself.
 

william_kent

Well-known member
Drug iterations - hash dens, rave pits, weed explosion, skag and benzo transience, booze oblivion; all have their wee codes of purchasing and selling. See familiarity with numbers set around 1-28, 9-36 and 36x36 in levels of severity and risk to wellbeing/life

k-land ketno Tekno techno is the most tragic, if that isn’t an aesthetic I dunno what is and have had it to both Desert Storm and BWPT (top crew of rascals)

if by "Desert Storm" you're talking about the Scottish TEKNO sound...

then I may know single mothers who were well pissed off when they set up in the car park ( on multiple occasions, they were a permanent fixture ) in Hulme, Manchester, tiny babies crying, tiny babies kept awake, etc',

one of the single mums may have commented on the tekno on offer, "it sounds like a duck quacking"

but... I was sad to hear that Keith, the Scottish accented mixed heritage guy, died a couple of years ago, not the sort of news I want to hear

I never had a problem with their raves in Hulme car parks, I was off my face tbh

actually was amusing when the Hacienda closed at 4 AM and the detritus washed up in Hulme, 5 AM, glam and crust united in TEKNO dancing to a "quacK quacK" beat in a deck access car park

and here's an excuse to post this video, I'm going to have to refrain from comment here, but....I could get in trouble. lol...

fucking hilarious

especially when they put on a "rave" for the troops


Desert Storm - Storming Sarajevo

taking TEKNO to no one who cares

"daddy, we've broken down, can you buy us a new motor?"

lol, but maybe r.i.p., experiencing mixed emotions at re-watching this video, maybe I'm a bad person, lol

but seriously, RIP Keith from Desert Storm, too soon tbh, not news I wanted to hear
 

WashYourHands

Cat Malogen
He was gent but had serious issues. He knew a bunch of us from the Green Brigade days. Joined the TA at 40 (wtf) after the Glasgow airport attack, did two tours of Afghanistan and came home in a grim state. Then he walked into the Thames and a week later the phone rang

A world away from Spiral Tribe, dunno if you met Charlie or Bee from DS, top lads but it became a gigantic cliche - ubiquitous live sets of jumbled rubbish, ket zombies, cliche site attire, crusty lasses inserting truck rig and site into every sentence and all you wanna do is sleep
 

william_kent

Well-known member
2000 DS were regulars in Hulme, they played numerous "squat gigs", some hulmanoids ended up playing in them briefly...

I didn't bother with crowdfunding the film though, still waiting for the free party one.....

crusty girls: I seem to remember them talking endlessly about "tat"?
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
It’s been interesting to watch the GAN/AI aesthetic develop over the last few years, and especially recently (IE seemingly over the last few weeks, and currently trending) there developed an aesthetic of images created within the constraints of shading patterns. It’s something at least somewhat novel - I’m sure humans have done stuff like this before, but AIs are great at it and it’s something you can generate an endless variety of.

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Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
This is sorta like what parametricism is in architecture - algorithmic design, often with an emphasis on geometry.
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
Oulipo would arguably be an equivalent in literature. And all of these trends do amount to something novel, to my awareness at least. Sure people have been using algorithms for much longer than electronic computers existed, but computers allow the artist to focus more fully on the vision.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
2000 DS were regulars in Hulme, they played numerous "squat gigs", some hulmanoids ended up playing in them briefly...

I didn't bother with crowdfunding the film though, still waiting for the free party one.....

crusty girls: I seem to remember them talking endlessly about "tat"?
I don't really have any clue what you're on about, but 'hulmanoids' is brilliant.
 

Clinamenic

Binary & Tweed
It’s been interesting to watch the GAN/AI aesthetic develop over the last few years, and especially recently (IE seemingly over the last few weeks, and currently trending) there developed an aesthetic of images created within the constraints of shading patterns. It’s something at least somewhat novel - I’m sure humans have done stuff like this before, but AIs are great at it and it’s something you can generate an endless variety of.
Actually there was a similar flash-trend earlier this year, but with QR code generators.

How-to-make-AI-QR-code-art-1.jpg
ai-qrcode-final.jpg

@william_kent @wektor here is a huggingface space for free QR code image prompting/generation:

 

IdleRich

IdleRich
world away from Spiral Tribe, dunno if you met Charlie or Bee from DS, top lads but it became a gigantic cliche - ubiquitous live sets of jumbled rubbish, ket zombies, cliche site attire, crusty lasses inserting truck rig and site into every sentence and all you wanna do is sleep

I dunno if you deliberately played a trick on my subconscious (and likely many others) there, or perhaps it's just my dirty mind, or even simply a pavlovian reaction, but when I see a sentence of the form "inserting x into every y" I am primed to assume that y will be "orifice" - or, depending on who wrote it, it could be "hole" at a stretch (as it were).
 
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