{"author":{"handle":"tomismeta","name":"tom","url":"https://x.com/tomismeta"},"essays":[{"id":"new-aesthetics","title":"New Aesthetics","href":"/api/essays/new-aesthetics"},{"id":"new-art","title":"New Art","href":"/api/essays/new-art"}],"quotes":[{"essay_id":"new-aesthetics","theme_id":"ephemeral-aesthetics","theme_name":"Ephemeral Aesthetics","quote":"Today, internet visual aesthetics feel largely ephemeral and niche with no clear dominant thematic characteristics. The impermanence of digital expression could be a primary driver."},{"essay_id":"new-aesthetics","theme_id":"observation-tooling","theme_name":"Observation Tooling Gap","quote":"I believe we lack the 'tools' to observe such a fluid and chaotic flow of an aesthetic across metaspatial experiences simultaneously. A good use of some of the grant funds referenced would be build a lens to more acutely observe and chronicle aesthetic flow and evolution at scale (physical, digital and metaspatial), which could serve as a hyperstitional mechanic in itself."},{"essay_id":"new-aesthetics","theme_id":"aesthetic-thrashing","theme_name":"Aesthetic Thrashing & Nostalgia Bias","quote":"My sense is that we'll continue this 'aesthetic thrashing' with a bias towards anchoring on nostalgic aesthetics for modern design objects (mid-century modern, farmhouse, etc.) for the next few years which allows for the deferral of cognitive load from the substantial, relentless, stream of options and chaos we experience today."},{"essay_id":"new-aesthetics","theme_id":"technology-catalyst","theme_name":"Technology as Catalyst","quote":"My intuition is that only major technology acceleration will catalyze an inflection point for the emergence of an organic 'new aesthetic.'"},{"essay_id":"new-aesthetics","theme_id":"human-utilitarian-separation","theme_name":"Human vs. Utilitarian Spaces","quote":"With the advent and broader acceptance and adoption of ambient intelligence (brain-computer interfaces) and robotics, we'll see a deepening separation in physical design aesthetic between human spaces (connect, comfort, curate) and utilitarian spaces designed for robot and automation efficiency and effectiveness (cooking, home maintenance, etc.). Picture the outside or interior of a car versus the engine, or the stage versus the backstage."},{"essay_id":"new-aesthetics","theme_id":"comfort-substrate","theme_name":"Neutral Comfort Substrate","quote":"The human-centered spaces will become more comfortable and physically sense-optimized, but visually aesthetically 'dull,' functioning as neutral observatories to the naked eye (and mind). This neutrality will allow them to serve as a canvas for individually curated, shareable, digital aesthetic 'skins,' streamed to each of us via brain-computer interfaces."},{"essay_id":"new-aesthetics","theme_id":"bci-skins","theme_name":"BCI-Streamed Aesthetic Skins","quote":"The half-life of digitally and ambiently observed aesthetics will continue to accelerate, and we'll change them like songs to suit our mood."},{"essay_id":"new-aesthetics","theme_id":"bci-skins","theme_name":"BCI-Streamed Aesthetic Skins","quote":"A 'new aesthetic' will be rendered individually—metaspacial, ambiently experienced, and digitally malleable on a neutral, human-optimized, comfort substrate physical canvas. The emphasis of physical design objects will be on how they're felt or physically experienced, not seen."},{"essay_id":"new-aesthetics","theme_id":"convergence-divergence","theme_name":"Physical Convergence / Experiential Divergence","quote":"Physical spaces will converge toward a hyper-abstraction of a comfort substrate, while the way we experience them continues to diverge—individually."},{"essay_id":"new-art","theme_id":"hindsight-recognition","theme_name":"Hindsight Recognition","quote":"Will we even be able to perceive a new form of art in the moment, to experience it directly, catching it in the act of its performance or will we only recognize it in hindsight (and is that even a bad thing)?"},{"essay_id":"new-art","theme_id":"performance-as-container","theme_name":"Performance as Container","quote":"My intuition is that a lot of new art will be performative and will be difficult to detect through traditional consumption senses (due to the scale/scope), and knowing (and/or unknowing) participants in the production of the performance will focus (consciously or unconsciously) moreso on the production than consumption mechanism/output framing."},{"essay_id":"new-art","theme_id":"role-fluidity","theme_name":"Role Fluidity","quote":"Fluidity in roles will blur the lines on those constructing the performance and those that are experiencing/consuming it, creating uncertainty of the edges of the 'installation/exhibit'. The initiator may not be the best steward of the performance (and output) depending on the permutation/evolution that the performance takes."},{"essay_id":"new-art","theme_id":"lenses-and-frames","theme_name":"Lenses & Frames","quote":"How do you consume it if you're not a direct participant (follow the right people, watch the right financial instruments). Should it remain largely inaccessible or should a frame be wrapped around for consumable output for the non-participant? Is it wrong to create a lens and should it be only consumed experientially."},{"essay_id":"new-art","theme_id":"lenses-and-frames","theme_name":"Lenses & Frames","quote":"The lenses/frames that can be applied are limitless."},{"essay_id":"new-art","theme_id":"lenses-and-frames","theme_name":"Lenses & Frames","quote":"It's my sense that conventional framing of the output won't do the performances justice; new framing, experiential participation and holding the metaphorical looking glass become important devices for awareness, consumption and appreciation."},{"essay_id":"new-art","theme_id":"nested-performances","theme_name":"Nested Performances","quote":"My sense is when those are mastered (to some degree) with an observing audience at some critical mass, organic and/or constructed interaction between disparate and nested performances will inevitably occur. This becomes a biosphere of performant organisms that clash, coalesce and oscillate around each other resulting another frame that can be rendered/consumed as output."},{"essay_id":"new-art","theme_id":"participation-spectrum","theme_name":"Participation Spectrum","quote":"Unless you can become the adjacent tree. Or, deploy an unmanned drone."},{"essay_id":"new-art","theme_id":"participation-spectrum","theme_name":"Participation Spectrum","quote":"My sense is that there will be a cohort interest in the participatory engagement (primarily) and another cohort that desires (or can only afford—due to time/commitment to their participatory art) consumption from a degree or two of separation away. I want to be the adjacent tree."},{"essay_id":"new-art","theme_id":"art-as-life","theme_name":"Art as Life / Intentionality","quote":"To some degree what we're describing can be argued as 'life' (naturally occurring performance), with intentionality being the inflection point/delineation between life as we know it and emergent new art."},{"essay_id":"new-art","theme_id":"hyperstition-as-method","theme_name":"Hyperstition as Method","quote":"It's not digital art it's like collective, metaspacial art (but again, that seems too narrow for the new art category). I struggle to 'name it'."}],"quote_count":20}