Category Archives: Zeitgeist Movement

The living room at Kepes Cottage, a 1946 design by Marcel Breuer for Gyorgy Kepes, which he later replicated for his own Breuer family cottage. (All images courtesy Monacelli Press)

The sense that permeates Breuers Bohemia one perhaps unsurprising for a catalogue on the life and work of this influential Bauhausian-furniture maker turned residential architect is a love of architecture. There is love among its practitioners, centered around the life and work of Marcel Breuer, but touching upon an entire cohort of Modernist influencers, including IM Pei, Walter Gropius, Alexander Calder, Arthur Miller, among others. There is love evident among its patrons, who in Breuers case were influential trailblazers Rufus and Leslie Stillman and Andrew and Jamie Gagarin and whose commitment to the progressive aesthetics of postwar architecture fostered an entire contemporary movement in residential New England. For readers who feel a similar love for the niche interests and wider aesthetics of midcentury Modern architecture, Breuers Bohemia is a treasure trove of imagery, letters, and media surrounding the interlocution between titans of the form, their patrons, and the impression they left on the landscape and the medium.

Author James Crump aptly lays out the intersecting lines between Breuers roots in the Bauhaus; the resettling of him and his colleagues around New York City in the grips of pre-WWII unrest; and the power of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) to catapult their ideas about Modern architecture into the zeitgeist. Breuer was commissioned to create House in the Museum Garden, a 1949 installation in the MoMAs courtyard, which Philip Johnson (whose legacy is lately under scrutiny due to his vocal support for Nazism) then director of the Department of Architecture and Design, conceived as a high-design answer to the Lustron House, an all-steel model tract house that was bidding to claim the burgeoning market of prefabricated housing for returning GIs and their young families. His work at MoMA put him on the radar for a new wave of progressive couples looking to commission dream homes, and subsequently launched his previously-struggling architecture firm into the black.

Through personal correspondence, historic and contemporary images, and meticulous research laid out in large type, Breuers Bohemia captures a particularly vibrant nexus of midcentury Modern architecture, but also the passion and camaraderie that permeated the scene on a personal level. It is not only a deep dive into a lesser-known but greatly influential master of postwar residential aesthetics, but a look at the kind of wider conditions that facilitate truly fruitful meetings of minds, and even brief glimpses of utopia.

Breuers Bohemia: The Architect, His Circle, and Midcentury Houses in New England by James Crump is published by Monacelli Press and is available on Bookshop.

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A Treasure Trove of Midcentury Modern Architecture - Hyperallergic

It seems very un-1960s-like to mention admin, but in 1963, the patent for LSD expired, and a lot of the culture thereafter spun out from that tie-dye three years where mind-bending was basically legalised. It wasnt just the hippies at it either. The CIA, an organisation that has seemingly welcomed more well-manicured arseholes than every one of Hugh Hefners pool parties combined, were dabbling in its kaleidoscopic properties to no end. Somewhere from this melee of psychedelic mania derives the Steely Dan acid anthem Kid Charlemagne. Be forewarned before you trip down this rabbit hole things get fairly strange, dude.

In the opening stanza of the track, Donald Fagen sings, On the hill the stuff was laced with kerosene, but yours was kitchen clean. There was only one place in the San Francisco valley where you could get acid of that purity enter the protagonist of the song, the famed acid chemist Owsley Stanley: the premiere acid man of the east coast.

Augustus Owsley Stanley III, to give him his full name, was an American audio engineer by day and a clandestine chemist also by day, night and sometimes morning. In perhaps the most 1960s tale ever put to print, Stanley became soundman for the Grateful Dead after he met them at one of Ken Keseys (author ofOne Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest) acid parties. Aside from mixing the wall of sound that blasted The Dead gigs into a sonic maelstrom and assisting in the design of their now-iconic logo, Stanley was also the first known individual to casually begin manufacturing LSD en masse.

During his time on the acid run, it is believed that Stanley produced at least five million doses of some of the finest wall shifting tabs to ever grace the market. The musical Heisenberg basked in the good times of legality as he, his girlfriend Melissa Cargill, a skilled chemist and scion of the uber-wealthy Cargill-Macmillan family, and a leg-man dubbed Scully, brewed up LSD in a Californian basement. During this time, there are many questions as to why it took three years for legislation to be passed making the substance that Charles Manson and many others who stepped one toke over the dabbled in to a debauched degree illegal.

Whats more, not only did he enjoy the dealers boon of an administrative oversight, but once criminality was imposed in 1966, Stanley and Cargill simply shifted production to a lab in Denver, Colorado, and began brightening the daydreams of counterculture kids once more. Their new headquarters were stationed across the street from Denver Zoo and tales are bountiful in the regions subterranean realms of old acidheads staring agog at a gibbon or some other higher simian and having evolutionary epiphanies whizz into their addled minds, while funky gibbons looked on wondering why the hippy who just shat his pantaloons had been staring at them for hours.

Alas, the famed zoo trips are a side note that have nothing to do with Steely Dan. But the question of why the kids of the counterculture were able to freely get high on Stanleys wicked acid supply remains a pertinent one. It has been posited by many that the answer comes from the time when Stanley was finally arrested in 1970. You watched that high of the hippie thing descend into drug depression, Joni Mitchell once said. Right after Woodstock, then we went through a decade of basic apathy where my generation sucked its thumb and then just decided to be greedy and pornographic.

Woodstock was in 1969 and, in many ways, it was the last hurrah of counterculture. As Mitchell suggests, thereafter things became commercialised and flower power fell into the comedown of a reflective dirge. The prelapsarian dream was over and with it, acid was largely traded for less cerebral substances. But for a while it had a good run, it just perhaps embarked on one trip too many. Whether the acid-drenched demise of the anti-establishment movement had anything to do with the establishment itself tactfully turning a blind eye to dealings while routinely finding out that it wasnt a substance to be messed with in their own experiments (ie giving 297mg of LSD to an elephant and almost immediately killing it) is a tinfoil point for another day.

However, one element that requires less judicious scrutiny is just how many folks in Stanleys milieu succumbed to the sad aftereffects. Stanley himself absconded to Australia in 1982 fearing that the Northern Hemisphere would imminently be rendered uninhabitable owing to a rapidly accelerated climate crisis. And aside from Stanley, you can hardly find a single member of the Bay Area movement who didnt suffer some tragic fate, controversial circumstance or fade into strange obscurity as though whisked away by the piped piper of trailer parks.

Alas, the sixties were over when Steely Dan decided to tackle the zeitgeist in 1976, in fact, it had crumbled like Charlemagnes Roman Empire. While the lyrical verse of a car running out of gas might form a nice metaphor for this in the song, it also hints at the arrest of Stanley after his car ran out of fuel and the police discovered substances scattered around it, proving Fagen and Walter Beckers eternal love for an allegory or double entendre. And the brilliant duo suture this wild tale up, with its unfurling welter of connotations, in a jazzy jam that sees guitarist Larry Carlton produce a solo that he claims is his career-high.Theres also plenty in the welter when it comes to The Dan.

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Steely Dan, The CIA and the acid anthem of Kid Charlemagne - Far Out Magazine

Installation view of Shigeko Kubota: Liquid Reality, August 21, 2021January 1, 2022 at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. 2021 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo by Denis Doorly

Fluxus is everything were interested in now: mixed media, beyond categorization, collaborative processes. But Fluxus isnt the first thing we talk about; it isnt the toast of the table, or the footnote on the opening page. Fluxus is too many mediums, too many people, and we need heroes with superpowers. To sell Wheaties and paintings and records and newspapers and search histories and all the junkola we need to be heroes to ourselveslike brand new Cadillacs, and Hermes belts, and Dr. Squatch soap.

The problem of Shigeko Kubota is the problem of collaborative artists. The collaborative spirit isnt how we move product or entertainment; it doesnt feed our marketplace or nourish our narcissism. Kubota was integral to Fluxus and the works of the Fluxus artists we talk aboutYoko Ono, George Maciunas, John Cage, Nam June Paik, etc. To present her without that context is to tear meaning from the work, but to isolate her within Fluxus is to diminish her works importance and dollar value.

