Culture – if we can ever think of it in such a monolithic, homogeneous way – used to be a thing of mass movements and casting agent caricatures (see The Breakfast Club as a sublime example).
Moments in time where one song, one style, one scene tended to dominate a few easily definable alternatives, and all accessed through the same narrow tracks of music shops, printed magazines or TV shows.
Now, it splinters into an ever-growing number of algorithmic subcultures, each with its own social codes and savant-gatekeepers. In this edition of Collide, we wonder what’s lost when creative taste becomes so individualised and fluid – but what might be gained from our expanding cultural networks, too.
From the communal chaos of the rave to the curated chaos of the charity shop, our contributors explore how identity keeps finding new ways to express an old desire: to be part of, but distinct from, the crowd.
Jonathan Rhodes
Co-Director, Linney Create