Steve Coy

"sloptimization" on my woty candidates to watch list

This is good, you should read it

a big ass orb that floated in off the set of Dune Part II (negative?)

Sloptimization may kick out a banger or two. But like other seemingly hegemonic tech-enabled forces, it’s not an immutable fact of life. There are worthy avenues for intellectual stimulation and creative integrity—smash that Subscribe button to get a year’s worth of Hell World for just over the cost of one hour of Orb Time! A post-postmodern reinterpretation of the public cultural space may feel as wildly out of reach as universal basic income, but you do what you can to keep your own face out of the slop trough.

I can’t say I got nothing out of spending an hour amongst Instagrammable Orbs, but we don’t have to keep drinking that garbage. Creative integrity is all around you, maybe even within you, idk it’d be chill to nurture that imo

the famous rotunda at the San Francisco palace of fine arts, or Naboo from the Star Wars prequels

I tell you very mordantly that the whole thing is staged at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts, a publicly funded, no-cost space with a nice lagoon. It also has an escape room if you’re not blackpilled

an adult ball pit with a descending ceiling mounted sphere playing genAI video at sloptimized art exhibition Emotionair San Francisco

To wit, Emotionair’s centerpiece, a football field-sized ball pit. Signs, and thankless proctors with megaphones, admonish guests against jumping into, throwing, or lingering too long amidst the balls. Instead, visitors are instructed to pay attention to “The Performance,” a video display of AI-generated squirmy, cuddly, and fluffy imagery projected on wraparound LED screens and a sphere suspended over the center of the pit. Two neutered, enraptured minutes later, it’s on to the next room–the exhibit, we’re told, is woefully behind schedule today.

Here’s the centerpiece exhibit at Emotionair, an immersive inflatable art experience by the Balloon Museum USA LLC (a division of Lux Entertainment S.p.A.). It’s half womb, half tomb, and all slop

Mediums like art, film, and food once reliably promised occasional enrichment via the unpredictable, even uncomfortable thrill of discovering something new. Lux Entertainment and its cohort have something else on offer: a familiar, frictionless, reduced-agency complement to the tech-enabled capital and labor-market forces grinding us all into dust. It’s all delight, no surprise. The things we get to do for fun are now fully sloptimized.

Sloptimized experiences like adult ball pits and $20 milkshake grotesqueries run on infantilization, conflict avoidance, anti-social disengagement—and the same rails as the enshittified technologies with which they share venture investment

It’s cozy in here and I hate it Pop-up pop-art; Sex Change and the City; You Are in a Museum

New writing up at Welcome To Hell World! I went to a pop-up art exhibition that inspired a piece on the tech-enabled, emotionally blunted cultural “movement” I call Sloptimization:

www.welcometohellworld.com/its-cozy-in-...

I found this one a really enjoyable and silly mashup that reminded me of Knives Out. Our girl still has it; she just can’t be bothered to summon it for the entire runtime

You can. And black tea once cooked down makes a fine substitute for wine

“daddy, these instructions are just a United Airlines flight manifest”

wow just heard about something more satisfying! the cool crisp taste of diet pepsi

few things more satisfying to me than a seamless, efficient trip from the airport on public transportation. It’s possible and it’s good for the soul

pondering life’s mystery, its glittering complexity (imagining Juliette Binoche pronouncing the word “squirrel”)

happy birthday to one of da goated posters

ATM max daily withdrawal limit ass bribe

I’d be chill with weaving one though. Can’t get caught in your own web!

I’m not sure they understand how fucking frustrating it is for Computer to misunderstand you and do the wrong thing just one (1) time

“The writer’s room for The Wire? I guess you could say it was more of a womb-type enclosure”

The Last Jedi is the only post-Lucas Star Wars release with a credible claim on being Art in addition to Product, and the only one we will ever get

I like when he goes ding dang dong dong ding dang dong dong ding dang, and then does it again to make sure we got it

Barbara Stanwyck, The Only Allowable Republican

for some reason

my oafishness makes relocation a challenge. can you accommodate with some kind of trebuchet service?

bio blurb from the website Andscape: “Justin Tinsley is a senior culture writer for Andscape. He firmly believes “Cash Money Records takin’ ova for da ’99 and da 2000” is the single most impactful statement of his generation.” No he doesn’t

this has “charlie brown had hoes” energy. No you don’t Justin. You don’t believe that

HUTZ: No, poop & pee zone!

First they came for the Autists who were not Jews but were Neurodivergent Zionists and Proud Friends of Jews,

Smike was an energy drink sold in Western Pennsylvania for 3 months in 2004 that got banned after tests confirmed it was 13% alcohol and 17% liquid natural gas

restaurants that claim “homemade seasonal preserves” but don’t cook the fruit to a high enough temperature to activate the damn pectin, YOU 🫵🏻 are the “Oaf of the Day”

I mean it was worth $200 million to her,

my mom sent me a link to a job with a drone company with clearly 100% evil branding and I thought for a sec “hm. well maybe they make normal drones…”