In Shigeko Kubota: Liquid Reality, the Museum of Modern Art assembles six of the artists sculpture and video installation hybrids: Self-Portrait (c. 197071); Duchampiana: Nude Descending a Staircase (1976); Three Mountains (1976-1979), Berlin Diary: Thanks to My Ancestors (1981), River (1979-1981), Video Haiku (1981), and Niagara Falls (1985). The fifteen-year span traverses an unsteady cultural landscape: from the waning years of happenings to pre-punk to punk to post-punk to disco to no wave to new wave. The curation walks the line of individual versus context with a streamlined presentation of Kubotas installations, and plenty of contextualizing information if you look for it; theres a brilliant catalogue introduced and overseen by Erica Papernik-Shimizu, and, in MoMAS online magazine, an equally fine overview provided by Papernik-Shimizu and Veronika Molnar. With a Kubota retrospective traveling in Japan through February 2022, Liquid Reality champions and restores works by the New-York based Kubota, and gathers almost enough of a checklist for the casual museum goer to get a sense of the artist. Kubota, who passed away in 2015, has not had a solo U.S. museum show in twenty-five years.Shigeko Kubota. Self-Portrait. ca. 1970- 71. Standard-definition video (color, silent). 5:24 min. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation, 2021. 2021 Estate of Shigeko Kubota / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY Gift of the Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation, 2021. 2021 Estate of Shigeko Kubota / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

Born in 1937, Kubota was introduced to Tokyos experimental arts and music circles by her dancer aunt, Chiya Kuni. With noise compositions, avant-garde performances, and cutting edge technologies (like tape recorders and projections), Tokyo paralleled contemporaneous explorations in New York Cityand in 1962, Kubota met John Cage and Yoko Ono at a Tokyo stop of Cages concert tour. Kubota, after striking up a correspondence with Fluxus founder George Maciunas, ventured to New York City the next year, and emerged in 1965 with her Vagina Painting performance, which at the time was seen as a feminist rejoinder to works by Jackson Pollock and Yves Klein and a scene dominated by machismo. (Kubota would only perform the Vagina Painting once, and in an oral interview conducted with MoMA shortly before her death, recalled that George Maciunas and Nam June Paik, who she married in 1977, had begged her to do it.)

Kubota, who continued her studies in New York at New York University and The New School, went on to be an active citizenship in the New York art world, teaching at the School of Visual Arts, working toward the first annual Womens Video Festival at The Kitchen in 1972, and curating at Anthology Film Archives from 1974 to 1983.

Formally trained as a sculptor, Kubota was quick to adopt video: the heavy, clunky equipment appealed to her. (Sonys first recording and playback system, the Portapack, was released in 1967.) The burden was part of her identity, as an artist and a woman. For the 2013 book, A History of Video Art, she told Chris Meigh-Andrews, Portapak and I travelled all over Europe and Japan without male accompaniment. Portapak tears down my backbone, shoulder, and waist. I travel alone with my Portapak on my back, as Vietnamese women do with their babies. Kubota viewed the intrinsic decay and distortion of video as gestural, and suited to her simultaneously American and Japanese fascination with landscape. In a 2007 interview with Phong Bui for the Brooklyn Rail, she recalled, film was chemical, but video was more organic. To me Portapack was like a new paint brush. For her 1991 exhibition at the American Museum of the Moving Image, she explained how video likened itself to natural processes, such as the movement of clouds or water, or even the ebb and flow of life itself: Once cast into videos reality, infinite variation becomes possible, not only weightlessness, but total freedom to dissolve, reconstruct, mutate all forms, shape, color, location, speed, scale liquid reality.Shigeko Kubota. Duchampiana: Nude Descending a Staircase (1976). Standard-definition video and Super 8mm film transferred to video (color, silent; 5:21 min.), four cathode-ray tube monitors, and plywood. 66 1/4 30 15/16 67 in. (168.3 78.6 170.2 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Margot and John Ernst, Agnes Gund, and Barbara Pine, 1981. Artwork 2021 Estate of Shigeko Kubota / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Digital image 2021 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo by Denis Doorly

While the six works of Liquid Reality present only a tranche of the artists five decade output, the years represented1970-85mark a shift in social, technological and art consciousness: the 1975 Whitney Biennial included video artists for the first timeeighteen of them; Warhols impossible vision of fame culture had started to come true; and the muted palette of the late 60s, moss green and bark brown and dungarees, exploded into the black light neon of the East Village and the candy-coated cacophony of MTV.

Chronologically the first work in the show, Self-Portrait, 1970-71, frames the artist in medium close-up as she claps, mouth syllables, sings, and communes with the camera. Video distortions course through the image: banding, color, ghostly layering. There is a chemical/acrylic quality to the chroma, but the image isnt static like a photograph or painting. The camera sometimes sways unsteadily. The effect is highly personal, immediatedespite all the hyper-conscious post-production. The artist, in her moment, reaches into yours. Self Portrait would eventually evolve into Video Poem, shown at the first official PS1 show, Rooms. The 1976 exhibition snapshots the NYC zeitgeist with installations by 78 artists. Kubotas work is easy to place in the company of even a partial, subjective list: Lynn Hershman Leeson, recently on view at The New Museum, Ron Gorchov, currently on view at Cheim & Read, Bill Jensen, Colette Lumiere, Dieter Froese, Lucio Pozzi, Marjorie Strider, Judy Rifka, Stefan Eins, Eve Sonneman and Robert Grosvenor.

The second chronological work in the show, Duchampiana: Nude Descending a Staircase, 1976, embeds television tubes in a plywood staircase, reimagining Duchamps iconic work, as well as classical composition, with the quick cuts and erratic pacing of video. In the layers of film and video, the model smiles once, fleetingly, bringing Duchamps now somewhat stale revelation to life. Three Mountains 1976-79, and River, 1979-81, engage the artists relationship with landscape. Three Mountains takes on the contemplative grandiosity of the American Southwest, while River, the later of the two works, is more excited, agitated, and forays into East Village style: black paint, vibrant hues, videographic elements of hearts, stars, snaking lines and an ultra-80s SMPTE color bar. In Berlin Diary: Thanks to My Ancestors,1981, Kubota considers form and abstraction, and maybe graffiti, with the names of her ancestors inscribed in Japanese characters on a thin sheet of quartz suspended above a smallish Sony television. Video Haiku-Hanging Piece, also 1981, furthers the artists meditation on self, technology and the quotidian. Niagara Falls, 1985, is a grander-in-scale pondering; like Video Haiku-Hanging Piece, the work is arguably more concerned with the shadows/reflections cast than the sculpture itself.Shigeko Kubota. Detail of Niagara Falls I. 1985. Four-channel video (color, sound; 30:55 min.), ten cathode-ray tube monitors, plastic mirrors, plywood, water, and sprinkler system, 8 ft. 54 in. 8 ft. (243.8 137.2 243.8 cm). Courtesy Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation. 2021 Estate of Shigeko Kubota / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY. Digital image 2021 The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo by Denis Doorly

The two rooms of Liquid Reality configure Kubotas works in an approximate infinity symbol, and the more a viewer is willing to stand and watch and drift, the more the artist carries forth. But if Liquid Reality is a primer on Kubota, whose fierce, determined intelligence resists reduction, its also a series of tantalizing curatorial questions. Fluxus and the Tokyo avant garde? The history of video art as a Herstory? (MoMA has recently acquired early works by Gretchen Bender, Dara Birnbaum, Beryl Korot and Steina Vasulka.) Kubota and Nam June Paik? (Nam June Paik was recently on view at SFMOMA.) Maybe all of 2020 and 2021 has necessarily imprinted some kind of optimismthere must be something coming, some new perspective, some better way of understandingand Kubota is the ideal artist to solicit that instinct.

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Liquid Reality at MoMA Explores the Intersections of Shigeko Kubota - Observer

I first spoke to Prophet Walker about a year ago, when I was pregnant with our third child and fresh off a Covid-precipitated six-month stint of living with my parents. Whether it was the kindergartner getting sick, or navigating a crushing deadline with a preschooler underfoot, or juggling dinnertime while eight months pregnant and unable to reach the mac n cheese that had been smeared on the floor unless I actually lay down on the floor at which point Id have needed a crane to right myself I began to feel desperate for my parents extra sets of hands, and wondering how on earth wed ever made it work without them.

It took a pandemic for me to put my own living practices under the spotlight. Walker had been doing so for his entire life. He is now spearheading a movement to get people to recognize the myriad benefits of ditching that very American vision of two parents, two and a half kids and a white picket fence for the communal living that defined families for millennia.

I grew up poor, with all the hell that came along with that, he told me over Zoom, out on his deck last February, pink flowers glowing almost psychedelically behind him. The thing that kept my sanity was the community around me, and what struck me was that even living in those housing projects, there was real, legitimate joy. Belly laughs, you know?

