Tuesday, 01/03/2023

02:43 what do historical legacies mean for the internet?

I've been spending some time studying graphic design and architectural history. The threads of continuity are fascinating and so tight-knit - most of these central European graphic designers - whether Swiss, American, German, or Italian - seem to know well or be inspired by one another, with each genuinely innovative in their own way. [I'm sure there are far more type designers, brand designers, et cetera… but the influence is relatively thin]. Do we have clear influences from the last twenty or thirty years through today? The internet after the early 90s has led to this cambrian explosion of entirely exposed international influence - my are.na account takes influence from work all over the world over the course of the past two hundred or so years.

How are we going to trace influences today when most are more 'abstract' and less direct? I.e. – with so much information, designers look less to emulate elements and ideas from other individuals, and more likely have this entire historical body of work in mind, drawing influences from all of these different places and synthesizing them. The internet documents connections between people in an incredibly expressive way - that no historical evidence could match - but the new continuities left by new people become much more muddy. We're globally aware now - there is so much work going on in parallel, and it's often hard to assess the scope of the field: who's worth paying attention to? Is everyone the best in the world at something? What are the best tools for the job? Who should I allow myself to be influenced by?

And so forth. I think the answer here is - as always - to focus on work and not worry about it. I'm not sure how important tracking influence really is outside of this social network graph. As long as influences of mine are explicitly documented - at least implicitly, on timelines - it'll all be fine. I need to focus on doing more work and not worry about it.

Equally concerning, though, is the ability to consume this endless feed of work without regard for its past. This is no different from walking through a city without knowledge of architecture - see cool building, appreciate it without understanding the historical taste that led to its look - but it's not controversial that understanding background and historical motivation helps people better learn about and appreciate their environment. The best tool for design is google image search, and even that can rarely handle live web apps and websites, and it usually leads to some short description on Pinterest. I'll keep trying to figure this out - still have images of animations of evolutions of structures in my brain.