Hi hi hi
After the first few weeks of lockdown in 2020, something…sort of…unlocked inside me. From a distant admirer of Edo period woodblocks, I became a person who actively emulated the art by making them my own. I’m trying that again this week by recreating a piece by Hokusai - it’s a big piece that I hope to have completed next week.
Here are the finds for the week:
- WATCHING TO CHANGING One of the cultural undercurrents across most of South East and East Asia over the past decade has been BL - Boys Love - centered around men, made for women, by women. This piece brings in data to breakdown how big the genre has become and what it could mean for society’s normalization of LGBT relationships. I remember reading about the ‘Modern Family’ effect in the US - convincing America that same-sex couples can be just like straight ones. Here’s hoping this happens in Asia.
- AI POLLUTION I was chatting with a friend yesterday on the sheer amount of drivel there is on LinkedIn. It was always cringe, and cringe is OK. But over the past 6 months, the amount of vacuous-word-soup being injected into the platform has been staggering. This piece talks about how AI-generated pollution is flooding culture - the scariest example in YouTube Kids. I also like how they use the term “synthetic content”. People who prefer natural fabrics and natural foods for themselves might be more conscious of “synthetic” drivel being fed to them via the interwebs.
- TOY (MOON) STORY Love this example of bringing in the right skills for the right jobs. Japan’s space agency brought in a toymaker, Takara Tomy, to help with the design for this incredibly complex mission. Takara Tomy looked to one of its most successful franchises, Transformers, which is based on vehicles that fold open and change shape to become heavily armed robots. Proves the power of transdisciplinary work.
- SNEAKER FUTURE This weekend Singapore hosts Sneaker Con Southeast Asia. Thousands will browse, bargain and barter. But around the world, the hype has faded. Innovation - as defined by new drops - seems to be in doldrums. Gen-Z consumers doesn’t crave the creativity as much as they want popular styles - so the big companies follow that to increase sell-out rates and align with general dressing standards. I’ll be skipping the Singapore event because I’m on a strict-lets-not-buy-new-things-without-mending-the-old. But I’ll keep an eye on what kind of conversations the forum ends up driving about sneaker culture.
- SMOG WARRIORS There is nearly not enough discourse on climate and inequality. The greater Delhi area is one of the most polluted places on the face of the Earth. But the privileged white-collar workers (mostly working in tech and media in Gurugram) complaining about it the most on social media can hop from their air-conditioned offices to their air-conditioned cars to their air-conditioned homes. Rest Of World, one of my favorite publications, equipped gig riders across South Asia with pollution monitors. The readings were off the charts.
See y’all next week!