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| Optimism As Requirement |
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Behzod makes a case for optimism being a necessity, especially as we move into the junior year of the pandemic.
As a child, I was both curious and skeptical of many things. I liked to pick things apart to understand how they worked, which often led me to pattern match new ideas against what already existed. In some ways this was helpful, saving me time and energy by avoiding the wrong path, but it meant that I often failed to dream about what could be, rather than just see what was.
At some point, one of my parents reminded me that "If you look for problems, you'll always find them." A few years later, a switch flipped and I became a dreamer, an optimist, and a hopeless romantic for possible futures and potential tomorrows. I knew that I could always find something to be skeptical about, but I wanted to push myself to see through the obstacles and instead see the other side of possible.
I've been clinging tightly to this optimism lately, especially when it comes to web3 (of which I have a lot of skepticism). It's easy to see the challenges ahead and point out the scams, schemes, and problems that have already been created. But, I've been inspired by the creativity that I've seen in so many people who are now interrogating the world that we live in more deeply. I'm seeing more people asking "why does the world have to be the way it is?" and while I don't think that web3 is going to be any sort of silver bullet to fix everything, it may become the catalyst that sparks the next wave of change.
While many of us in the community are reflecting on the year that we've had and are planning for the one ahead of us, I hope that we can all spend more time asking "what could be?" and making space to bring those ideas to life. If we’re always able to see the problems, then going into the junior year of this pandemic, I think this optimism isn't just helpful for survival, it's necessary.
- Behzod
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The Bulletin
Hear and read the latest from MAEKAN and the community. |
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OFFLINE MATTERS: Straight Talkin' w.ith Eugenia Digon
Offline Matters: An Interview Series is co-presented with No Fun Mag, a membership newsletter by Jess Henderson, author of the book Offline Matters: The Less-Digital Guide to Creative Work.
In her most recent interview, Jess speaks with Paris-based Argentinian designer Eugenia Digon, who focuses on brand design and visual communication. As luck would have it, their friendship (and this interview) began when Eugenia — or “Ginny,” as Jess affectionately knows her — reached out to Jess after reading Offline Matters amid “the data-delusions and sense of diminishing possibility within creative work today.”
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| For Your A-10-tion |
The best links from across the Internet.
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1. 😟 Anne Rice, Celebrated Gothic Horror Author Dies at 80
Known for The Vampire Chronicles series, the author passed away on December 12 due to complications from a stroke at the age of 80, according to her son Christopher. She was born in New Orleans, where most of her books take place, and became renowned for her work with the gothic horror genre, but also wrote in other genres, including erotic and historical fiction.
2. ✍️ Nostalgia-based Rebrands This Year’s Design Trend
Brands like Burger King managed to boost their engagement this year by reaching back into their archives for inspiration that helped them to rebrand at a time when retro vibes are in successfully. This is especially helpful for brands that are old enough to have archives, offering them the chance to re-demonstrate their relevance. According to independent designer Elizabeth Goodspeed:
“‘There were a couple years where everyone was like, ‘This is too retro,’ and now, she says, ‘I’m getting told, ‘It’s not retro enough.’ Goodspeed says that a vintage-inspired brand identity lends credibility, especially to new companies. ‘It feels counter-DTC, which often gets associated with low quality. So being able to say, No, no, it’s craftsmanship, it’s heritage, gives it that sort of oomph.’”
3. ©️ Brands Getting Away With Plagiarism On Instagram
The fact that brands can lift, repackage, reshare and profit off of the content of independent creators, especially on Instagram, reflects the fact that the culture and system are still content with the idea of getting clout over cash. As Zulie Rane writes:
“This environment ensures that brands can steal memes, tweet screenshots, or even entire trends, give token credit, and literally profit themselves off the back of the hard work of creators. But why should they do any differently? For a long time, platforms were happy to pay creators in exposure. And creators themselves seemed to prefer virality above payment.”
