From national-treasure-in-waiting John Higgs:
… if the medium is the message, and scrolling through the surface froth of endless irrelevant novelty, AI slop and algorithmically optimised hate is our culture, then this still leaves us with the question of what is the counterculture? It is anything that shows you how limited, small, unhappy and manipulative our digital streams are. It is sinking deep and losing yourself in a single work of mystery, art or beauty. It is encountering something much bigger, and the act of being engrossed. It is choosing to watch Mullholand Drive instead of opening social media. It is impossible to immerse yourself in something like that and then emerge blinking back into mainstream consequence-free cultural consumption, and not see it as lacking.
Trapped in our algorithm-forged manacles, it can seem that there is no way out. But as I noted earlier, the appeal of a Lynch-type mystery is the idea that the world can be overturned. That is the type of mystery we need now. It is, after all, the job of counterculture to show the mainstream what it cannot see.
A very useful and timely formulation, in answer to a question that has been bugging me for some time.
Which means the new question is: OK, how do I make something like that?
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