Alex B. Kostiw

I explored how, in his 2005 book on the last generation of the Soviet Union, anthropologist Alexei Yurchak had argued that everyone knew the Soviet system was failing, but no one could imagine an alternative to it so ordinary people entered into a ‘play' with those in power, to maintain a pretence of a normal society. Everyone knew it wasn't real, but it was accepted as such. The society, Yurchak argued, was in a state of “hypernormalisation". This hypernormalisation is perhaps a defining feature of how political and elite power operates in the 21st Century. Even if we question what we are being told, we do not expect much to be done about it. So we either accept that or — increasingly — switch off from it altogether. We detach and protect. We allow the contempt that power wields to make us powerless — not only through the structures we must live in, but in our sense of ourselves.

“ordinary people entered into a ‘play’ with those in power, to maintain a pretence of a normal society. Everyone knew it wasn’t real, but it was accepted as such”

bylinetimes.com/2026/02/19/a...

But why say more?

Folio: 9 Heading (in margin): The Beautiful and the Useful Text: (laid out as free verse, while Rand is in poetic mode) Graphic design— which fulfills esthetic needs, complies with the laws of form and the exigencies of two-dimensional space; which speaks in semiotics, sans-serifs, and geometrics; which abstracts, transforms, translates, rotates, dilates, repeats, mirrors, groups, and regroups— is not good design if it is irrelevant. Graphic design— which evokes the symmetria of Vitruvius, the dynamic symmetry of Hambidge, the asymmetry of Mondrian; which is a good gestalt; which is generated by intuition or by computer, by invention or by a system of co-ordinates— is not good design if it does not co-operate as an instrument in the service of communication. Visual communications of any kind, whether persuasive or informative, from billboards to birth announcements, should be seen as the embodiment of form and function: the integration of the beautiful and the useful. In an advertisement, copy, art, and typography are seen as a living entity; each element integrally related, in harmony with the whole, and essential to the execution of the idea. Like a juggler, the designer demonstrates his skills by manipulating these ingredients in a given space. Whether this space takes the form of advertisements, periodicals, books, printed forms, packages, industrial products, signs, or TV billboards, the criteria are the same. That the separation of form and function, of concept and execution, is not likely to produce objects of esthetic value has been repeatedly demonstrated. Similarly, it has been shown that the system which regards esthetics as irrelevant, which separates the artist from his product, (continued in 2nd image)

which fragments the work of the individual, which creates by committee, and which makes mincemeat of the creative process will, in the long run, diminish not only the product but the maker as well. John Dewey, commenting on the relationship between fine art and useful or technological art, says: “That many, perhaps most, of the articles and utensils made at present for use are not genuinely esthetic happens, unfortunately, to be true. But it is true for reasons that are foreign to the relation of the ‘beautiful’ and ‘useful’ as such. Wherever conditions are such as to prevent the act of production from being an experience in which the whole creature is alive and in which he possesses his living through enjoyment, the product will lack something of being esthetic. No matter how useful it is for special and limited ends, it will not be useful in the ultimate degree—that of contributing directly and liberally to an expanding and enriched life.”[1] The esthetic requirements to which Dewey refers are, it seems to me, exemplified in the work of the Shakers. Their religious beliefs provided the fertile soil in which beauty and utility could flourish. Their spiritual needs found expression in the design of fabrics, furniture, and utensils of great esthetic value. These products are a document of the simple life of the people, their asceticism, their restraint, their devotion to fine craftsmanship, and their feeling for proportion, space, and order. Ideally, beauty and utility are mutually generative. In the past, rarely was beauty an end in itself. The magnificent stained glass windows of Chartres were no less utilitarian than was the Parthenon or the Pyramid of Cheops. The function of the exterior decoration of the great Gothic cathedrals was to invite entry; the rose windows inside provided the spiritual mood. Interpreted in the light of our own experiences, this philosophy still prevails. [1. John Dewey Art as Experience, p. 26 Etherial Things]

Emphasising the Dewey quote: John Dewey, commenting on the relationship between fine art and useful or technological art, says: “That many, perhaps most, of the articles and utensils made at present for use are not genuinely esthetic happens, unfortunately, to be true. But it is true for reasons that are foreign to the relation of the ‘beautiful’ and ‘useful’ as such. Wherever conditions are such as to prevent the act of production from being an experience in which the whole creature is alive and in which he possesses his living through enjoyment, the product will lack something of being esthetic. No matter how useful it is for special and limited ends, it will not be useful in the ultimate degree—that of contributing directly and liberally to an expanding and enriched life.”[1] [1. John Dewey Art as Experience, p. 26 Etherial Things]

Paul Rand, "Thoughts on Design":

Oooh I love a typography controversy... A typogroversy, if you will.

