The New Creative Paradigm

GUIDE TO A
NEW CREATIVE
PARADIGM

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09/21 New York

9/21

NEW YORK

II
MAN VS
MACHINE

III
RECOGNITION
VS EXPRESSION

HOW STALIN PREDICTED TIKTOK

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THE NEW CREATIVE PARADIGM

1/15

The landscape that fostered postmodern cultural creation is in flames. If we are able to evolve, this fire will raze a forest whose dead roots cling to a dead system, and from its ashes will rise a new creative paradigm. If we refuse, we will be left speaking a dead language, to no one, in the dark.

The internet has ushered in a new age, a faster digital reality that speaks to more people more loudly. For tech and startups, it’s easy, the language of this world is their own. But traditional players of cultural production like fashion remain wary of adapting to the change that digital natives embody.

First steps were taken: Tapping into non-seasonal cycles, and drop models, digital advertising and more diverse modes of content creation. The systems of power, for the most part, however, have stayed intact. We worked on our infrastructure and our distribution, but one part remained untouched. We didn’t change the way we think about ourselves. A new fluency is necessary; we must convert or be condemned. Adapt or die.

THE NEW CREATIVE PARADIGM

2/15

I. )

INTERNET = REAL-TIME
ANALOG = SLOW-MOTION

The Internet is the new real-time. Reality is happening here; all the time, everywhere, at lightning speed, source unknown. Subcultures formerly residing in the streets can now be found in Reddit threads and private chats. Streetwear will soon be replaced by Internetwear. The analog interprets the digital in slow motion → From setting the agenda to interpreting the agenda. Humans, unable to cope with the speed at which information is presented, burn out. Analog magazines that don’t shift gears shut down. Maybe you should just be a newsletter!

Joshua Citarella, e-deologies’ (2020). Courtesy the artist. Flags for internet communities

THE NEW CREATIVE PARADIGM

3/15

II. )

APPROACHABILITY VS.
EXCLUSIVITY

The battle between being accessible, woke, and believing in a better world vs. creating desire through exclusivity, gate-keeping, and making money, is reaching primetime. This tension reflects our internal, individual struggle of being fluid – stylists, creative directors, DJs all at once – and the commercial drive to act territorial about our identity. The success of the individual genius is outdated. Time to examine how to make non-territorial wokeness profitable.

When you turn your inner bias into an ad!

THE NEW CREATIVE PARADIGM

4/15

III. )

THE DEATH OF THE
COLLABORATION

When Balenciaga x Gucci doesn’t raise eyebrows, you know that collaborations are over. Two entities would meet to slap logos on each other. The collaboration seemingly ended with its announcement. Hot air printed on a Gilden hoodie. All PR, little substance. In the age of fluidity, stacking identities feels entirely retro. We’ve entered the endgame of postmodernism, where there are no longer any opposites, and merging identities is normal, if not to say expected.

THE NEW CREATIVE PARADIGM

5/15

IV. )

POST-STARTUP-LINGO

Start-up lingo slaughtered lux brand communications with slogans screaming, “look how accessible this is.” Forcing function via messages of goodness, proclaimed authenticity, and the commodification of our quirks. Patronizing a woke consumer with subway ads like “Saving money with honey feels like when you notice a typo on a poster and are super proud of yourself.” Wake up, honey, you’re not a VC bro!

Virtue Signaling: The slogan is the problem.

THE NEW CREATIVE PARADIGM

6/15

V. )

POST-AUTHENTICITY-MODE

Trump and a global pandemic lifted the veil on our romantic little idea of authenticity in an inherently mediated world. The opposite of authentic, the escape from what’s real - fake furs, life on Instagram, VR - proved to be better than authentic. We enter Meaning-Mode. Presented with 10x versions of the truth, we choose what we want to believe. “Does this fit into my version of self?” Regardless of real or fake. Your shopping cart signals personal values and affiliation with communities. Are brands the equivalent of band T-shirts now?

Who will you be tomorrow?

Tom Cruise Deepfake: Real Evil or the Hermine Granger Effect we all needed?

THE NEW CREATIVE PARADIGM

7/15

VI. )

PAYBACK TIME

Fashion stole from everything and everyone. Now everyone is stealing from fashion. Fashion as an industry became more about marketing and less about the craft. When Ferrari can drop a clothing line, we have to wonder: What does it mean to be a fashion brand today? Will designers drop in and out of mattress brands, Ikea and Toyota? Is Toyota the new Balenciaga? What do we have left to defend the fortress?

Fine Art drops, too now
→ Fine Art drops like Supreme

Keeping it carbon footprint heavy: Ferrari becomes a fashion house.

