Incredible quote “We naively believe that our algorithms are tailored for us, when in fact, the algorithms are flattening our minds to be more homogenous.”
When it comes to NY resolutions the body is still number one but I’m sure if one looked at relative growth an ambition to go anti-algorithm is up there.
It’s a shame to see some platforms that felt like safer havens such as Pinterest fall victim to some of the slop flowing on other platforms.
In an earlier draft I went down a rabbit hole of this idea where some times I wonder if our phones are really listening to us or if we're actually just less original than we had thought.
Totally agree with you on Pinterest -- I've been using cosmos more lately. Would love to hear your progress on your resolutions and anything you learn!
Definitely truth to your rabbit hole thought. A counter to the “main character” narrative.
Going to check out Cosmos.
Regarding my approach I started a new IG account. Only following things that I want to bring me better inspiration, art, music, etc. Trying to prioritize that space.
Also came here lauding the same quote at first but wait hear me out, how do things exist and get found now without some kind of algo boost? I mean I found this article because Substack recommended it (and I doubt they're entirely human curated). Great bops and interesting art the same way through Insta and the like. It's like a great updraft and demise at the same time. What do we do instead? Just accept a more organic, physically constrained expansion of ideas/creations/etc like your word of mouth book recs?
"Sometimes I question if what I put into the world can have value and impact if I’m consuming the same things as everyone else." - this one struck a chord immensely too! Great advice to stop staring into a phone and go touch some grass for inspo.
Rabbit hole is spot on. Maybe that’s a start to a whole other piece. As a therapist of 20+ years, I can tell you we all think we are more special and unique and individual than we are. Everyone *is* unique, but the idiosyncrasies just don’t matter as much as we’d like to think, and we all have so much more in common than we typically realize. And for folks within the same culture, it only intensifies.
Anyway, I came here to laud the same quote. I think both things are true. We are being flattened and homogenized and also we already are, more than we want to admit.
another great, insightful read. i love kiko so i’ll be checking out that nyt article! I feel like it’s natural for a bit of our weirdness to subside as we age, especially if we work or live in certain environments that may not be as accepting (if our weirdness manifests in fashion/beauty choices). but i still admire the goal of being a bit more offline/less interested in the algorithm. it feels like those goals along with (this might be a reach) the uptick in people posting low/no buy year vids for 2025 might all be connected. here’s to embracing our inner weirdness in 2025 and beyond, however that looks ♡
Hey, thank you for this post and talking about The Clock.
I've seen The Clock at the İstanbul Biennial in 2013. And to this day, it remains as my favorite artwork ever. I sat through for 90 minutes in three seperate occasions. Once around 4pm, 8 pm and once at 2 am. The last one was the best.
The magic started even before the work itself. Being announced that you have access to 24/7 to a public space is intriguing. Knowing this invites one to image the crowd and the surrounding city at different hour's of the day, making the urban experienxe a part of it.
And then the work: sitting in a dark room, watching the time pass with strangers around you. You are hyper aware of time passing by, an opportunity for temporal awareness, which easily transfers into a spatial one... I remember my mind wandering as much about the space I'm in and people I'm surrounded with, as the passing of time. You find youself suprised about how fast or slow it flows, depending on the scene that appears in the screen.
The Clock is a montage of scenes that displays clocks in films. Some uses clocks as elements of suspense, some only shows clocks incidentally. I remember a beautiful scene (I can't say the name. Maybe a Cary Grant film), in which protogonists break in into a house, constantly checking their clocks for the arrivals of the owner of the house. It reminds you how the speed of time can be subjective and musically fast. Or oppersively objective and drags you into a counting seconds.
The Clock is my favorite, because it taps into a very elementary experience, that is time, in such a succesful way that, it makes you hyper aware of your existance, as a being belonging to "now", in contrast to recorded beings that acted in "then".
Thank you for reminding me about an experience I loved that I forgot about. Cheers.