Born and raised in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, he started a six-year prison sentence for assault and robbery when he was a teenager. Both experiences underscored not just the immense power, but also the necessity of community. As a young boy, he watched his closest friend get murdered and remembers how the entire block came out, gave him hugs, reminded him that he was going to be okay. Then, at 16, I was incarcerated and again, in what one would assume would be a very dark place, I found a ton of community and people banding together.

His North Star? To make communal living more prevalent in a country where the nuclear family has long been mistakenly idealized.

In 2017, after graduating with a degree from Loyola Marymounts engineering school, working as a construction engineer, running (unsuccessfully) for state office and attending the 2015 State of the Union address as a guest of Michelle Obama, Walker teamed up with Joe Green, a Santa Monica-raised Harvard graduate whos collaborated with tech glitterati like Mark Zuckerberg and Sean Parker of Napster fame. An odd couple if there ever was one, Walker and Green co-founded Treehouse, based in the Hollywood neighborhood of LA. Its the first ever building in the city constructed from the ground up with the specific purpose of serving a communal audience and Walker envisions it as the first of a multi-national network of Treehouses that will redefine how we live. A grand vision, but an important one.

Treehouse inhabitants enjoy weekly suppers, communal working space and the comfort that their co-residents share the five Treehouse core values: being kind, present, curious, responsible and candid. I intuitively understood the pull of co-housing for a young single person, the college-dorm-for-adults feel. What I selfishly wanted to know was: can you successfully construct community for young families, those members of society I believe are in desperate need of a literal village, but so often cut adrift from them in the modern world? And how, precisely, do you break that gargantuan task into a series of actionable directives?

When your kid is four years old, you might think theyre cute, Walker told me, but your neighbors might not. To come up with a viable community solution that appeals to families, you have to factor all that in.

He has a 16-year-old daughter, so he intimately recognizes the challenges of raising children in an isolated society. He also recognizes the challenges of raising a child in a co-housing community, at least not one designed specifically with families in mind. So hes using the year-plus he spent living with his own teenage daughter in the first Treehouse to directly address its shortfalls in a new family-friendly Treehouse, currently being built in Leimert Park, which we discussed when I reached out to him recently.

The first issue: they had designed the intra-unit communal spaces, like the kitchen shared between five roommates, with an eye toward minimizing friction beautiful, but hard, wooden benches, for example, instead of comfy couches where youd want to curl up and chat. Those were in the building-wide common areas. The upshot: there were few places for Walker and his daughter to chill out alone, together.

Secondly, the soundproofing. The rooms at Treehouse are all soundproofed, something critical for individuals who may keep wildly different hours. Not so for families.

I couldnt hear anything, which was a bit nerve-wracking, he said. I never left my door closed. He was preaching to the choir. After our third child was born this summer, we moved into a larger apartment. Our preschooler used to sleep in our closet. That I could no longer hear her every snort and snuffle was so disorienting that my bedside table is now a sea of wires and monitors.

But the biggest challenge, Walker says, is how to make families feel safe enough that their children can run around as the collective community watches out for them.

First we had The Sandlot, he told me, referencing the movie about a bunch of kids who in 1962 play baseball together in a neighborhood sandlot. No adult supervision. No worries. Then the pendulum swung, we had the war on drugs, kids werent allowed outside. Now were somewhere in between. To help the pendulum swing closer to Sandlot territory, the new Treehouse delineates groups of floors as neighborhoods accessible only to residents on those floors with specific communal spaces.

The hope is that kids will get to play more freely, get to go outside, that itll be less contrived and parents will have a little more freedom in raising children together, he said.

The issue, as Walker sees it, isnt the will. Its the way.

From what Ive heard in the zeitgeist, families are like, we want to get a pod, we want to move into a building together, he said. I think that always was bubbling on the surface, and the pandemic was the tipping point. But the reality of America is that it is not set up to support this ideology. America is set up with this idea of rugged individualism.

In very pragmatic terms, that means he has to fight not just societal inertia and norms, but also zoning laws that favor the nuclear family, banking rules about how lending works and much more.

Now that the world is opening up again, hes planning a trip to Germany, where government-backed shared housing models make it wildly easier to roll out Treehouse-like communities. Itll be a learning exercise, a research-gathering trip, but also inspirational, an example of how America might serve families once the pendulum has swung its way toward a better spot. Heres to hoping.

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Is communal living the future of parenting? - The Guardian

The social media sphere was shaken up by Monday's announcement that Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey would resign and be replaced by Chief Technology Officer Parag Agrawal, effective immediately. It was the rare instance of a tech founder parting ways with a platform he helped foster into a powerful cultural driver, though a change that activist investors previously called for given Dorsey's dual role as chief executive of digital payments firm Square.

In a smaller bit of news but one potentially indicative of the types of projects Twitter will focus more on under new leadership the platform ran its first livestreamed shopping activation with brand partner Walmart the day prior. The program, styled as a variety show, was hosted by musician Jason Derulo from his Los Angeles home and showcased Cyber Week deals in categories like electronics, home goods and apparel. Agrawal, a company vet who' has served as CTO since 2017, brings a product-oriented approach to the chief executive position that might inject some juice into a service that's become a laggard in a category known for constant reinvention.

"One of the things that Twitter has gotten some criticism for in the past is just the lack of big innovations that leap the platform forward," said Mike Proulx, vice president and research director at Forrester Research. "The hope is that the new CEO will really invest in the kinds of innovation on the platform that will continue to make it relevant to the next-generation consumer and user base, and hence, advertisers."

While some recent Twitter experiments quickly flared out Fleets, a Stories copycat, lasted just a few months before shuttering in July marketers might welcome a top brass who's willing to push further past the microblogging features for which Twitter is historically known. Twitter at the same time is still an invaluable resource to journalists, celebrities and companies looking to stay connected to the public. Brands like Wendy's have curated distinctive online personas by using the channel as a stage for snark and latching onto cultural moments.

But Twitter has often struggled to flip its positioning as an online town square into a meaningful revenue driver. Updates under Dorsey's tenure could also register as comparatively minor on the business end, such as doubling the number of characters allowed in tweets to 280 in 2017. Other additions, like the introduction of a Twitter Blue subscription offering over the summer, are unproven.

"That has yet to create the type of value proposition that's going to attract subscribers," Proulx said.

However, Twitter's product ambitions have steadily ramped up during a transitional period for social media that's been dominated by newcomers like TikTok. The company is putting more muscle behind Spaces, a Clubhouse clone that now has a button for creating audio rooms on the main feed, and pushing harder into areas like video and social commerce, as evidenced by the Walmart activation this weekend. The holiday-themed video had accumulated 1.9 million views on Tuesday, but was later removed from its event page.

Continuing to roll the dice on these nascent formats could be critical for Agrawal as he tries to freshen up the image of an app that's stayed largely unchanged since its inception.

"People turn to Twitter in moments of breaking news, in moments of things that are happening within culture," Proulx said. "If Twitter can continue to lean into that which is ownable to them and evolve the product so that it increases its relevance not only with its base, but with that younger generation, that's the starting point."

Digging into product innovation could also help account for past Twitter missteps. The company notoriously shuttered Vine, an app for sharing short-form video, in 2017. At the time, it did not see easy monetization options for the service, which it acquired for a reported $30 million four years earlier, despite its massive popularity.

But TikTok viewed by many as a spiritual successor to Vine has become a social media juggernaut and magnet for brands chasing its predominantly young audience. TikTok this year became the first non-Facebook app to surpass 3 billion global downloads; Twitter has about 211 million monetizable daily active users, a proprietary audience metric used by the company.

In the time since Vine went kaput, Twitter has seen interest from young demographics remain relatively stagnant. A recent Forrester survey found that the number of U.S. consumers ages 12-17 who use Twitter weekly has hovered at about 23% since 2019. In contrast, TikTok saw its weekly usage jump from 50% of that cohort in 2020 to 63% this year. Succeeding Dorsey, Agrawal will need to put in more legwork to account for this gap.

"The fact that trending topics become such a part of our cultural zeitgeist shows [Twitter's] importance to culture and society," Proulx said. "But it just, as a social network and as a social media platform, doesn't have the scale and user base and ad revenue, quite frankly, of its competition.

"There's a runway for Twitter to grow and develop and continue to mature," he added.

