What are the terms and concepts that artsy people use today?
January 3, 2022 5:56 PM Subscribe
I am most curious to learn the words and ideas people are talking about today that they were less likely to be chatting about a decade or more ago. For example, I have noticed that words like "placemaking" and "uncanny valley" are frequently emerging from people's lips today, but I don't think that I heard those words 10 years ago. Are there other phrases and terms that are now common among the creative crowd?
(note that their corpus only goes up to 2019, so anything really new won't be in there. For instance "NFT" wasn't relevant in the modern sense until after that)
posted by aubilenon at 6:29 PM on January 3, 2022
posted by aubilenon at 6:29 PM on January 3, 2022
Best answer: Broken stair
DARVO
Racial reckoning
Black Lives Matter
Microaggressions
White supremacy
Decolonizing
Patriarchy
MeToo
Consent - enthusiastic, coerced
Stealthing
Greenwashing
Pinkwashing
Ableism
Montessori
Content creation
Influencer
Social media & related words: views, likes retweets, friending, bots, phishing, etc
Emotional Labour
Trans
Nonbinary
(Not all of these are specifically art words but everyone I know who makes art is pretty fluent in these concepts and they are woven into a lot of art)
posted by nouvelle-personne at 6:34 PM on January 3, 2022
DARVO
Racial reckoning
Black Lives Matter
Microaggressions
White supremacy
Decolonizing
Patriarchy
MeToo
Consent - enthusiastic, coerced
Stealthing
Greenwashing
Pinkwashing
Ableism
Montessori
Content creation
Influencer
Social media & related words: views, likes retweets, friending, bots, phishing, etc
Emotional Labour
Trans
Nonbinary
(Not all of these are specifically art words but everyone I know who makes art is pretty fluent in these concepts and they are woven into a lot of art)
posted by nouvelle-personne at 6:34 PM on January 3, 2022
Best answer: 'front loading' - refers to two rather different practices;
1: in-depth analysis to surface issues normally missed out of conventional aka siloed design, and built into design and budget to e.g. ensure higher build quality /longer life / maintainability,
2: hiding or aesthetic burial of functions or camouflage, where the clients' politics does not support inclusion of such function. Useful where clients are solely money-focused or ideologically opposed to holism, but where designer knows these functions are integral to project success (I have no idea how common this is but it's able to be discussed with colleagues without explanation). Joan Nassauer's, Messy Ecosystems, Orderly Frames forms some of the basis of this approach.
celebrating - object/space design so an (appropriate) object gains attributes that enhance it's status, and also (hopefully) act as cues for care to extend it's life.
posted by unearthed at 6:36 PM on January 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
1: in-depth analysis to surface issues normally missed out of conventional aka siloed design, and built into design and budget to e.g. ensure higher build quality /longer life / maintainability,
2: hiding or aesthetic burial of functions or camouflage, where the clients' politics does not support inclusion of such function. Useful where clients are solely money-focused or ideologically opposed to holism, but where designer knows these functions are integral to project success (I have no idea how common this is but it's able to be discussed with colleagues without explanation). Joan Nassauer's, Messy Ecosystems, Orderly Frames forms some of the basis of this approach.
celebrating - object/space design so an (appropriate) object gains attributes that enhance it's status, and also (hopefully) act as cues for care to extend it's life.
posted by unearthed at 6:36 PM on January 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
Best answer: 'Aesthetic' (as in "this is such an aesthetic"), either referring to newly created and enthusiastically subdivided styles such as:
Cottagecore
Dark Acadamia
Clutterbitch
Liminal Space
Goblincore
Grandma-llennial
etc...
Or just something that strikes a nostalgic, relatable, or aspirational chord in the viewer.
posted by ananci at 9:09 PM on January 3, 2022 [4 favorites]
Cottagecore
Dark Acadamia
Clutterbitch
Liminal Space
Goblincore
Grandma-llennial
etc...
Or just something that strikes a nostalgic, relatable, or aspirational chord in the viewer.
posted by ananci at 9:09 PM on January 3, 2022 [4 favorites]
"Thank you for coming to my TED talk" seems to have replaced "getting off my soapbox" a while ago (though for all I know it's on its way out already).
posted by Omnomnom at 9:41 PM on January 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Omnomnom at 9:41 PM on January 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
@ananci Thank you for helping me identify my aesthetic of clutterbitch combined with goblincore. Oh man, I am so messing with my Dark Academia daughter.
But back to the original question, I am not sure if it is considered purely in the arts community but anything related to social media, including memes. I hang out with old-fashioned art collectors, and their vocabulary seems more traditional in talking about pieces. Still, they are very much aware of social media and have integrated it into their art collecting experience and conversation.
posted by jadepearl at 10:02 PM on January 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
But back to the original question, I am not sure if it is considered purely in the arts community but anything related to social media, including memes. I hang out with old-fashioned art collectors, and their vocabulary seems more traditional in talking about pieces. Still, they are very much aware of social media and have integrated it into their art collecting experience and conversation.
posted by jadepearl at 10:02 PM on January 3, 2022 [2 favorites]
Best answer: A move to making art in collectives places an emphasis on co-operation and care.
posted by einekleine at 10:38 PM on January 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by einekleine at 10:38 PM on January 3, 2022 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Within publishing, "own voices" (or, more precisely "#ownvoices") was only coined in 2015. It has recently received some rethinking so it may not be used as much going forward.
I would describe my corner of publishing as "kidlit." I probably wouldn't have used that word a decade ago, and I certainly wouldn't have used it two decades ago. Here's a Google Ngram for kidlit and ownvoices.
posted by yankeefog at 2:34 AM on January 4, 2022
I would describe my corner of publishing as "kidlit." I probably wouldn't have used that word a decade ago, and I certainly wouldn't have used it two decades ago. Here's a Google Ngram for kidlit and ownvoices.
posted by yankeefog at 2:34 AM on January 4, 2022
Best answer: 'Disrupting' (e.g. "disrupting the stock market/dairy industry/post-colonialism") is fairly new, though it has made its way from the art world into the business world by now, so will probably be reviled by some artsy folk.
I would add 'myth-making' to 'place-making' and 'meaning-making'. 'Reclaiming' and 'owning' things, ideas and spaces is also happening a lot. Similarly 'contextualising'.
posted by guessthis at 4:21 AM on January 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
I would add 'myth-making' to 'place-making' and 'meaning-making'. 'Reclaiming' and 'owning' things, ideas and spaces is also happening a lot. Similarly 'contextualising'.
posted by guessthis at 4:21 AM on January 4, 2022 [2 favorites]
Best answer: "my practice"
(been around for a while but so has "afrofuturism" so I jumped in)
posted by intermod at 7:21 PM on January 4, 2022
(been around for a while but so has "afrofuturism" so I jumped in)
posted by intermod at 7:21 PM on January 4, 2022
Best answer: “My research” regarding art studio work, “social practice” regarding artwork that addresses social justice issues, cohort, space making, mapping (this comes around every 10-15 years), submersive
posted by jenmakes at 12:02 AM on January 5, 2022
posted by jenmakes at 12:02 AM on January 5, 2022
Best answer: Riffing off Jenmakes, 'immersive' and 'interactive' is all the rage (i.e. the new Van Gough exhibit, Meow Wolf, OneDome, etc)
posted by ananci at 1:43 PM on January 5, 2022
posted by ananci at 1:43 PM on January 5, 2022
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posted by aubilenon at 6:26 PM on January 3, 2022 [1 favorite]