I am a little obsessed with the way all these sites look, and how much people are thinking about ways of "liking" and "doing." I mean, if you sat me down and were like, "Spend two months making a really pretty, spare website that's great for presenting text and images equally AND will look good on mobile," if I was really lucky I'd end up with something like Medium. (It's also interesting to me that it's the opposite of the "new aesthetic" if that's really actually a thing.) It's high minimalism instead. It's the Moss store of the Internet. It's very appealing! But these tools make me yearn for all our garbagey blogs that were handmade and a mess. (Of course, those blogs weren't good business opportunities though.)
I've been kind of half-following the hubub about this so called "New aesthetic" over the last few months and I find it somewhat interesting.
I wonder if either of you would like to help fill me in on which parts are interesting or what I should know about it?
Some required reading for anyone wondering what I'm talking about:
wired.com
Well the first place to start would be the archive view of James Bridle's New Aesthetic Tumblr at new-aesthetic.tumblr.com which to my mind gives the best view of how the idea developed over time because it allows you to see lots of it simultaneously.
I have to say that I've been largely ignoring the whole thing. From my naive position, it seems like the central point is that technology actually influences society (rather than simply being an artifact of it). Which shouldn't strike anyone as too much of a surprise.
@Bashford That tumblr is great. I didn't link to it since it doesn't come with an instruction manual so it takes some effort to absorb what's going on there.
@Jer > " it seems like the central point is that technology actually influences society (rather than simply being an artifact of it). Which shouldn't strike anyone as too much of a surprise."
This is my take on it, too - I think it's important to acknowledge that something is changing, and this seems to be one of the more abrupt changes in design and art that I can recall, but It also could be that I think that because I happen to work in the internet industry.
Do either of you think this New Aesthetic is something that the general public should be interested in?
I think it's important to recognize the difference between technology simply exerting an influence on society, which has always been true with everything from the discovery of fire to the microwave, and what is happening now, as the look and logic of the technological world bleed through into the real world. What the New Aesthetic seems to be calling attention to is the way that the appearance and "aesthetic" of the digital is becoming real. What was once purely artificial, and understood only in cyberspace, is becoming a visual, and in some cases, tactile and tangible part of our world and our culture.
Thanks for your feedback! Team Branch