There are some bright spots as Agrawal takes the helm. Twitter mostly avoided the impacts of Apple's changes to user tracking that delivered a blow to Snapchat and Facebook's revenue in the third quarter, though those will still be a consideration down the line. Twitter saw total revenue rise 37% year-over-year to $1.28 billion in Q3, while revenue derived from advertising rose 41% YoY to $1.14 billion.

Agrawal also previously spearheaded Twitter's Project Bluesky initiative that attempts to "decentralize" social media in the same way that bitcoin attempts to decentralize finance, per TechCrunch. That experience could lay important groundwork as social media broadly chases what's next in an online world increasingly defined by things like gaming, augmented reality and digital formats like non-fungible tokens.

"There is a tie into the whole crypto environment and movement, which in turn, also ties into the metaverse," Proulx said of Bluesky. "If we think about the metaverse as the next generation or the next iteration of the internet, most platforms and most companies right now are trying to figure out what their metaverse strategy is, and Twitter will be no different."

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Will Twitter's CEO succession speed up a needed wave of innovation? - Marketing Dive

IDMANs journey to music is one riddled in a series of formative moments all rooted in unwavering passion, liberation, and purpose. The 27-year-old Toronto-native has found her voice through utilizing strings of those personal experiences to color her music. And in turn that unapologetic sense of transparency has fueled her rise as one of alt-R&Bs most promising voices.

Transitioning from social leader to musician played a vital role in the themes we hear throughout IDMANs music. Whether its a slow-simmering sultry track like Down For it focusing on the grind of a new artist or high-energy banger Polytics, that zeroes in on the complexities surrounding polyamorous relationships...one can always expect their notions of pop culture, art, and music to be challenged. Single handedly redefining what it means to be a female artist in todays industry with her playful exploration of societal taboos IDMAN places a sonic time stamp on the moment that we are currently living in.

After keeping a low-profile during quarantine to make the conscious effort of committing to what matters mosther artistrythe Somali songstress has emerged more in tune with her craft than ever. Finding her superpower in creating meaningful messages through her music has only made IDMANs trajectory more astounding. And with her debut EP titled Risk under way, her freshlyhoned skill of songwriting and composing comes in handy as she takes on new themes. But trust, in true form itll be just as risqu as we expect.

Read the exclusive conversation below with the burgeoning musician.

V Magazine: Hey IDMAN, how are you?

IDMAN: Good, how are you?

V: I'm so excited. I'm doing good as well. I think the question everyone wants to know including myself is, how do we pronounce your name. Is it IDMAN (id-mun)?

I: Yes, It's IDMAN (id-mun). You are right, most people dont get it on the first try (Laughs).

V: (Laughs) Amazing, now that weve got that sorted...Lets get into the making of IDMAN. For those who may not be familiar with you just yet, I want to offer some insight into how this magical being that you are, has come about. What were your earlier years like and how did you get into music?

I: Yeah, I think as an artist I'm really committed to just being transparently a person who's figuring it out. I'm super new in music. I've only been doing music for the last couple of years so I feel like a baby in the grand musical zeitgeist. I used to do social justice work, I still do, but that was what I thought I was going to do with my life for a long time. I used to do a lot of direct action work, I helped co-found a couple of racial justice organizations in the Northeast coast of the country. I think for a long time, I was like, this is what I'm going to do. This is the only way to be of service to my people. I learned more about what it means to have good movement, ecology and good movement ecosystems. That we need people like our food access workers, our healers, our lawyers and the folks who do the thing that sustains our joy I think the most are artists, our creatives, our musicians. Those are the pockets where joy exists for us. And I think that that's what sustained us through abominable atrocities throughout time. I feel really honored to have come into the understanding that music is a way to be of service to your people too, and to be of service to yourself first. And so I think I'm just really committed to seeing this thing through and figuring it out. My only commitments are unpacking my fear and unpacking what the roadblocks are in here to hopefully liberate myself in real life through art. And if it's a dialectic experience, I'm honored.

V: So well said and beautifully put. I love how your need to give back to your community has manifested in different ways. It started with social activism and its blossomed into music. Growing up in Toronto and being of Somali descent, what kind of music did your parents play at home and would you say it influenced your sound today?

I: It definitely has. My mom was a wedding planner and she was a bit of a socialite in our community. We would have musicians coming in and out of the house. I had the honor of being around legends growing up, like Magool and Hasan Adan Samatar. Because of my mom I was the kid who would stand in front of all of her friends and perform, doing things like the jazz hands or whatever. Those moments were definitely super duper impactful. I saw my parents love each other through music. So in my household, my parents were really affectionate and I knew that music was their connector. And I think my younger self was like, oh, snap, this is how you permeate. This is how you resonate with others. And so I think that I am still trying to walk that path and figure that out too, for myself.

V: With all of that in mind, who would you say some of your musical influences were growing up?

I: I think a lot of my influences were older Somali women, to be honest. I feel like there's a fearlessness I see that's really uniform for all of us. Non-musical influences, I think about someone like Assata Shakur. I say the Assata chant every week with the homies. You know what I mean? "It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains." I'm inspired by black women, period. I think my favorite artists a lot of the time have always been black women. Nina Simone, Beyonc, obviously Rih[anna]. I like the people that are shy too, you know? Beyonc is so shy. Janet is so shy. Rihanna seems so shy. I like the people who are doing this not in a hedonistic, look at me way, but at the expense of their own anxieties, their own fears. I feel like it's such a gift in that way. The essence of it rattles with it in a way that I'm really inspired by.

V: What has L.A. been like for you as a creative?

I: L.A. has been tumultuous, for sure. When I came down here, I drove down with my best friend. We packed up a car and we drove for five days from Portland, Maine. We didn't know where we were going. I knew no one in the industry. We had no plan. We slept in our car for a while. I came here not with any real leads rooted in reality, all my leads were rooted inside. And my best friend was this talented human who was working on an accessibility app and used to be in radio. I was like, okay, I'm over here with literally the strongest person I know. And we're about to do this thing together. It was rough the first year, for sure. It's one of those cities that really makes you reflect on how you move and how you operate. When I came down everybody was like, watch out for the posers, the boogeymen, but thank God we've only met really awesome people along the journey. This last year we've kind of been coming in full swing with this music stuff. Weve found our tribe. And I think that no matter where you are, if you have your wolf pack, you're good.

V: Very true. Has L.A. and it's environment influenced you and your music in any way?

I: I think L.A. has made me hungrier for this, for sure. I'm in a city where a lot of artists and musicians live. 60,000 songs are coming out every single day. What makes my voice matter? What makes my lived experiences stand out? Every single day you're surrounded by dreams and nightmares. You really have to choose [your fate] on a daily basis.

V: Let's segue into your latest single Polytics. Can you tell me more about how you conceptualized the idea of the music video, recording the song, and just the whole process itself?

I: Polytics was one of the ones that was a quicker write. I had a messy summer in Minneapolis two years ago. I was around a lot of my friends who were at the time unpacking for themselves. My tribe is super queer, super trans and dating is already hard in the digital world. Add our lived experiences and those intersections on top of it. And we are also the layer of our parents and our elders being from the analog times. What does it look like to socialize or relate to someone on this computer thing that is its own language in a way? I think the cool thing about being young right now is that we get to kind of decide for ourselves who we are and in the way that there is no blueprint. My friends and I call it experimenting with non-traditional dating styles. And I remember being someone attached to my monogamy. And I think I'm still figuring it out. But I found myself wanting to confront the parts of me that thought polyamory was so complex. Just because I haven't been socialized to experience it freely does not mean it's complex. I think love is super simple. It's a connection between people. It can be one, it could be two, it could be three. I think there will be a much better place if we all minded our business. And so I was like, how do I write a song that makes a complex emotion, feel like what it really is, which is simple. I didn't want it to feel like I was preaching anything. So when you sing along, you understand my love isn't that different from yours. It's all love.

V: What was the inspiration behind the song? Do you think those experiences between you and your friends really shaped the song's lyrics? While listening to it, I thought maybe it was a personal experience. I could have never thought it could be influenced by your friends.

