5 ms·

Utopian Scholastic

70 points by birdculture 10mo ago

jgon 10mo ago
Of course there's a heavy dose of childhood nostalgia driving this, but I do love everything about this design style and outlook. It ties into the "early" days of the internet and web, when the vibe was around having a "Library of Alexandria" in your family home, the computer as a bicycle for your mind and just a general feeling of "abundance" that permeated the environment. I would come home from school and watch Star Trek TNG and get a utopian view of the future, flip over to PBS and watch Carmen Sandiego or Square 1, have dinner, then crack open Microsoft Encarta on the family PC and browse through random topics. The world of technology felt like it held infinite promise.
xnx 10mo ago
Utopian Scholastic, Frutiger Aero, and Global Village Coffeehouse are all aesthetics finding new popularity on TikTok. Our era of grayeige may be coming to an end.
- chao- 10mo ago
  I sent this album named "Utopian Scholastic" to my business partner and he responded with "This feels like our childhood in a very deep way." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QOUNvMX-ws https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QOUNvMX-ws
  - soundworlds 10mo ago
    Also check out Encarta 99 album by Slowerpace! https://youtu.be/V_HpQdS0Ru8?si=dAnGBJS5M229xNBf https://youtu.be/V_HpQdS0Ru8?si=dAnGBJS5M229xNBf
    - wpm 10mo ago
      When this showed up in my YT recommendeds I think I played it on a loop the rest of the day.
01HNNWZ0MV43FF 10mo ago
Even in educational games you have to go through a waterfall :)
Jordan-117 10mo ago
It's not exactly the same aesthetic, but this reminds me of one of my all-time favorite ads from the period: Packard Bell's "Home" (1996): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiZcy86_L74 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiZcy86_L74 Kind of an "I Spy" meets "Tim Burton Batman" fever dream, ending in the kind of colorful fantasia you'd see on the cover of some Utopian Scholastic PC package.
- scythmic_waves 10mo ago
  Wow fever dream is right! The beginning reminds me of 'Dark City' (1998): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO6ApZlxqo8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO6ApZlxqo8 Sidenote: is that Clancy Brown doing the voice over on the 'Home' commercial?
wizardforhire 10mo ago
\ \ \ V A P O R W A V E / / / meets education
nswanberg 10mo ago
It's more of a catalog than a deep dive, but Evan Collins and friends have been cataloging examples of these aesthetics: https://www.are.na/evan-collins-1522646491/utopian-scholastic https://www.are.na/evan-collins-1522646491/utopian-scholasti... With lots more categories here: https://www.are.na/evan-collins-1522646491/channels https://www.are.na/evan-collins-1522646491/channels
soundworlds 10mo ago
> Time spent at the computer can be meaningful. The user just needs agency in that interaction. Sums up the core spirit really well. I've recently been using plugins like Unhook to hide YouTube recommendations by default, and can turn them back on when desired. I think people often forget that the act of exploration itself is an important part of healthy learning.
Apocryphon 10mo ago
Far Side Virtual by James Ferraro is this aesthetic in music form. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_Side_Virtual https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_Side_Virtual https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5fCXzkyYYM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5fCXzkyYYM
tolerance 10mo ago
I’m curious to know whether the people who wax nostalgic over this aesthetic and ones like it are the same people who condemn the reactionary politics that aim to restore the climate that allowed these aesthetics to blossom.
- NoraCodes 10mo ago
  > reactionary politics that aim to restore the climate that allowed these aesthetics to blossom Which policies, specifically, will result in a return to this aesthetic, in your opinion?
  - donkeybeer 10mo ago
    Sounds like bullshit to me, the early 90s seem in essence more liberal then today generally. Lgbt etc rights were not quite there in some places maybe but it was moving toward the right direction.
- SpecialistK 10mo ago
  I've been around the vaporwave scene (of which these other nostalgic aesthetics are adjacent) for years and let me tell you... for an art movement which seems to celebrate the consumerist childhood of millennials exploring shopping malls, the early(ish) HTML web, cable TV and 8 to 32 bit video gaming, there are a lot of vocal leftists who seem to abhor all of the things which made the aesthetic what it is.
  - rdn 10mo ago
    The music is that good - even political ideologues take a break to enjoy it
  - yazomie 10mo ago
    The originators of vaporwave - like James Ferraro, Lopatin, Vektroid/Macintosh Plus - didn't exactly "celebrate" uncritically that feel-good phase of capitalism, their takes on the plundered material featured quite a bit of darkness, eeriness and liminal feels in between the cracks... which may seem non-inexistent or sanitized with other vaporwave producers who followed, but make no mistake... Early on, music journalists framed vaporwave as implicitly an ambivalent critique of the '80s-90s, where: 1) as a child, that era seemed to be so exciting; 2) as an adult now, not only that culture did turn out to be an empty promise, but also a lot of it is dying or dead by now. In the US there are even dying shopping malls right now, which might seem weird in other countries, but that might partly explain the minor popularity of vaporwave in the US among Internet youth - even young people who aren't very "woke" can tell something's wrong at the heart of capitalism. Current techbro capitalism? Who really likes it? Being nostalgic is one thing, endorsing "fashwave" - which not for nothing was just a microniche within vaporwave - is another. Long story short, if you go past the surface fascination with the products of 80s consumerism, vaporwave is generally not really in praise of consumerism and it most certainly disrespects copyright, which is that fundamental to that economy, isn't it?
donkeybeer 10mo ago
The term isn't quiter about music it was about educational content but it feels close to describing a style of some of thr album arts in the mid to late 90s. (eg https://www.metal-archives.com/images/8/4/8/3/8483.jpg?3113 https://www.metal-archives.com/images/8/4/8/3/8483.jpg?3113 ; https://www.metal-archives.com/images/5/0/50.jpg?0113 https://www.metal-archives.com/images/5/0/50.jpg?0113 ) Its a nice coinage, they describe it better than I could.

