Ruby Justice Thelot presents a talk at Gray Area asking why there are no new aesthetics emerging in contemporary culture.

According to him, new aesthetics:

• exist in new media
• emerge from synthesis
• require a philosophy
• require search
• require a shared vision of the future

I find this take interesting and inspiring. Especially as it comes in direct support on the common complaints about tech.

1. Popular platforms such as Instagram and Twitter are notoriously difficult to search. AI slop is flooding the google index and it becomes increasingly labor-intensive to find good quality results.
2. The constant focus on hyper-personalization of digital experiences is a massive friction to our ability of sharing a common vision of the future as it makes difficult to even share the same present reality.
3. Geopolitics and product management dominates big tech decisions. Philosophy isn't really on the menu.

A wholesome surf documentary about the Granny Grommets group in West Australia. This group of mature woman find community and belonging through surfing the ocean together.

A French paragliding documentary following someone's traverse across Nepal by paraglider, combining fly-camping through the Himalayas. The route covers major peaks like Annapurna, Dhaulagiri, and Machapuchare, essentially following parts of the Great Himalayan Trail by air. The expedition is done in full autonomy.

I posted about State of the Art. I just found this gem on youtube that shows the original source videos that were sampled and remixed into the demo. The footage includes side-by-side clips from Felix's "Don't You Want Me", Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, and James Bond "License to Kill".

The data sonification studio Loud Numbers created a sonification machine that create music based on various real-time data sources such as temperature, human/bot ratio on the internet, or current cloud cover.

From Loud Numbers' own Sonification Machine page:

What does a cloudless sky on a warm day sound like? What about a rainy night, with the international space station passing overhead, and an internet full of bots? The Sonification Machine suggests an answer, allowing us to hear the physical and digital environment that surrounds us. Eight different soundscapes are created by live streams of data captured by global sensors.

The sonification machine creation takes root in Yuri Suzuki's Ambient Machine. Yuri Suzuki being himself inspired by the work of Brian Eno.

The Ambient Machine is an instrument for shaping the sonic atmosphere of our daily lives — an exploration of how sound influences mood, perception, and presence. It transforms background noise into an intentional composition, allowing users to design their own evolving soundscapes through a simple, tactile interface.

Born from a time when we became acutely aware of our immediate surroundings, the Ambient Machine responds to the need for both escape and grounding. White noise masks intrusive sounds, natural ambiences transport us elsewhere, and rhythmic patterns provide a sense of structure and calm. Inspired by Erik Satie’s concept of "furniture music" and the ambient soundscapes of Brian Eno, this piece merges chance with control, creating an ever-shifting dialogue between user and environment.