Of course there's a heavy dose of childhood nostalgia driving this, but I do love everything about this design style and outlook. It ties into the "early" days of the internet and web, when the vibe was around having a "Library of Alexandria" in your family home, the computer as a bicycle for your mind and just a general feeling of "abundance" that permeated the environment. I would come home from school and watch Star Trek TNG and get a utopian view of the future, flip over to PBS and watch Carmen Sandiego or Square 1, have dinner, then crack open Microsoft Encarta on the family PC and browse through random topics. The world of technology felt like it held infinite promise.
Utopian Scholastic, Frutiger Aero, and Global Village Coffeehouse are all aesthetics finding new popularity on TikTok. Our era of grayeige may be coming to an end.
> Time spent at the computer can be meaningful. The user just needs agency in that interaction.
Sums up the core spirit really well. I've recently been using plugins like Unhook to hide YouTube recommendations by default, and can turn them back on when desired.
I think people often forget that the act of exploration itself is an important part of healthy learning.
Kind of an "I Spy" meets "Tim Burton Batman" fever dream, ending in the kind of colorful fantasia you'd see on the cover of some Utopian Scholastic PC package.
I’m curious to know whether the people who wax nostalgic over this aesthetic and ones like it are the same people who condemn the reactionary politics that aim to restore the climate that allowed these aesthetics to blossom.
Sounds like bullshit to me, the early 90s seem in essence more liberal then today generally. Lgbt etc rights were not quite there in some places maybe but it was moving toward the right direction.
I've been around the vaporwave scene (of which these other nostalgic aesthetics are adjacent) for years and let me tell you... for an art movement which seems to celebrate the consumerist childhood of millennials exploring shopping malls, the early(ish) HTML web, cable TV and 8 to 32 bit video gaming, there are a lot of vocal leftists who seem to abhor all of the things which made the aesthetic what it is.
The originators of vaporwave - like James Ferraro, Lopatin, Vektroid/Macintosh Plus - didn't exactly "celebrate" uncritically that feel-good phase of capitalism, their takes on the plundered material featured quite a bit of darkness, eeriness and liminal feels in between the cracks... which may seem non-inexistent or sanitized with other vaporwave producers who followed, but make no mistake... Early on, music journalists framed vaporwave as implicitly an ambivalent critique of the '80s-90s, where: 1) as a child, that era seemed to be so exciting; 2) as an adult now, not only that culture did turn out to be an empty promise, but also a lot of it is dying or dead by now. In the US there are even dying shopping malls right now, which might seem weird in other countries, but that might partly explain the minor popularity of vaporwave in the US among Internet youth - even young people who aren't very "woke" can tell something's wrong at the heart of capitalism. Current techbro capitalism? Who really likes it?
Being nostalgic is one thing, endorsing "fashwave" - which not for nothing was just a microniche within vaporwave - is another. Long story short, if you go past the surface fascination with the products of 80s consumerism, vaporwave is generally not really in praise of consumerism and it most certainly disrespects copyright, which is that fundamental to that economy, isn't it?
The leap from a leftist take on vaporwave straight to "fashwave", as if it is a binary, is certainly something.
> even young people who aren't very "woke" can tell something's wrong at the heart of capitalism. Current techbro capitalism? Who really likes it?
There's (valid) critique of the current economic status quo, and then there's "Ugh, Capitalism": https://www.infinitescroll.us/p/ugh-capitalism - and from my time in the scene (several ElectroniCons, Neo Gaia shows in Tokyo, a dozen or so Discord servers, etc.) the trend seems to be disillusioned millennials rather than diehard illiberals (although I may be wrong; this is anecdotes rather than evidence)
What really takes me back is that if an art movement uses the imagery of a particular trope, be it fascism or communism or anti-colonialism or environmentalism or anything else, it almost always assumes an endorsement of that movement. You don't see many artists put up images of mustache man without it being seen as support. Same with Michael Jackson's Earth Song, no one concluded that MJ was in favor of environmental deconstruction.
The copyright angle is right on the money - anti-copyright views are rife inside the scene for obvious reasons. Whether it was central to the 80s-90s economy is another question. In that time, FLOSS was not prevalent as it is now. It wouldn't be for a decade or so afterwards.
> 1) as a child, that era seemed to be so exciting; 2) as an adult now, not only that culture did turn out to be an empty promise, but also a lot of it is dying or dead by now.
This is the crux, and I do want to address it: maybe the "lost hope" of my generation does see the Palm Mall as something to be mourned rather than something to be celebrated (that's my own bias - maybe others wished it never existed at all) but when I'm in a random Queens bar while Lux or Cars is playing 80s Japanese "City pop" with a projection of Asahi beer commercials on the back wall, I don't think it's a dunk on Reagan or Clinton-era capitalism leading up to the dot-com bust or 9/11 so much as a longing for it.
Of course there's a heavy dose of childhood nostalgia driving this, but I do love everything about this design style and outlook. It ties into the "early" days of the internet and web, when the vibe was around having a "Library of Alexandria" in your family home, the computer as a bicycle for your mind and just a general feeling of "abundance" that permeated the environment. I would come home from school and watch Star Trek TNG and get a utopian view of the future, flip over to PBS and watch Carmen Sandiego or Square 1, have dinner, then crack open Microsoft Encarta on the family PC and browse through random topics. The world of technology felt like it held infinite promise.
Utopian Scholastic, Frutiger Aero, and Global Village Coffeehouse are all aesthetics finding new popularity on TikTok. Our era of grayeige may be coming to an end.
I sent this album named "Utopian Scholastic" to my business partner and he responded with "This feels like our childhood in a very deep way."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QOUNvMX-ws
Also check out Encarta 99 album by Slowerpace! https://youtu.be/V_HpQdS0Ru8?si=dAnGBJS5M229xNBf
When this showed up in my YT recommendeds I think I played it on a loop the rest of the day.
