021: Artifice, mitosis art, and new romanticism
Plus, the state of content creators rn
Welcome to In the Clouds, where I share what I've been consuming and what I find inspiring.
Welcome, readers—old and new. It’s lovely to have you here.
🫵 This is a long one, so you may need to read it in your browser.
🗞️ Art and artifice by Donna Tart
Art and artifice are all around us, often disguised as the other. This piece left me thinking about it constantly since I read it.
Unlike artifice, art cannot be boiled down or reduced to its influences and component parts without falsifying it; its depths, which are nonlinear like dreams and unbound by time, are eerily self-renewing and inexhaustible, and they always have something new to say to us—quite often, things the artist could never have consciously intended.
🖼️ 35 street style moments from i-D history
🗞️ Notes toward a new romanticism and an update by
A compelling read from two years ago, along with his recent update. Gioia explores the parallels between the 1800s industrial revolutions and today’s rise in algorithms and mechanistic thinking and why a romanticism movement might be imminent.
“My hypothesis is that we are moving right now from an aesthetics of light to an aesthetics of dark. When rationalistic and algorithmic tyranny grows too extreme, art returns to the darkness of the unconscious life—and perhaps of the womb.”
“Rationalism on its own will not produce widespread wealth and prosperity. That requires a commitment to the human flourishing that spreads through the entire community—and not just benefiting a few industrialists and their bankers.”
The first Pitchfork 10.0, a 90s indie rock gem, and one of my favorite albums ever. I listen to it when I want to feel excited about listening to music again. It’s one of my favorite music genres: music that sounds like shit. 🫶
🗞️ Fifty easy ways to make 2025 better
Its tough out there. Sometimes obvious things are good to remember.
Find your version of prayer. Sometimes talking to something bigger than your worries helps them feel smaller.
Move your body when your mind gets too loud. Your body knows the way back to peace.
Write down your thoughts. They’re trying to tell you something important.
An interesting read on the current state of content creators from the team at Patreon.
It’s beautifully designed and a cool web experience. Loved reading the different perspectives on fan ownership and ~community~.
Also love that it was free and not behind an email gate!
“In the past ten years, the idea of paying creators online for the value they provide has gone from essentially unheard of to totally normal. Today, millions of creative people are not only getting paid, they’re building entire media businesses around their work. And they’re confident that they’ll continue to grow well into the future.”
“The major platforms are built around an old internet philosophy that ‘Content is King’. But there’s a problem with that philosophy: by centering everything around ‘content’ these platforms have commoditized the people who actually make the work.”
🗞️ Finding Flaco lovingly details owl’s year of freedom
A really sweet book review on Finding Flaco: Our Year with New York City's Beloved Owl a book of photographs following the authors’ year tracking and taking photos of the lil cutie. RIP Flaco <3
“But, for us, Flaco was not a metaphor — he was an individual with a unique personality who lived for his own benefit,” Lei and Emery continued. “He was also our dear winged friend whose legacy lives on in efforts to make New York safer for raptors and other wildlife.”
Type in the name of a musician and get a map to see similar musicians. You can also go random mode and get fed random names. It’s what I wish Spotify would do for me when I discover a new artist. Very cool.
🗞️ Secret history of color: blue by
A fascinating history of blue. 💙🧢🐳🌀🪁🩵🐋🐟🦋
🖼️ Mitosis art by Michele Banks/Artologica
Blue and beautiful.
🙋🏻♀️ A question for you dear reader…
I am going to Barcelona and Granada in two weeks. Does anyone have any recs besides the Alhambra? lmk!!!
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Oxford Ohio legends, 12 Rods
That music map thing is so cool!