I: To get more specific, I had met someone that I fancied and then I bumped into them again, six months later. And I thought they weren't single and they had approached me and were like, hey, I'm going to take you out. And I was like, how when you're totally with someone. And they told me that they were practicing poly. And it just so happened that the person that they were practicing with was an old coworker of mine who I didn't get along with very well. And that coworker started leading workshops on polyamory called Polly Pockets. In the line where I say in the song, she's out of pocket, it was because we were having conflict about this. And I was like, you are the expert, you know, you're the person who knows all about this thing. How are you getting out of pocket about this thing that you teach people about? I didn't want to write a song where I blamed anyone or pointed any fingers. That's why I say so many times in the song, you like a person and they liked me and I liked them and all of it is okay. None of it is wrong. At the core of it, we all like someone and it isn't necessarily a negative thing, you know? I was saying to myself, I'm probably poly too. At the time, I very attached to my monogamous identity. I think confronted with the fact that maybe I don't know me very well and maybe I'm okay with this. And maybe this is something that I want to explore for myself.

V: And that's important to mention because I think in a city like New York, I've realized that we're so young and that we've been taught all of these things regarding how to live but we are all coming to terms with our own uniqueness. It is important to be open to the possibilities of life and that is what "Polytics" means to me, so thank you for being so transparent. What are some things we can expect from you from your forthcoming project?

I: I think this next EP Risk is a culmination of my experiences the year leading into me starting to do music. There's a song on the project where I'm reflecting on one of my arrests in Portland and that arrest was the reason why I could even do music. I had to be home because I was in court all the time. I also lived in a small town, in one of the whitest states in the country and felt a real hostility towards my police department. All that alone time was the reason why I could even sit around and listen to Hot 97 to hear Jessie Reyez on the radio talking about the Remix project and then applied to the Remix Project. It was such a huge integral part of why I'm here. "Down for It"speaks to my mental health and my apprehensions in music and coming into this industry. The EP in and of itself speaks to where I was when I was making the decision to take this risk which is I'm doing this job that is freaking terrifying.

V: I love that. The pandemic has had a major effect on all of us. We've all spent the last two years confined and in quarantine. How'd you spend your time? Were you making music? Do you think you've grown as an artist because of COVID and the unfortunate lockdown?

I: I don't think there's anything like going back to normal. I feel like everything has changed forever because of the pandemic. It has touched all of us in really specific and challenging ways. I finished this project before the pandemic, this project has been completed for over a year and a half. I was set and ready to release it before the uprising began and when the uprising began, we kind of all were on pause because there's something happening in the world that's greater than all of this. We all were committed to making sure that no one worked at that time. We have a predominantly black and queer trans team and all of us were touched by what was going on. I went back and was doing digital support work for some of the homies that I have in Minneapolis, all of us went hands on deck with everything going. I think I talked the most to my team during that time as humans, you know? We are all so close and we love each other so much that time I think was integral for us. How are you doing? How is your spirit? What are you sitting with right now? Everyone's sitting, what are you holding? I feel really good about the way that we handled that and how we're able to collectively figure out what it looks like to pick up the pieces after such a hard thing.

V: So as the year comes to a close, what do you look forward to the most for 2022?

I: I look forward to that within which I cannot imagine right now, the unimaginable. I look forward to welcoming in abundance however the universe sees fit. I just pray that the universe sees it to be positive for me. Very generally, I feel overwhelmed with gratitude lately that I don't know what to ask for, or that I can ask for more. I feel like we all have a bit of survivor's remorse. Joy, happiness, if it so be, I would feel very grateful for.

V: Are there new, exciting projects coming from IDMAN? What can we look forward to?

I: Yeah, what's really exciting is that when I first put this song out, we were thinking about maybe doing acting. I think at the time I was like, hold up, we just put the song out and it's doing better than I thought. Maybe we focused on this thing and not really looked there but I think hopefully some acting next year. Definitely excited to get some solo shows under our belt. I think the job is harder than I ever thought. It's like the hardest thing I've ever done. And I hear that touring, performances, and the live aspect of it all is the part that keeps you in. So I'm excited to taste that part that keeps you in.

V: You have the most calming spirit, your energy translates and it is such an honor to speak with you IDMAN. You have so much to look forward to, you will go very far in this lifetime. Thank you for the opportunity.

I: Thank you so much, Carlos. This is not lost on me. I totally understand that word is so powerful. By talking to me right now and putting words to pen and pen to paper, I think you're advocating for me and you're sharing me with the world and I appreciate it. It's not lost on me. I won't forget it.

Read more:

The Making of IDMAN - vmagazine.com

The term Stand Alone Complex can be loosely defined as a social phenomenon where unconnected actions combine to create a group effort, though it isn't maintained by a ringleader or ruling body. It propagates without instruction or leadership, with random humans moving toward a collective goal without conscious intent, eventually becoming a coherent whole. Essentially, in the words of the Stand Alone Complex fandom wiki, One could say that the Stand Alone Complex is mass hysteriawith purpose.

While we have all been swept up in mass hysteria at one point or another, for a galaxy of different reasons, what can be said is that when the momentum gets going, there's fairly little anyone can do to stem the tide. We can easily equate this to a stampede. When enough participants get spooked and start charging, even if there is a sizable amount of protest from within their ranks, the whole mob will run clear off a cliff without hesitation.

But what makes mass hysteria unique, is the many forms in which it can appear. My favorite example of this is the Strasbourg Dancing Plague of 1518, where anywhere from 50 to 400 people inexplicably danced in the street for the better part of two straight months (though there is considerable debate over who actually kicked off this flash mob, and if the rumors of a dozen or more people dying each day were simply made up). While intense speculation has persisted in the centuries since, based on the collected records from documentarians, there has never been a definitive explanation for what happened.

Another well-known example of mass hysteria came packaged as the infamous Satanic Panic (which took root in the 1980s and has never really gone away). This mass reporting of unsubstantiated cases of ritualistic abuse, trafficking and sacrifice has come to include tens of thousands of investigations throughout the world over the decades. Not a single one has confirmed the existence of these ritualistic cults engaging in satanic sadism. Yet, the panic remains entrenched in international culture and rhetoric, with little sign of ever fully dissipating.

However, when we recognize a Stand Alone Complex, the results can get fairly more complicated. Probably the best modern example which could be classified as this phenomenon is the decentralized hacktivist movement, Anonymous. The emergence of these self-identified vigilantes utilizing the ambiguous moniker became news in 2007. The one-two punch of online predator Chris Forcand's arrest in Canada, and the 2008 launch of Project Chanology against the Church of Scientology threw this movement onto the world stage. In the succeeding years, in the wake of continued activity and notoriety, investigations from journalists, and international law enforcement and intelligence bureaus continually prove that Anonymous members can operate entirely exclusive of one another if they desire it. And fun fact, when I was 18, I actually attended a few protests supposedly organized by Anonymous. But to the actuality of that, I only have assumptions since the organizers were faceless online, and masked in person.

It is quite difficult to prove that these actions were the work of a loose collective, or whether random people are throwing a label on their movements as a means of brand recognition in order to legitimize their actions in the eyes of some, and to possibly cover their actual tracks. Anonymous has come to be used in music, television, and merchandise to a degree that it is now an indelible part of our collective culture, for better and for worse (depending on your stance towards them).

But the main point that I am driving at is that Anonymous now exists as an entity which is self-sustaining, fueled by our contrasting idealism and hysteria, and continues to survive merely by the weight of its cultural impact. Whether or not those who claimed allegiance to their collective are still active, or ever were, many see the publized actions of the group as all the evidence they need in order to believe in their existence and efficacy. While others will maintain stark skepticism for the very same reasons, maintaining that private organizations, government branches, or individual power players are using the zeitgeist in order to manipulate and misdirect public opinion and information.

This uncertainty towards a shadowy entity on the periphery of our society, manipulating its many tiers, is exactly the framework which is utilized within the classic anime series, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Based on the 1989 manga by Masamune Shirow, as well as the 1995 Mamoru Oshii feature film, Stand Alone Complex is an original adaptation by Kenji Kamiyama which is set in an alternative storyline to that of its source material. While it still utilizes many of the same characters, settings, and designs, it manages to inject a considerable amount of original material into the existing ethos of the Ghost in the Shell universe.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex mostly takes place in Japan during the years 2030 and 2032. After humanity develops the ability to cyberize themselves, utilizing prosthetic body parts and cybernetic brains, the boundaries between what is human and machine is ever more blurred. The proof of humanity against artificial constructs usually boils down to someone's possession of a ghost, or essentially the concept of the human soul. In the wake of society evolving and restructuring around this massive singularity event, we follow Public Security Section 9, a clandestine counter-cyberterrorism squad of former military and police personnel, who are responsible for mitigating threats which cannot be handled by mundane security efforts. Through their normal activities, they uncover widespread and amorphous conspiracies which pose threats on an international scale. Though paradoxically, the closer they get to the truth, the more dangerous and untenable their situation becomes.