4. 🌐 As Meta pushes for the metaverse, it may be a better fit for some, not all
Despite its ability to further popularize the concept of a metaverse to the masses, Meta (formerly known as Facebook) risks repeating some of the same problematic behaviors that it was criticized for with Instagram and Whatsapp — and owning far more of the less ideal definitions of the metaverse than it should. As Olga Vorobyeva writes:
“Suppose we are to create and virtually live in a place where you can work, play, learn, create, shop, and interact with friends in a virtual online environment. In that case, I want everyone to have a stake in that, gain from it, be compensated for their time and energy, and help each other grow. Left unchecked, all we’ll do, collectively, is allow Meta to become our keepers, and that is inherently inhuman.”
5. 🕶️ How The Matrix Continues To Influence Fashion
Long before the upcoming fourth Matrix film, the iconic science fiction series was influencing the fashion industry in prescient ways that have since become that more relevant:
“Dressing to be inside the machine also has relevance for a whole new category – digital fashion. In the first movie, Morpheus shows Neo how for the Matrix – or any other – you can change your outfit accordingly to create “the mental projection of your digital self.” Online life has become more and more vital in the years since those words were uttered on film. Now, there’s a whole industry of designers making outfits for their digital selves to wear in the metaverse.”
6. 🧠 How Understanding Biological Intelligence Has Implications For Designing Artificial Intelligence
A potential solution has emerged in neuroscience and developmental biology that helps scientists better understand how biological intelligence works. It consists of three steps: modular self-controlled units, a hierarchy of those units, and finally, pattern completion, where each module has a few key trigger points that can activate the entire system.
“Modern biology faces a fundamental knowledge gap when trying to explain meaningful, intelligent behavior. How can a system composed of cells and electrical signals generate a well-adapted body with behavior and mental states? If cells are not intelligent, how can intelligent behavior emerge from a distributed system composed of them? This fundamental mystery permeates biology. All biological phenomena are, in a sense, “group decisions” because organisms are made of individual parts—organs, tissues, cells, organelles, molecules. What properties of living systems enable components to work together toward higher-level goals?”
7. 💬 Have You Ever Gone Through An Inspirational Quote Phase?
Despite the running joke that anyone constantly liking and posting inspirational quotes is going through a rough patch, Ryan Fan thinks our obsession with them holds some of our aspirations as well as simply our love of language.
“I have to act in ways contradictory to my values to survive, which makes me a hypocrite. There’s a separation in what I believe politically and in an ideal world, and how I live my life. While I believe in a more equal society where financial disparities in America are bridged, my career goals and ambitions of becoming a special education lawyer, if successful, will land me in an upper middle class or upper-class income bracket, which directly contradicts my beliefs and values of sacrificing for the cause.”
8. 💗 Emotional Clothing responds to the wearer’s changes in stress levels
Polish fashion designer Iga Węglińska has created a collection of Emotional Clothing for her doctoral thesis at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow garments. The sensor-filled garments react to the wearer’s heart rate, temperature, and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) — the minute fluctuations in electric current in the skin — to trigger lighting or translucency changes in the garments. These, Węglińska hopes, will provide the wearer with the feedback they can respond to when dealing with emotional changes such as anxiety.
9. 🏆 Chanel Announces Inaugural ‘Next Prize’ Winners
Launched alongside the Chanel Culture Fund earlier this year, the French fashion house’s inaugural Next Prize has just announced ten winners working in film, design, and the performing arts. The prize for each winner received €100,000 ($113,000) to put toward their project.
10. 🏃 Great Lakes Cities Preparing For Role As Climate Refugees
With inland climate migration expected to increase significantly in the next century, cities on the Great Lakes are among some that are becoming good candidates as climate refugees. However, with the effects of inclement weather, droughts, fires, and other natural phenomena frequently bleeding into other areas, the idea of a place being a “save haven” is not set in stone, and there are ways cities can cope with the unexpected.
Eight Steps Toward Self-Discovery Through Photography
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