Damn° #86

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DAMn° is an independent publication with open-minded views on the interchangeable worlds of design, architecture and art. In making meaningful connections rather than dictating tastes, its approach to storytelling brings editorial content beyond hype or conventional academic debate.

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DAMN° 86 – Winter 2023: “Redefining Pop Culture”

“As the production of this issue comes to a close, I am listening to Cat Power’s cover of Bob Dylan’s famed 1966 Royal Albert Hall performance — a moment in which pop culture and intellectual depth collided to change the course of rock history. What’s remarkable about that is its mythology – the bootleg recording wasn’t made at Dylan’s Royal Albert Hall show at all — as is generally accepted — but at his Manchester Free Trade Hall concert.

But as pop culture often attests to, myth can be just as powerful as fact. Memes, viral content, influencers, and advertising constantly construct narratives around products, ideologies, and personas to create modern tales that captivate audiences worldwide. Its power is its broad influence and the message, more often than not, is a prettily packaged soundbite of joy.

In this way, pop culture leaps from decade to decade with a familiar and consistent aesthetic that conveys happiness and excitement — it is upbeat, colourful, and triumphant. But that’s only ever part of the story. Beneath the veneer of jubilance lies a complex interplay of emotions.

In this issue we deconstruct Pop to discover elements of irony, satire and escapism, and we look at how Pop’s biggest power lies in how it unifies, how it breaks the boring binary, and how it offers fans a temporary reprieve from the challenges and complexities of real life — and not just a peripheral ‘aside’. Critics can condemn pop culture for its commercialism, and for prioritising narratives and visuals that are merely uplifting and entertaining. What the sternest of detractors undervalue, however, is the relief such distractions from harsh realities can bring; the psychological calm amidst the worst of upheavals that a piece of pop refuge provides. And in times like these, when we all feel so divided, confused and scared, this feels like a crucial reminder that a common-ground amid division can still exist.

From the music of Serge Gainsbourg and Taylor Swift, to the design creations of Yinka Ilori, honey & bunny and Freddy Mamani, one can read about how creatives today use Pop to challenge, and even hold up a mirror to, our broader social values, or at least to capture our “collectively cultivated temperament,” as contributor James Dyer expresses it.

I invite you to reflect on TikTok’s extraordinary influence on fashion and on the rise and rise of microtrends, and to sit in with Al Hassan Elwan and Ruba Al-Sweel for their fascinating conversation on what postmodernism looks like and the pervasive effect it’s having on cultural production. The only conclusion can be that binary thinking is dangerous and must die, or to put it in a more pop-positive way: binary thinking needs a remix! In the colourful world of creativity, let’s ditch the black-and-white thinking and embrace a vibrant spectrum of ideas.

It’s an idea that isn’t even new — back in 1963 at the Bill of Rights dinner the man who wrote the lyrics I am still listening to said: “There’s no black and white, left and right, to me anymore. There’s only up and down, and down is very close to the ground. And I’m trying to go up without thinking about anything trivial, such as politics.”

I hope you enjoy the issue.”

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