curated radio show and I talk about covers/ artwork and design principles and things

Latest Episode https://www.subcity.org/show/cvrrvw

10.09.2024 21:00-23:00

The theme for this weeks show was shaped around cycles.

Track Title: The London Artist: Young Thung, J cole and Travis Scott

An acute analysis of this track and its cover design within the current cultural sphere can note a striking resemblance to that of the late* BRAT summer and to me, remarkably accurate in representing the cyclical nature of culture.

*(I want it to be gone but this is subject to review, it seems it has found a fitting home in ibiza)https://www.instagram.com/dazed/p/C9aB8HnKvWq/?img_index=3

I find the BRAT summer and its compatriots so amusing because it is acutely indicative of the cyclical nature fundamental to most things.

The principles in support of a phenomena such as BRAT summer are largely reliant upon the aestheticization of social avenues that interact at a critical point between an individual and the media they consume.

The covers, both bear a Chartreuse/Neon Green block colour overlaid with simple black text containing title.

Whilst these are not so intricate for the coincidence to be shocking, I still find it very interesting, considering the simplicity of the design, how the simple colour and nondescript text have become the vehicle of imagery that is recognised as BRAT summer, for a phenomena so rooted in apperances and visual quality, the reductive methods involved in the design speak, i believe, to the increasingly superficial and hollow nature of whatever current cycle we are blessed within.

And personally, warning, graphic discussions of bodily fluid follow, I just think this is the colour of pure bile. The contents of an empty stomach dredged up as the viscera of the bodily reaction to sickness. I swear i am not a fuckin bore, I too enjoy the simplicity championed by this specific trend.White tank tops, No regrets, Bumpin’ That (slang used in context of consuming party drugs) and an attitude geared towards general hedonism, but it is so evisceratingly apparent to me that this a collective reaction to the accelerating discontent, rippling through our consciousness ad nauseam. And we, blind in our pursuit of it.

I must include however, theres absolutely no connection between these two designs outwith my own invention of history, that could not be accomplished without the aid of the present moment, and it is impossible to know what influenced Charli XCX in the creation and lead up to the birth of BRAT summer, and if it all might be born of the same culture. The only important thing, for me, regarding the cycles, is that we might acknowledge its presence amongst the noise of everything. These were both released 10 years apart, and i can observe what was a beginning trend of hyper- consumerism between then and now. The green has only intensified, dissent has only sickened.

The show and selected titles are loosely seperated into groups that create the effect of an eliptic, or, contrast from start to finish in some way, and honour the cycle.

but resoundingly, Episode 1 wishes to establish, and explain through an anomaly in design, the prevalence of these cycles, and it is my intention that, if you please, the listener may adopt and understand better the semantics of the cycle through my interpretations, and how they occur on the micro and macro level.

AND Heres what i think of that! Listen live on Subcity Radio on 08.09.24 at 21:00 for more thoughtful analysis.