Through Lines 192

Canadian indie band Men I Trust is new to me but I dig what I’m hearing. A little bit New Order, Cardigans, Phoebe Bridgers and maybe Julianna Hatfield. Very groovy.

• “Human curators bring nuanced understanding, contextual awareness, and ethical judgment to the table — qualities that AI, in its current state, is fundamentally unable to replicate.” Curation is the last best hope of intelligent discourse. 100%.
• I love this definition of photograph — “It is the creation of art through the curation of time.” Go read the rest of Clayton Cubitt’s brilliant On the Constant Moment too. I know I’ll be mulling it over for some time.
• Learning to Read Culture. Marcus Collins’ new book sounds like one I should read.
• The clarity of this promo film for the SX-70 produced by Eames Office is truly astonishing. Thanks to my pal Craig for sharing this.
• I wasn’t familiar with Eisenhower’s The Chance for Peace speech, but it’s a doozy. Toque tip to Kottke for this powerful and sadly still timely read.
• Speaking of a doozy: Every Bitcoin payment 'uses a swimming pool of water'. Things like this just make me shake my head and wonder if we’ve gone so far afield to be able come back to our senses about these technologies.
• While I applaud the efforts of Fairly Trained, what I’d like to understand is how the process works as models evolve over time. Is this a certify once and hope for the best going forward situation or do organizations need to re-certify at some interval?
• A lengthy but very good rundown of technofeudalism, enshittification and the need for unionizing in tech from Cory Doctrow.
• It’s not Teenage Engineering but might as well be. If I needed a new ridiculous hobby, I’d definitely consider getting the new Yamaha SEQTRAK groovebox.
• Digging the vide for Wilco’s excellent track Meant to Be. Just good old fashioned fun.
• The beauty of abandoned New York subway ads. Much texture.
• Just, no.

Notable Type Releases

• Dolph, Domicile Foundry’s low contrast rounded sans serif family uses its top-heavy swap of horizontal proportions of rounded shapes to imbue an unusual character. I dig the proportional styles even more than the true monospace myself.
• Monokrom’s Motorik is Swiss through and through. Systematic, consistent, and highly symmetrical in form, this one feel’s like a designer’s design if you’re in the market for a beautiful, functional Neo grotesk family.
• The highly calligraphic Black Beruto wins for the coolest lowercase ‘a’ and ‘g’ characters I’ve seen in a while, but also the delightful middle crossbar on the ‘E’ and so many other little details. Gorgeous this one is.
• Made for the future, Altiplano’s space-age sans serif Gigamax is ready to assume control. Definitely something I can imagine on the side of a rocket or used in the UI of the next great sci-fi film with its very high x-height and slightly quirky details.
• Tim Ripper and Paul Barnes’ Commercial Type Vault release Royal Gothic got a six weight upgrade and now feels like a fully formed family. This one packs a hefty punch.