70 points by birdculture 10mo ago

jgon 10mo ago

Of course there's a heavy dose of childhood nostalgia driving this, but I do love everything about this design style and outlook. It ties into the "early" days of the internet and web, when the vibe was around having a "Library of Alexandria" in your family home, the computer as a bicycle for your mind and just a general feeling of "abundance" that permeated the environment. I would come home from school and watch Star Trek TNG and get a utopian view of the future, flip over to PBS and watch Carmen Sandiego or Square 1, have dinner, then crack open Microsoft Encarta on the family PC and browse through random topics. The world of technology felt like it held infinite promise.

xnx 10mo ago

Utopian Scholastic, Frutiger Aero, and Global Village Coffeehouse are all aesthetics finding new popularity on TikTok. Our era of grayeige may be coming to an end.

chao- 10mo ago
I sent this album named "Utopian Scholastic" to my business partner and he responded with "This feels like our childhood in a very deep way." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QOUNvMX-ws https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QOUNvMX-ws
- soundworlds 10mo ago
  Also check out Encarta 99 album by Slowerpace! https://youtu.be/V_HpQdS0Ru8?si=dAnGBJS5M229xNBf https://youtu.be/V_HpQdS0Ru8?si=dAnGBJS5M229xNBf
  - wpm 10mo ago
    When this showed up in my YT recommendeds I think I played it on a loop the rest of the day.