It's more of a catalog than a deep dive, but Evan Collins and friends have been cataloging examples of these aesthetics: https://www.are.na/evan-collins-1522646491/utopian-scholasti...
With lots more categories here: https://www.are.na/evan-collins-1522646491/channels
> Time spent at the computer can be meaningful. The user just needs agency in that interaction.
Sums up the core spirit really well. I've recently been using plugins like Unhook to hide YouTube recommendations by default, and can turn them back on when desired.
I think people often forget that the act of exploration itself is an important part of healthy learning.
It's not exactly the same aesthetic, but this reminds me of one of my all-time favorite ads from the period: Packard Bell's "Home" (1996):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiZcy86_L74
Kind of an "I Spy" meets "Tim Burton Batman" fever dream, ending in the kind of colorful fantasia you'd see on the cover of some Utopian Scholastic PC package.
Wow fever dream is right! The beginning reminds me of 'Dark City' (1998):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO6ApZlxqo8
Sidenote: is that Clancy Brown doing the voice over on the 'Home' commercial?
Far Side Virtual by James Ferraro is this aesthetic in music form.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_Side_Virtual
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5fCXzkyYYM
I’m curious to know whether the people who wax nostalgic over this aesthetic and ones like it are the same people who condemn the reactionary politics that aim to restore the climate that allowed these aesthetics to blossom.
> reactionary politics that aim to restore the climate that allowed these aesthetics to blossom
Which policies, specifically, will result in a return to this aesthetic, in your opinion?
Sounds like bullshit to me, the early 90s seem in essence more liberal then today generally. Lgbt etc rights were not quite there in some places maybe but it was moving toward the right direction.
I've been around the vaporwave scene (of which these other nostalgic aesthetics are adjacent) for years and let me tell you... for an art movement which seems to celebrate the consumerist childhood of millennials exploring shopping malls, the early(ish) HTML web, cable TV and 8 to 32 bit video gaming, there are a lot of vocal leftists who seem to abhor all of the things which made the aesthetic what it is.
The music is that good - even political ideologues take a break to enjoy it
The originators of vaporwave - like James Ferraro, Lopatin, Vektroid/Macintosh Plus - didn't exactly "celebrate" uncritically that feel-good phase of capitalism, their takes on the plundered material featured quite a bit of darkness, eeriness and liminal feels in between the cracks... which may seem non-inexistent or sanitized with other vaporwave producers who followed, but make no mistake... Early on, music journalists framed vaporwave as implicitly an ambivalent critique of the '80s-90s, where: 1) as a child, that era seemed to be so exciting; 2) as an adult now, not only that culture did turn out to be an empty promise, but also a lot of it is dying or dead by now. In the US there are even dying shopping malls right now, which might seem weird in other countries, but that might partly explain the minor popularity of vaporwave in the US among Internet youth - even young people who aren't very "woke" can tell something's wrong at the heart of capitalism. Current techbro capitalism? Who really likes it?
Being nostalgic is one thing, endorsing "fashwave" - which not for nothing was just a microniche within vaporwave - is another. Long story short, if you go past the surface fascination with the products of 80s consumerism, vaporwave is generally not really in praise of consumerism and it most certainly disrespects copyright, which is that fundamental to that economy, isn't it?
The leap from a leftist take on vaporwave straight to "fashwave", as if it is a binary, is certainly something.
> even young people who aren't very "woke" can tell something's wrong at the heart of capitalism. Current techbro capitalism? Who really likes it?
There's (valid) critique of the current economic status quo, and then there's "Ugh, Capitalism": https://www.infinitescroll.us/p/ugh-capitalism - and from my time in the scene (several ElectroniCons, Neo Gaia shows in Tokyo, a dozen or so Discord servers, etc.) the trend seems to be disillusioned millennials rather than diehard illiberals (although I may be wrong; this is anecdotes rather than evidence)
What really takes me back is that if an art movement uses the imagery of a particular trope, be it fascism or communism or anti-colonialism or environmentalism or anything else, it almost always assumes an endorsement of that movement. You don't see many artists put up images of mustache man without it being seen as support. Same with Michael Jackson's Earth Song, no one concluded that MJ was in favor of environmental deconstruction.
The copyright angle is right on the money - anti-copyright views are rife inside the scene for obvious reasons. Whether it was central to the 80s-90s economy is another question. In that time, FLOSS was not prevalent as it is now. It wouldn't be for a decade or so afterwards.
> 1) as a child, that era seemed to be so exciting; 2) as an adult now, not only that culture did turn out to be an empty promise, but also a lot of it is dying or dead by now.
This is the crux, and I do want to address it: maybe the "lost hope" of my generation does see the Palm Mall as something to be mourned rather than something to be celebrated (that's my own bias - maybe others wished it never existed at all) but when I'm in a random Queens bar while Lux or Cars is playing 80s Japanese "City pop" with a projection of Asahi beer commercials on the back wall, I don't think it's a dunk on Reagan or Clinton-era capitalism leading up to the dot-com bust or 9/11 so much as a longing for it.
I figure we aren’t too far away from Bob Woodward’s work being interpreted as hagiography by some.
Even in educational games you have to go through a waterfall :)
\ \ \ V A P O R W A V E / / / meets education
The term isn't quiter about music it was about educational content but it feels close to describing a style of some of thr album arts in the mid to late 90s. (eg https://www.metal-archives.com/images/8/4/8/3/8483.jpg?3113 ; https://www.metal-archives.com/images/5/0/50.jpg?0113 ) Its a nice coinage, they describe it better than I could.