Incredible quote “We naively believe that our algorithms are tailored for us, when in fact, the algorithms are flattening our minds to be more homogenous.”
When it comes to NY resolutions the body is still number one but I’m sure if one looked at relative growth an ambition to go anti-algorithm is up there.
It’s a shame to see some platforms that felt like safer havens such as Pinterest fall victim to some of the slop flowing on other platforms.
In an earlier draft I went down a rabbit hole of this idea where some times I wonder if our phones are really listening to us or if we're actually just less original than we had thought.
Totally agree with you on Pinterest -- I've been using cosmos more lately. Would love to hear your progress on your resolutions and anything you learn!
Definitely truth to your rabbit hole thought. A counter to the “main character” narrative.
Going to check out Cosmos.
Regarding my approach I started a new IG account. Only following things that I want to bring me better inspiration, art, music, etc. Trying to prioritize that space.
Also came here lauding the same quote at first but wait hear me out, how do things exist and get found now without some kind of algo boost? I mean I found this article because Substack recommended it (and I doubt they're entirely human curated). Great bops and interesting art the same way through Insta and the like. It's like a great updraft and demise at the same time. What do we do instead? Just accept a more organic, physically constrained expansion of ideas/creations/etc like your word of mouth book recs?
"Sometimes I question if what I put into the world can have value and impact if I’m consuming the same things as everyone else." - this one struck a chord immensely too! Great advice to stop staring into a phone and go touch some grass for inspo.
Rabbit hole is spot on. Maybe that’s a start to a whole other piece. As a therapist of 20+ years, I can tell you we all think we are more special and unique and individual than we are. Everyone *is* unique, but the idiosyncrasies just don’t matter as much as we’d like to think, and we all have so much more in common than we typically realize. And for folks within the same culture, it only intensifies.
Anyway, I came here to laud the same quote. I think both things are true. We are being flattened and homogenized and also we already are, more than we want to admit.
Great piece.
another great, insightful read. i love kiko so i’ll be checking out that nyt article! I feel like it’s natural for a bit of our weirdness to subside as we age, especially if we work or live in certain environments that may not be as accepting (if our weirdness manifests in fashion/beauty choices). but i still admire the goal of being a bit more offline/less interested in the algorithm. it feels like those goals along with (this might be a reach) the uptick in people posting low/no buy year vids for 2025 might all be connected. here’s to embracing our inner weirdness in 2025 and beyond, however that looks ♡
really insightful read
Exercise instead.
Thank you for sharing the link! Loved the read
Hey, thank you for this post and talking about The Clock.
I've seen The Clock at the İstanbul Biennial in 2013. And to this day, it remains as my favorite artwork ever. I sat through for 90 minutes in three seperate occasions. Once around 4pm, 8 pm and once at 2 am. The last one was the best.
The magic started even before the work itself. Being announced that you have access to 24/7 to a public space is intriguing. Knowing this invites one to image the crowd and the surrounding city at different hour's of the day, making the urban experienxe a part of it.
And then the work: sitting in a dark room, watching the time pass with strangers around you. You are hyper aware of time passing by, an opportunity for temporal awareness, which easily transfers into a spatial one... I remember my mind wandering as much about the space I'm in and people I'm surrounded with, as the passing of time. You find youself suprised about how fast or slow it flows, depending on the scene that appears in the screen.
The Clock is a montage of scenes that displays clocks in films. Some uses clocks as elements of suspense, some only shows clocks incidentally. I remember a beautiful scene (I can't say the name. Maybe a Cary Grant film), in which protogonists break in into a house, constantly checking their clocks for the arrivals of the owner of the house. It reminds you how the speed of time can be subjective and musically fast. Or oppersively objective and drags you into a counting seconds.
The Clock is my favorite, because it taps into a very elementary experience, that is time, in such a succesful way that, it makes you hyper aware of your existance, as a being belonging to "now", in contrast to recorded beings that acted in "then".
Thank you for reminding me about an experience I loved that I forgot about. Cheers.