01HNNWZ0MV43FF 10mo ago

Even in educational games you have to go through a waterfall :)

Jordan-117 10mo ago

It's not exactly the same aesthetic, but this reminds me of one of my all-time favorite ads from the period: Packard Bell's "Home" (1996): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiZcy86_L74 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiZcy86_L74 Kind of an "I Spy" meets "Tim Burton Batman" fever dream, ending in the kind of colorful fantasia you'd see on the cover of some Utopian Scholastic PC package.

scythmic_waves 10mo ago
Wow fever dream is right! The beginning reminds me of 'Dark City' (1998): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO6ApZlxqo8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO6ApZlxqo8 Sidenote: is that Clancy Brown doing the voice over on the 'Home' commercial?

wizardforhire 10mo ago

\ \ \ V A P O R W A V E / / / meets education

nswanberg 10mo ago

It's more of a catalog than a deep dive, but Evan Collins and friends have been cataloging examples of these aesthetics: https://www.are.na/evan-collins-1522646491/utopian-scholastic https://www.are.na/evan-collins-1522646491/utopian-scholasti... With lots more categories here: https://www.are.na/evan-collins-1522646491/channels https://www.are.na/evan-collins-1522646491/channels

soundworlds 10mo ago

> Time spent at the computer can be meaningful. The user just needs agency in that interaction. Sums up the core spirit really well. I've recently been using plugins like Unhook to hide YouTube recommendations by default, and can turn them back on when desired. I think people often forget that the act of exploration itself is an important part of healthy learning.

Apocryphon 10mo ago

Far Side Virtual by James Ferraro is this aesthetic in music form. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_Side_Virtual https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_Side_Virtual https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5fCXzkyYYM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5fCXzkyYYM

tolerance 10mo ago

I’m curious to know whether the people who wax nostalgic over this aesthetic and ones like it are the same people who condemn the reactionary politics that aim to restore the climate that allowed these aesthetics to blossom.

NoraCodes 10mo ago
> reactionary politics that aim to restore the climate that allowed these aesthetics to blossom Which policies, specifically, will result in a return to this aesthetic, in your opinion?
- donkeybeer 10mo ago
  Sounds like bullshit to me, the early 90s seem in essence more liberal then today generally. Lgbt etc rights were not quite there in some places maybe but it was moving toward the right direction.
SpecialistK 10mo ago
I've been around the vaporwave scene (of which these other nostalgic aesthetics are adjacent) for years and let me tell you... for an art movement which seems to celebrate the consumerist childhood of millennials exploring shopping malls, the early(ish) HTML web, cable TV and 8 to 32 bit video gaming, there are a lot of vocal leftists who seem to abhor all of the things which made the aesthetic what it is.
- rdn 10mo ago
  The music is that good - even political ideologues take a break to enjoy it
- yazomie 10mo ago
  The originators of vaporwave - like James Ferraro, Lopatin, Vektroid/Macintosh Plus - didn't exactly "celebrate" uncritically that feel-good phase of capitalism, their takes on the plundered material featured quite a bit of darkness, eeriness and liminal feels in between the cracks... which may seem non-inexistent or sanitized with other vaporwave producers who followed, but make no mistake... Early on, music journalists framed vaporwave as implicitly an ambivalent critique of the '80s-90s, where: 1) as a child, that era seemed to be so exciting; 2) as an adult now, not only that culture did turn out to be an empty promise, but also a lot of it is dying or dead by now. In the US there are even dying shopping malls right now, which might seem weird in other countries, but that might partly explain the minor popularity of vaporwave in the US among Internet youth - even young people who aren't very "woke" can tell something's wrong at the heart of capitalism. Current techbro capitalism? Who really likes it? Being nostalgic is one thing, endorsing "fashwave" - which not for nothing was just a microniche within vaporwave - is another. Long story short, if you go past the surface fascination with the products of 80s consumerism, vaporwave is generally not really in praise of consumerism and it most certainly disrespects copyright, which is that fundamental to that economy, isn't it?

donkeybeer 10mo ago

The term isn't quiter about music it was about educational content but it feels close to describing a style of some of thr album arts in the mid to late 90s. (eg https://www.metal-archives.com/images/8/4/8/3/8483.jpg?3113 https://www.metal-archives.com/images/8/4/8/3/8483.jpg?3113 ; https://www.metal-archives.com/images/5/0/50.jpg?0113 https://www.metal-archives.com/images/5/0/50.jpg?0113 ) Its a nice coinage, they describe it better than I could.