Pinterest used to be one of my favorite platforms for visual inspiration. However, me and Pinterest had a little falling out. I hadn’t been using it actively for almost two years. Last weekend I spent some time on it and it surprised me how useless it’s become. The interior design content was flooded with AI generated images. I could barely find real pictures of existing spaces for inspiration.

As Demna Gvasalia demonstrated back in 2021 in Balenciaga’s Clones Show, everything is becoming synthetic. Imagery, references, ultimately opinions are all shaped by what algorithms determine that we want to see. This reactive, self confirming feedback loop is becoming like a content flywheel.

Chances are that the aesthetics of political power also succumb to the content flywheel. If that is the case then opposing thoughts, or ‘resistance’, inevitably follow the same reactive, directionless path. And that’s OK!

For Friedrich Hayek’s free markets, reactiveness is something natural. If something is worth it, we vote with our money. I believe in free markets - that’s why I got triggered when I saw the movie The Brutalist. The developer wanted to cut costs by making a ceiling slightly lower. The architect decided to offset part of the building’s cost with his own design fee. He was brute-forcing something that, in reality, no one really wanted. It was his form of resistance. It might sound charming but it’s completely unsustainable. And, arguably, unprofessional.
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Related articles

Hayek's Economic Signals and Architects When architects forfeit their fees, they mess with the market. Read article

Political Aesthetics If we've all managed to calm down over the weekend, we can cast an objective eye over the current ways in which institutions communicate with us. Read article

The Brutalist Style An older rant on how Brutalism isn't really a style, but an attempt on classifying a particular aesthetic of buildings that have no real connection between them. Read article

Key takeaways for this week:

• No, Brutalism still isn’t a real style. I was happy that, for the entirety of the movie, no one mentioned the term “brutalism”.
• Real things are becoming scarce. If you want real food, cook it yourself. If you want real connection, shut up and actively listen instead of just waiting for your turn to speak.
• Confirmation bias is simultaneously a human condition and a machine learning fallacy.

What do you think?

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