Organic shaped ceramics on a table in the gallery.

A pedestal with bookbinding thread hanging off it.

Gallery installation in progress: pedestals, ceramics hanging on threads, and the same gray work table.

Vinyl text on the wall reads "This time, holding its rough hand."

The terror of progress. "Slight Fictions" opens tomorrow.

The question of our time is how do you artistically rebel — and win — against a totally flat cultural landscape? And before my readers, who I assume are all approximately 36 years old and very tired, say, “so what, who cares?” This does matter. I mean, just look around right now lol. You know things are bad when even OpenAI President Greg Brockman is posting stuff, like “Taste is a new core skill.” If people had taste, your company wouldn’t exist, Greg. But if everything is just attention now, and attention is completely commodified by algorithmic tech platforms, how can you push back against that? Well, I am slowly coming around to a theory on the new cool: You have to essentially pre-deplatform yourself. Culture right now is determined not by human teams of editors and producers picking and choosing what youth culture gets the spotlight, but, instead, by the unthinking algorithms that power YouTube and TikTok. Which means the only things that have the level of scarcity and danger required to be seen as cool by young people will, slowly, but surely, be whatever is unacceptable on those platforms.

A post so smart I'm almost afraid to share it.

www.garbageday.email/p/the-only-t...

Mercury was only 50 arcminutes (0.8°) above a very young waxing crescent Moon this evening. KAS member Pete Mumbower captured this image from his home in Vicksburg, MI.

Print is a rent strike.

Now and then, I read something I wrote a while ago and think wow, that's pretty good!

Aquarius, or the Water-bearer, pours out his whole deluge and drowns us

Mistyped images as mimages, and on too little sleep under a lot of pressure at the moment, my brain went something like "mimages, but images are mimetic, so mimages" and I felt a burst of ah-ha! laughter in my chest, and here we are.

Photo of the fruiting bodies of a pure white fungus. The numerous fruiting bodies look like nearly round fans. They are growing on rotting wood, brown in colour.

Pleurocybella porrigens aka Angel Wings Fungus. Newfoundland, Canada. Photo from a couple of years ago, in autumn.
#fungi #fungifriends

The Forest-Like Interior of Coral Takes the Grand Prize in the CUPOTY 7 Photo Contest Western Australia-based Ross Gudgeon’s image of the elaborate internal structure of a cauliflower soft coral taking the top spot.

Adorable!

gradient.horse Draw a horse, watch it run!

Draw a horse and watch it run! Feel happy again.

gradient.horse

One of the first of the immensely popular 18th-century "it-narratives", Chrysal; or, The Adventures of a Guinea, by the Irish writer Charles Johnstone, tells the tale of a coin and the human intrigue to which it finds itself bearing witness: publicdomainreview.org/collection/c...

Hot take, but no one should be using ChatGPT and any AI products in general.

Even fucking sports knows that a team should have a cap on how much it gets to spend, AND SO SHOULD POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS

Also, very happy for Wolf Parade, couldn't believe my students had never heard of them

Omg that is a cheap shot at a millennial to have that Wolf Parade song playing at that moment now I'm crying

Okay, I'm late to Heated Rivalry, but Hollander is truly boring. Like a less emotive, less charming young Keanu.

Deep-sea explorers film massive animal drifting through darkness in South Atlantic Ocean | Discover Wildlife The rare giant phantom jelly was spotted during a science expedition off the coast of Argentina.

A popular press recap of all the cool stuff that @schmidtocean.bsky.social recently found off the coast of Argentina

Deep-sea explorers film massive animal drifting through darkness in South Atlantic Ocean | Discover Wildlife share.google/99B8UnGPRL7y...

6. I worked in this column while also finishing the final stages of our documentary on the Black Panther Party. It wasn’t hard to imagine COINTELPRO with an algorithm in a post citizens united landscape. Hoover would be vibrating at this kind of power.

❤️

Many of these made me laugh

Last batch of bone dry spirits heading for the kiln. Only lost two and a half in the process of finishing them.

I do what I must, professionally, but I have not invested any meaningful resources into social media since then because I don't think it really exists.

But YMMV, as usual.

This is what a pregnant turtle looks like under an X-ray.

Checklist written on a cute cat notecard from Loaf on Paper Brooklyn. •Is it FUN? (to draw) • Is it FUNNY? • Does it move the plot FORWARD? bonus ... • can you create FRICTION between text & image?

current “do you really want to draw this scene” list — if it doesn’t check any boxes, i make sure i know why it’s there (usually vibes)

Whatever my uni declares, I am not going to engage with AI. I am not going to use AI or teach students to use it. I am going to continue to explain to students why it is harmful. Absolutely absurd to allow this anti-intellectual, environmentally devastating technology into the university at all.