The series is largely set in the fictional Japanese city of Niihama, and follows Section 9 through two major cases which threaten to unsettle Japan's balance between its population and its government: The Laughing Man and the Individual Eleven. While there exists considerable overlap, as well as wide divides between these cases, for this video, we're going to focus on the former case.

The Laughing Man is an enigmatic hacktivist reportedly responsible for the largest acts of cyberterrorism in modern Japan, where numerous corporations were hacked and blackmailed. Unaware whether The Laughing Man is a domestic or foreign terrorist, or even if it's a solo hacker or a team, the police have chased this ghost for six years with little to show for it. Togusa, the rookie of Section 9, is contacted by an old friend still investigating the case. In the wake of his friend's mysterious car accident, Togusa discovers police corruption involving illegal internal surveillance of its officers. When the scandal breaks, a police press conference publicly denying responsibility is called, blaming the head of The Laughing Man task force. But before reporters can press the personal ties to the nanomachine company responsible for the surveillance equipment at the heart of the scandal, The Laughing Man hijacks a police official's cyberbrain, denouncing the police response as a farce, and threatening the Superintendent-General's life.

The following night, an attempt is made on the life of the Superintendent-General when a security chief is brain-hacked, followed by a close series of apparent accomplices attempting to finish what the hacked goon could not. While a virus is blamed for the initial attempt, it is soon apparent that all of the succeeding individuals operated entirely on their own volition, with no link to one another or the previous crimes. While the public is quick to be swept up in the fervor when a fall guy is named posthumously as The Laughing Man, Section 9 unravels a sizable conspiracy that the government was doctoring evidence and using The Laughing Man as a means to control public opinion while they work with private corporations to profit off of human misery.

The Laughing Man is seen as both a vigilante hero and a public menace throughout nearly every echelon of society who look from the outside-in. His iconic logo is utilized in art, and on merchandise. His name is evoked in the fiery rhetoric of those wielding public platforms and open forums. While the perpetrator of the more televised actions which fast-tracked the whole Laughing Man frenzy is revealed to be a man named Aoi, whether this persona was born from a real activist attempting to change society, or was always a farce created to manipulate the masses, in the world of Stand Alone Complex, it's rather a moot point. His place in the culture, and as a means for motivation to pursue similar courses of action, is set deep within Japan's social landscape. This makes the public reactions to his supposed rhetoric and acts of terrorism even more dangerous, because there is nothing to precipitate what people will do, when they will do it, and for what purpose. This uncertainty provides a perfect opportunity for powers in a position to manipulate the image of The Laughing Man. The rest of us will believe what we will, and will act accordingly. As a result, hysteria spreads, the truth is buried, and the world keeps on turning.

Now, the metatextual origin of The Laughing Man initially came from the short story of the same name, written by American author J. D. Salinger. And even if you haven't read the story, or any of Salinger's works, on top of multiple references to his writing through casual conversations, the character Aoi is highly influenced by Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye. Now, I am certainly not a fan of Salinger, and I have mentioned this a few times in other videos, and there are a lot of reasons why I keep anything he wrote at arm's length. But the surprising thing with Holden's motivations and qualms with the world around him, a facet of his character that has caused immense irritation, is that when Aoi takes hold of the same principles, there are two key differenceshe is proactive, and he manages to mature.

Holden is a passive character, and a perpetually immature one. He is a teenager, cursing the adult world for its harshness, monotony, and greed, which influences his views on what is important in life. But Aoi tries his damnedest to do the right thing in the wake of such inhumanity; he wants to change the world for the better. He wants to embrace the idea that innocence and solidarity are innate concepts within human society, which need to be fostered and protected. As he aged, with his moniker hijacked by those seeking to exploit others, and those he sought to bring down still operating behind the scenes, he sees the work of Section 9 as a fastlane to finally accomplish what he set out to do all those years ago. And get used to a lot of literary references, because the whole cast of Stand Alone Complex is extremely well read (as if they all were going for a graduate degree in literature).

Every installment in the Ghost in the Shell franchise is buried under an avalanche of overarching themes and visual motifs, wearing many of its influences right on its sleeve. While mostly this comes around as more debates over life when artificial intelligence is nearly identical to organic intelligence, the focus on a Stand Alone Complex and its implications for a society is thoroughly unique. And even though SAC just passed its 19th birthday, its relevance is more prevalent now than ever before. We exist in a world of hyper-charged ideological battlefields and cultural friction, with hysteria continuing to pressure public policy and mob mentality. We live in an age where stand alone complexes such as Anonymous are bound to increase exponentially, regardless of who may be seen at the helm. When we eventually reach our next singularity point, these complexes will only compound the considerable change our worldwide civilization will undergo and settle into in the coming generations. Nothing truly occurs within a vacuum, and all actions have consequences.

While Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is laden down with weighty themes and conflicts, seasoned heavily over a multi-faceted thriller, does the series hold up as an anime, and as a consistently coherent story? Well, starting from a technical perspective, you won't hear me debating whether or not early 2000s 3DCG is always effective. Sure, it isn't Hand Shakers (2017) bad, and this was when 3D was really being ramped up throughout worldwide animation production for the first time. But in the first season, its limits ultimately inhibit immersion far more than it augments the series; and though the second season does improve significantly, the 2D and 3D content maintains a disjointed relationship. This is made even more prominent in scenes where settings are largely rendered in CG, because it takes away one of the key aspects which make the Japan in Ghost in the Shell feel so amazingtactility.

To make my point, let's go back to Oshii's 1995 feature film. As we follow the Major throughout Niihama, we are given a parade of locations which always play with two essential elements of this universeadvancement and decay. We see the mechanized limbs and bodies of cyberized humans meshing against a backdrop of a decrepit and overcrowded city. It is an amalgamation of cultures and historical eras conflicting with technological singularity, and the result is a sizable divide between haves and have-nots, which extends to the very buildings and streets we inhabit.

The lush color scheme of the original film gives an ethereal vibrancy to its world and characters, yet we also feel the weight. We get to see the rings of the tree, so to speak. In the colorized pages of the manga, you can also see its use of a fairly vivid and striking color palette. Both of these approaches were replaced in SAC with earthy colors, which can sometimes blend into a mess of murky hues. Gone are the overused waterways, the ever-constant infrastructure improvements, the ever-present blend of the chic and the decrepit. When we do get similar aesthetic combinations to these in SAC, we're usually venturing into more unsavory parts of town. As a result, this dichotomy becomes less reflective of the society as a whole, and more specifically tied to Japan's criminal elements and underclass, inadvertently reducing its overall effectiveness. Yes, adaptations are free to make of what they will with the material, especially when you have to make a lot of decisions as to where the limited resources are best directed, but when such an intrinsic element of the world is neglected, we lose a potent aspect which makes Ghost in the Shell so unique.

But opposite this, Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG is a massive improvement, both in artistic direction, and in production design. It manages to recapture those original atmospheres while still keeping a lot of visual motifs established in the beginning, which I thoroughly enjoy and appreciate. Because buttressing your existing strengths, and changing those artistic decisions which fell flat, without sacrificing the integrity of your story or your visual identity to which your fans are already attracted, is extremely hard to do. Though it seems that Kamiyama may have forgotten to import his last save over to Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045.

Having said that, Stand Alone Complex understands Shirow's sense of humor considerably better than Oshii. The manga's dark, yet playful sense of humor is one of the key features which were somewhat dismissed in the feature films, being the more serious take on the subject, to be sure. But Stand Alone Complex is constantly riffing, and most of the scenes featuring the Tachikomas find ways to throw in a fair few jokes even when the scene is deathly serious. And when we look at the Tachikomas in the manga, the snappy dialogue and pacing is almost an exact match. So while there were a few creative paths taken that I certainly have issues with, there also is enough beholden to what came before it, that Stand Alone Complex still manages to feel right despite the liberties taken.

Kamiyama manages to make expert use of his assets, making budget and production limitations almost negligible, and allowing the series to save the majority of its complex work for moments of higher octane action. There is little that I would describe as fluff or fat, with each sequence meticulously crafted around a succession of angles which always add further emphasis to each pivotal scene's tone and importance.