Chanel at The Row? Groundbreaking.

THE NEW CREATIVE PARADIGM

8/15

I. )

OPENSOURCE VS AUTHORSHIP

Power in the new creative paradigm belongs to those who share. In 2019 the New York labels Vaquera, CDLM, and Section 8 presented their collections at the same venue seamlessly, one after the other. They shared audience, resources, energy, and communications, positioning themselves as individuals that are part of a like-minded collective. Think Taylor Swift squad but without Taylor. Don’t gate-keep knowledge; Ideas and resources shouldn’t be taken personally – that’s the mantra on our way to a higher energetic frequency of the mob.

More power to the squad

THE NEW CREATIVE PARADIGM

9/15

II. )

CREATORS = BRANDS

Creators don’t need brands anymore. They have grown an audience of supporters for themselves online. Influencers starting beauty lines, designers tagged as individuals under brand Instagram posts indicate a power shift from brands to creators. Foreshadowing a radical change in the way we work.

Become an IPO.

Caption the hierarchy.

THE NEW CREATIVE PARADIGM

10/15

III. )

BRANDS = PLAYGROUNDS

Brands don’t create culture anymore; they act as playgrounds — new mixtures of content, social media, and commerce — providing the tools (access to the archive, materials, infrastructure) for creatives to come in and out. Think communist workshop.

THE NEW CREATIVE PARADIGM

11/15

IV. )

THE COMMUNITY AS PATRON

Before the rise of multiplayer games, Youtube comments, Substack, ecetera; identity formation was a public business. A brand would put out a collection deciding what the trend was. Now communities are shaping their own identities in niche ways. Platforms like Patreon allow them to monetize their ideas independently from corporate conglomerates. The Big Brother TV show slogan “You decide” perfectly captures the mode of control by feedback. A new economic system in which communities inherit the power that once belonged to brands.

So help us god.

The Digital Medici.

THE NEW CREATIVE PARADIGM

12/15

V. )

CULTURALLY PRODUCTIVE
ALCHEMY

Don’t explain the concept, be the concept. Doing the work vs. talking about it. The medium is the message. Deduct literalism. Identities merge. “What late capitalism repeats from Stalinism is the valuing of symbols of achievement over actual achievement” Mark Fisher. In the new creative paradigm, collaboration is about merging identities to advance. Do the right thing, give up your idea of self to create the new.

Elsadore - The Kimye of the 1920’s

Call me if you get lost with all thy collaborators, Tyler.

HOW THE NEW SYSTEM WORKS

THE NEW CREATIVE PARADIGM

13/15

VI. )

MEMEIFICATION OF
COMMUNICATION

A persistently shrinking attention span is no excuse for trivial content. We have to update our communication style. Memes deliver complex ideas in a bitesize format, a good example of how communication can be brief and deep. Recently, infographics designed NOT to be understood surfaced in magazines like “Pin-Up” and the New York gazette “Civilization.” A statement of infobesity and the world working in ways that we’ll never fully wrap our head around — in short, a graphic flex. Ask yourself: “Am I contributing or masturbating?” Read a McKinsey report or just look at the “Iceberg Model” of communication one more time.

Gossip Graphics straight from Manhattan

If only the Titanic would have known about the Iceberg Model

THE NEW CREATIVE PARADIGM

14/15

VII. )

DEMOCATRIC IN FORM, DICTATORIAL IN SHAPE

Niche pockets of interest — hyper-focused support groups demand clear directions. We left the era of pleasing everyone and are back to please the few. In short: Choose your values and stick to them unapologetically. Having balls / Being radical is highly rewarded.

THE NEW CREATIVE PARADIGM

15/15

VIII. )

ART AS IDENTIFIER

Our participation in a community is valued higher than the products it creates. Products are tokens of shared beliefs, physical expressions of online tribes. What we purchase is what we stand for wether that is through physical possession or digital participation. “Our job as public service broadcasters is to take people beyond the limits of their own self, and until we do that we will carry on declining... It doesn’t mean we go back to the 1950s and tell people how to dress, what we do is say “we can free you from yourself” – and people would love that.” Adam Curtis.

Our idea of cultural production is merely 200 years old.
We’re at the cusp of change.

OPEN SOURCE IS GOD

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In 1939 Clement Greenberg believed that the cultural avantgarde had to prevent the dumbing down of culture perpetuated by consumerism and the industrial revolution. 82 years later, the visual layers of art and commerce have merged. Read the full text here.

AVANTGARDE BACKSTAGE

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KITSCH BACKSTAGE

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