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“What aesthetic is this?” Elizabeth Goodspeed on the push to categorise visual culture
Internet culture, driven by algorithms and moodboards, has turned visual elements into searchable "aesthetics," fundamentally changing how we categorize and remember creative output.
What: Elizabeth Goodspeed argues that online culture transforms images into labeled "aesthetics" (e.g., Vaporwave, Cottagecore), a phenomenon driven by feeds and algorithmic grouping. This practice, initially a participatory online activity, now influences cultural memory and shifts the understanding of visuals from singular works to categorized trends.
Why it matters: This piece provides a critical look at how digital platforms and AI (especially through image generation prompts) are altering our perception and classification of visual culture, favoring easily searchable, compressed "keywords" over the nuanced historical, social, and material conditions that originally produced art and design.
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