Similar anime series which share the same economical direction include Noboru Ishiguro's 1988 adaptation of Legend of the Galactic Heroes, Hideaki Anno's 1995 series Neon Genesis Evangelion, and Naohito Takahashi's 1997 anime adaptation of Berserk. Not much may be happening during these moments, but the lack of motion rarely makes me feel bored or impatient, because of what else is occurring and how it is delivered and paced. But on the flip side of that, these moments are often veritable shiploads of exposition, and if you aren't a fan of anime where they sit around and talk all day, this one probably won't be for you. Massive info dumps occur every couple of episodes, and there is little left to the imagination by the end of the series.

This conflicts with the natural ambiguity and uncertainty which hallmark the original work and the films, especially when The Major incorporates the Puppet Master into her cyberbrain, erasing the original Major (as the rest of Section 9 knew her) from existence. Now, as SAC is set on a different timeline, this never occurs, but it doesn't doesn't fill that void with an equitable conflict. That isn't to say you won't have a significant emotional response to the dour events which plague the Major and her colleagues, but the focus is considerably more drawn to the overarching story rather than personal introspection. Having said that, Stand Alone Complex benefits from its expanded runtime and scope, allowing episodes to focus on individual members of Section 9 in order to provide their stories to the audience, and to better understand their motivations, rather than keeping a microscope mostly fixed on Major Kusanagi. This creates a bit of a disparity between the tone of the manga and Oshii animated films, and that of Stand Alone Complex, the former two being considerably more ambiguous and emotional, where SAC is more cerebral and action-oriented. One isn't better than the other, as it comes down to a matter of preference. But I never had a reaction to Stand Alone Complex like I had with the manga or with the original films.

So, when I started making video essays for Anime News Network last year, my very first topic was on Serial Experiments Lain, in which I said the following: That isn't to say Lain's story is the pinnacle of cyberpunk, because Ghost in the Shell will always hold that spot in my world. While this was directed mostly at the manga and Oshii films, this declaration absolutely includes Stand Alone Complex. Its healthy balance of action, masterful direction, compelling intrigue, and the possibilities of technology. It makes for a prophetic thriller which may hit a little too close to home for some of you, and while the production elements can be hit-and-miss more times than some would allow, these same aspects can occasionally be outright brilliant.

While there's so much more I wanted to talk about, and stressed about it long enough that I had to delay putting this essay out for another month, I will end with saying that the second season surrounding the Individual Eleven, subtitled 2nd GIG, is far better at interweaving storylines and themes than the first, as well as providing minor characters with a lot more characterization and opportunities to influence the larger world. On the flip side, the first season is much more exploratory with its titular concept of a Stand Alone Complex, making for a more engaging thriller. Either way you cannot go wrong with the whole 52-episode series, because it continues to hold up extremely well, both as a stand alone project and as part of the greater Ghost in the Shell multimedia franchise. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex remains one of those anime series that may not appeal to everyone, but everyone should give it at least one go. You get something new out of the series (and out of yourself) through each rewatch of the show, examining your own understanding and observations of how our world operates around us.

Thank you to everyone who've made it all the way to the end of this video essay. I know it couldn't have been easyyou're awesome. If you enjoyed (or have taken issue) with my interpretation and examination of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, leave a comment down below to let me know what you think. If you have an idea for an anime which you'd like me to cover, also let me know in the comments. If you haven't done so, subscribe to the Anime News Network. We release new content every week, so be sure to ring the bell. Be sure to mosey on over to my personal channel Criticlysm for similar content, and follow my utter misunderstanding of social media over on Twitter. I deeply appreciate your continued support and feedback. Until next time.

Here is the original post:

Does it Hold Up? Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex - Anime News Network

For the Dubai Watch Weeks fifth edition since 2015, organisers have gone bigger and better. Around 50 exhibitors of all sizes are enjoying higher-quality, more comfortable surroundings, more breakout sessions and interactions with collectors and clients, sold-out watchmaking workshops, and journalists from every continent. The event is taking place from 24 to 28 November in the heart of Dubais financial district, the DIFC Gate Village, with its bustling art galleries and trendy restaurants. Although the event is entirely the initiative of the Seddiqi family, their name is nowhere to be seen. In their opening address, Hind and Mohammed Seddiqi explained their motivation: Were not here to sell, were here to educate and to promote watchmaking. Our goal is to create an unparalleled educational, experiential and networking event. But they also added: Go and have fun!

Dubai Watch Week shares its exhibition spaces between marquees, along with reception areas and a range of other activities, at the heart of the Gate Village in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) WorldTempus/Brice Lechevalier

Although the participating brands and their teams are there to present their products, no sales are allowed at the booths. Most exhibitors are using the platform to launch new products (local limited series or global releases), explain their particular features to potential future clients, and talk about their strategy. A measure of the importance of Dubai Watch Week is that most of the brand CEOs are in attendance, including the heads of Czapek, Trilobe, Audemars Piguet, Breitling, Chopard, Hublot and Rolex. Rolex CEO Jean-Frdric Dufour took the opportunity to greet the other executives at their own booths, noting, Its a very important event for the watchmaking community, because were opening our hearts here. From talking to the executives and artisans of the other exhibiting brands, its clear that everyone is delighted to meet an audience of genuine enthusiasts that really gives us great pleasure. Being able to talk one-on-one to a client who understands the technical know-how and expertise that go into making a watch, particularly a complicated watch, is very rewarding. The organisation is exemplary, and I would advise all Swiss watchmakers to come. Visitor numbers have been particularly high, especially in the evenings, when the wealthy residents of Dubai and watch collectors from the region, which is home to a number of collectors clubs, came to soak up the atmosphere. Networking is in full swing. Nigerian distributor Deremi Ajidahun (Zakaa) was full of praise for the dynamism of the event and the commitment of the organisers. Only Watch founder Luc Pettavino spoke at a collectors panel; and the CEO of Reuge, Amr Alotaishan, despite not having a booth, is more than just a regular visitor. He said: Although were not exhibiting this year were working with the Seddiqis, so its important for us to attend their event and observe whats going on in the watchmaking world, because Reuge is naturally part of their universe. GPHG director Carine Maillard and the chair of the GPHG Foundation, Raymond Lortan, answered journalists questions about the prize-winners exhibition:"We have been partners since the very beginning, and even before that. So DWW means a lot to the GPHG and even more this year since our Jury has decided to award its Special Jury Prize to this event, which is gaining momentum. We are delighted about that."

Audemars Piguet chose Dubai Watch Week to inaugurate its Beyond the Limits exhibition Audemars Piguet

Having travelled to Dubai with Rolex senior executives, CEO Jean-Frdric Dufour is seen here in the company of Dubai Watch Week organisers, Hind and Hamied Seddiqi WorldTempus/Brice Lechevalier

Browsing the booths revealed two trends among brands: those that are presenting limited series in partnership with Seddiqi or aimed at the local market, such as for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the United Arab Emirates, and those that take advantage of Dubai Watch Week as they would any other major international watch-themed event to introduce their new products. Certain of these releases are joint endeavours. Bvlgari and MB&F, for example, took the wraps off the Legacy Machine Flying T Allegra; the two partners had been working together on this new watch for the past four years. The launch was celebrated two nights running with a cocktail reception at the Cipriani pop-up, at the foot of the famous U-shaped tower. Despite the fact that virtually all the watches in the two 20-piece limited series have been pre-sold, MB&F founder Max Busser and Bvlgari creative director Fabrizio Buonamassa were generous with their interviews and presentations. This is the first collaboration between a very large, very strong brand and a small independent name like MB&F. We hit it off straight away. Fabrizio changed everything about our watch except the movement! In a different vein, Armin Strom took the wraps off the Zeitgeist, a single-piece edition to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the Resonance line. Co-founder Claude Geisler had this to say: We really appreciate once again having the opportunity to talk with the international press, but also with the other brands, thanks to the amicable and relaxed atmosphere that prevails here.

