The Danger of Minimalist Design (& the death of detail) A short thread...

What I'm talking about is unconscious, small m minimalism. Which has become the social default for seemingly every design choice, whether architectural or corporate or anything else. It is a troubling phenomenon because of what minimalism represents: a lack of detail.

So when small m minimalism has become the social default for everything from benches & bollards to skyscrapers & national assemblies.... We have a reduction ad absurdum of cultural aesthetics: Somebody might not like a detail (read: character) so there can be no details.

And suddenly everything, everywhere starts to look the same. Absolute neutrality. No detail. No identity. What does that say about us?

The thing about couture gowns is that they’re not just beautiful on the outside, they also have internal structure meant to support and sometimes shape the body wearing it. You’re not supposed to need anything else. No bra, no corset, no shapewear. The dress does the work.

“Most clothes should cost way more than we’re used to in order to pay laborers fairly” and “some people can not afford to pay more for clothes” are connected facts that boil down to: people need to be paid more.

Defending exploitation of garment workers because you are also exploited is not class consciousness nor is it solidarity.

Considering how many times our tax dollars have bailed out airlines, they should be flying people away from natural disasters for free. Nobody should be paying American, Delta, Southwest or whoever for a flight out. They definitely shouldn’t be able to price gouge tickets!

Public transportation via bus systems, trains, hell even school busses should be used to get people out! It’s a sick society and system that’ll allow people to die if they don’t have the money to survive, while not making sure people have living wages to begin with.

There should’ve been systems and plans in place since Katrina on a state and federal level. Not profit driven plans, but life saving one’s. Where the disabled, incarcerated, homeless, poor and working class are provided for. Not left to live or die from the kindness of strangers.

Prime Day is a good day to remember that while Amazon was fined just $7,000 for dangerous conditions that caused an Amazon worker to die in Indiana, Jeff Bezos became $1.6 billion richer YESTERDAY & Amazon made $30 billion in profits last year. Every Amazon worker needs a union.

Just so people reading this know: When you have covid, you exhale covid particles into the air. Even with just ordinary breathing. Those particles can then float on the air for hours.