Fabrizio Buonamassa (Bulgari creative Director) and Maximilien Bsser (MB&F Founder and Creative Director) presenting their joint creation WorldTempus/Brice Lechevalier

MB&F x Bulgari LM FlyingT Allegra WorldTempus/Brice Lechevalier

Theres never any downtime at Dubai Watch Week. Brands are constantly on the go, and none more than the established independent niche brands. Edouard Meylan, CEO of H. Moser & Cie., is grateful towards Dubai Watch Week for having done so much to educate the end customer, ever since our first participation in 2015. Back then we were selling two watches a year in the region. No-one had heard of us. Now visitors are asking about availability for this or that product and buying in very significant numbers. Over at Urwerk, co-founder Felix Baumgartner notes that the market is surging. We could sell our entire production two or three times over! The positive aspect is that the most serious customers dont discuss prices so they can be sure to secure their watch, which suits retailers. For the founder of Akrivia, Rexhep Rexhepi, the market has grown. Were seeing customers coming out of nowhere who, all of a sudden, are taking an interest in our watches. And not just the super rich. Those with a normal level of wealth are forgoing a bigger car so they can buy themselves a watch. They appreciate the intrinsic value of a watch and what it stands for. The generosity of the Seddiqi family is also seen in the fact that brands they dont (yet?) carry are welcome to take part. Reservoir is one. Its CEO, Franois Moreau, says right from day one, we were highly satisfied with our participation. Weve met with local collectors as well as distributors from other countries in the region and journalists. The event is also extremely well organised. Its very Swiss in its approach. Even the big brands on a roll, like Hublot whose booth features a comfortable lounge area, consider Dubai Watch Week to be a must-attend, as CEO Ricardo Guadalupe confirms: Dubai Watch Week is hugely important for us. Not only is this a key market for Hublot our boutique in the Dubai Mall is also our number-one store in the world we particularly appreciate that we can meet with end customers during this pandemic, and have face-to-face talks with our local retailer, Seddiqi.

De Bethune came to Dubai Watch Week with its new DB25 QP with green dial that replaces all earlier references of the perpetual calendar WorldTempus/Brice Lechevalier

*Seddiqi & Sons is the largest retailer in the United Arab Emirates and the creator, in 2015, of Dubai Watch Week which since 2017 has been held every two years.

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Dubai Watch Week 2021 - Of Watches and Men (and Women!) - Dubai Watch Week - WorldTempus

Plus, why cross-generational collaboration is crucial when it comes to making fashion more sustainable.

Photo: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

These are the stories making headlines in fashion on Friday.

Von Dutch and the rise of influencer cultureLauren Puckett-Pope interviews Andrew Renzi, director of the Hulu docuseries "The Von Dutch Curse," for Elle, exploring the lasting cultural impact of the early-aughts fashion label. Discussing the brand's use of celebrity "influencers" before that was even a term, Renzi says, "It was such an iconic symbol of that time period. [The Von Dutch team] were like, We have a logo brand; let's make value out of that currency, and let's get people to come in.' I think they were ahead of their time in a lot of ways with that." {Elle}

Revolve launches ambassador programRevolve's existing customers can now become micro-influencers via a new brand-ambassador program which launched this week, reports Zofia Zwieglinska for Glossy. "With the Brand Ambassador program, consumers will now be able to act as influencers for Revolve, receiving rewards and prizes for engaging with their favorite brands and products from the retailer. The program will also offer commissions, including exclusive incentives like early access to new brands, participation in #RevolveAroundtheWorld trips and access to events including the Revolve Festival," writes Zwieglinska. {Glossy}

Cross-generational collaboration is crucial for sustainable fashionWhitney Bauck writes about the importance of age diversity in fashion's sustainability movement. "Like the sustainable fashion movement, the climate movement is only a few decades old, though it's connected to the even older environmental movement. But where the sustainability movement has sometimes struggled to create cohesion across generations, the climate movement is increasingly leaning into the strengths that different age groups can bring to the table." {Refinery29)

Story continues

How Brandon Blackwood avoided being a one-hit wonderAlexandra Mondalek examines how Brandon Blackwood has found continued success for Business of Fashion, writing, "After the brand's 'End Systemic Racism' tote bags propelled the brand toward virality in the wake of the worldwide protests that followed George Floyd's murder, marketing moments like [buzzy, sometimes controversial] billboards have helped keep Blackwood in the zeitgeist and avoid being a one-hit wonder." Blackwood tells Mondalek of the strategy, "We're a little bit more authentic in our positioning and how we market and how we sell things." {Business of Fashion}

Aaron Rose Philip shares her success story with VogueAppearing in the latest installment of Vogue's "How I Got Here" series, model Aaron Rose Philip shares how she found success in fashion and the impact she hopes to make through her work. "My work has always held that significance where I feel like everything that I do speaks to something larger than myself. I am a talented model who has a disability, who also happens to be a black trans woman," says Philip. But, she adds, "My vision isn't complicated, I'm just a 20-something year old and I'm a model who's ready to work." {Vogue}

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Must Read: How Von Dutch Spurred the Rise of Influencer Culture, Revolve Launches Ambassador Program - Yahoo Lifestyle

What should an animated elephant, anthropomorphized as a shy teenage girl with a crush on an ice-cream vendor, wear onstage while she performs Aretha Franklins I Say a Little Prayer in front of said vendor?

This was the kind of question facing Laura and Kate Mulleavy, better known for designing the fashion brand Rodarte, three years ago, when the sisters were brought on as costume designers for the animated movie Sing 2 by the company Illumination, best known for bringing Minions into the world.

It wasnt the sisters first time designing costumes for a feature film about performers working thorough their issues onstage. In 2010, they cocreated costumes for Darren Aronofskys ballet gothic Black Swan. But it was their first time designing for an animated cast of zoo animals, which included a pig (voiced by Reese Witherspoon), porcupine (Scarlett Johansson) and lion (Bono) putting on a space opera in a Las Vegas-type town.

There were more questions, of course questions that came up for the entirety of production, Kate Mulleavy said: How do we get the movement right? How do we get the texture right? How do we get this as detailed as possible?

Here, in an interview condensed and edited for clarity, the sisters discuss the complexities of fashion animation, including their inspiration for the films standout costume (worn by Meena, that lovestruck teenage elephant): a crystal-encrusted hooded cape in several shades of blue that cloaks a long white gown with a giant train all ruffles and chiffon and unabashed innocence.

How do you even start designing something like that gown for animation?

Kate Mulleavy: Theres so much heart and soul in her character, and we wanted to reveal that in her costume change. When she takes off the cape and reveals this beautiful dress, the train kind of floats, and its actually so spectacular to watch. Trying to get that thing that chiffon does when you have a magic gust of wind animating that was just a very long process.

Laura Mulleavy: Her cape, if Im correct, took a year. There were things on it that we really wanted to achieve, like hand-smocking detail. Its so easy in animation to make something perfect. And what we wanted to bring is the fact that what we do is either handmade or a hand-done technique something that makes it look special and interesting, not like a cookie-cutter item.

Even down to the shape of this smocking and the crystal application and then the dgrad within the cape. It took such a long time because it wasnt just like, Oh, lets make dark blue and teal come together. We had to recreate an effect that you would get from hand-dyeing.

Those details, going back and forth and making sure that the blue was swishing across her in the right part that took a lot of work.

You released a few Rodarte collections in this time period, between 2018 and 2021. Did any aspects of your work on Sing 2 seep into those collections, or vice versa?

Kate: Sometimes this question comes up when you costume-design if youre coming, in our case, from your own fashion company. How much should Rodarte show up in the costumes? We definitely have a viewpoint, creatively, and those things can become intertwined in a sense.

Rather than having the movie influence what we were doing, it made us rethink things that weve done. Sometimes you compartmentalize. You do something and you never think about it again. With fashion, youre always trying to move forward or take new steps in a different direction, even if its within your language; the handwork that weve done over the years aging, beading, hand-dyeing and a lot of techniques that we said at the time were never going to do that again.

This was, in a sense, a pretty straightforward costume design project. But in fashion there has been a lot of attention lately on the metaverse, and brands translating their looks for avatars in video games or animated characters. For you, did working on Sing 2 feel connected to that phenomenon at all?

Laura: I dont connect them. Its definitely in the zeitgeist, but this is a feature film that took three years to do. It doesnt seem like a gimmick, and thats not what it is. Fashion going into those spaces is a way to make money, and I dont think thats bad. I think thats great, its what we do. Its exciting, and its a way to create brand awareness.

Kate: But our main idea was to take some of the handmade things weve done and see them in a new space. So in a sense, there is something meta about it because there is a reference to things that weve done. I feel like if you loved Rodarte, you could watch the stage show at the end of the movie and see that.

Laura: I think it all goes back to virtual reality. Sing, yes, puts me in a space closer to understanding, like, what is the virtual reality version of what we do? That is definitely the future.

Kate: I walked away and I thought, All this time Ive made all these clothes that exist as objects. We have a whole archive of what weve done. And heres something Ive made where there isnt any physical object, and I feel like its as real as anything Ive ever made and could be something that someone looks at 100 years from now. Its creatively exciting to know that you can go beyond what is material.

Sing 2 will be released Dec. 22.

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Meet the Costume Designers of 'Sing 2' - The New York Times