The ~Ａｅｓｔｈｅｔｉｃ~ thread - General thread for aesthetic trends including but not limited to fashion, art, and home design.

[NoReturn]

Hypothetically, when does something go from being horribly "dated" to being a "timeless classic"?

I'd guess 20-30 years after when it was popular at the earliest. I say this because that's about the amount of time it takes for a child who grew up with certain things to reach adulthood and enough financial stability to actively choose how to decorate their space.
It's kind of like how you'll see nice wood furniture all over the place, but not a lot of people have shag carpet toilet seats unless they are mentally unwell.

 

[Hepativore]

I'd guess 20-30 years after when it was popular at the earliest. I say this because that's about the amount of time it takes for a child who grew up with certain things to reach adulthood and enough financial stability to actively choose how to decorate their space.
It's kind of like how you'll see nice wood furniture all over the place, but not a lot of people have shag carpet toilet seats unless they are mentally unwell.

From what I have experienced and seen, the main reason why shag carpet fell out of favor is that while it was comfortable and soft, it was a pain in the ass to keep clean, and the long fibers would often get tangled in vacuum cleaners, so shag carpet went out of style for practical reasons.

Still, it was very nice and luxurious to walk on.

 

[Anonitolia]

The home interior aesthetic of the 1970's was also underrated. The browns, soft yellows, oranges, and greens give rooms a nice warm and cozy feeling, in stark contrast to the whites, blacks, and greys that have dominated homes for the past 30 years. I especially like the color Harvest Gold that was popular on large appliances and cabinets back then.

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Hypothetically, when does something go from being horribly "dated" to being a "timeless classic"?

I disagree in that I think it looks kind of shit (I'm okay with yellow in a home but that's just too much lol), but absolutely agree in that it looks better than the shit they're putting out today. Was driving past some 70s-era buildings on the way to get groceries that were across the block from a brand-new condominium and it was just sad to compare the two. The new condo had green and brown stripes down a white and black exterior in the worst shades imaginable (I'm not exaggerating when I say it was diarrhea-esque brown and vomit green) and that was the only hint of color on the whole fucking thing, whereas all the one-story 70s houses were covered in yellow but their roofs had much more variety, the tiling wasn't all black and white marble/steel, their windows actually had cozy-looking frames instead of taking up the entire damn wall...

EDIT: Found a room with a similar shade of green. Just imagine that as a big stripe down the side of a wall and all the orange as shit brown and you've got the only splashes of color on that whole building

 

[NoReturn]

EDIT: Found a room with a similar shade of green. Just imagine that as a big stripe down the side of a wall and all the orange as shit brown and you've got the only splashes of color on that whole building

I've seen that green too! It's all over the place. I think it's gotta be really cheap to make or something because it's not regional.

 

[سلیمان عثمان]

The home interior aesthetic of the 1970's was also underrated. The browns, soft yellows, oranges, and greens give rooms a nice warm and cozy feeling

Feels warm, I like it.

I understand that anything from the Durka-Durka side of the world is necessarily controversial but I absolutely adore Persian ceilings. They have done some remarkable things using sunlight and the way it casts shadows against geometric patterns as the time of day changes. It is not a strictly Persian / Iranian architectural practice but I do believe they originated or at least popularized it. Similar ceilings can be found in Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan and other countries.

Spoiler: Nifty ceilings made by persons of terrorist descent

 

[Anonitolia]

Feels warm, I like it.

I understand that anything from the Durka-Durka side of the world is necessarily controversial but I absolutely adore Persian ceilings. They have done some remarkable things using sunlight and the way it casts shadows against geometric patterns as the time of day changes. It is not a strictly Persian / Iranian architectural practice but I do believe they originated or at least popularized it. Similar ceilings can be found in Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan and other countries.

Spoiler: Nifty ceilings made by persons of terrorist descent

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Those images are gorgeous but they hurt my head to look at lol

 

[Hepativore]

Feels warm, I like it.

I understand that anything from the Durka-Durka side of the world is necessarily controversial but I absolutely adore Persian ceilings. They have done some remarkable things using sunlight and the way it casts shadows against geometric patterns as the time of day changes. It is not a strictly Persian / Iranian architectural practice but I do believe they originated or at least popularized it. Similar ceilings can be found in Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan and other countries.

Spoiler: Nifty ceilings made by persons of terrorist descent

View attachment 5039857View attachment 5039860View attachment 5039869
View attachment 5039863View attachment 5039866View attachment 5039872

Oh, I have always admired the aesthetic of classic Arabic and Middle-Eastern architecture, particularly onion domes as well as the striped pattern of masonry that a lot of mosques and palaces have that were built during the golden age of the Islamic world during the Middle-Ages.





I would like to see an Elderscrolls game set in a world with an Arabian Nights-style fantasy aesthetic.

 

[AbyssStarer]

Peak building Æsthetic is an older brick building with a concrete box next to it. Even worse...

Fun fact: (this is my understanding of being told by a native) Germany has a law that buildings ~40 years old can't be redesigned, all renovations have to honor the original look of the building. Sometimes when places get ~35 years old the owners rip buildings down to refresh the years.

American cities generally aren't good looking but most of the modernist vs. classic stuff going on in Europe is worse. It made me truly understand the meaning of "eyesore."

 

[LinkinParkxNaruto[AMV]]

I would like to see an Elderscrolls game set in a world with an Arabian Nights-style fantasy aesthetic.

Final fantasy Xii is not the best game but the orientalist inspired art direction still looks pretty good. That game has beautiful concept art.

 

[Anonitolia]

Germany has a law that buildings ~40 years old can't be redesigned, all renovations have to honor the original look of the building.

the only good thing that country has ever done

 

[Yaks]

I desire the pink bathtub and blue tile.



I will also accept the blue tub/pink tile.

It think part of it is because it's what my grandma's bathroom looked like.

 

[Vril-Dame vom Aldebaran]

Since we're at near eastern architecture and tiled bathrooms now... I really, really love middle eastern style tiled bathrooms. Preferably blue or green in color.

The combination of colors and rounded shapes makes me feel really cozy.

But the greatest aesthetic of them all is the lavish central courtyard with plenty of plants and a pool in the middle.

I love it so much!

 

[Anonitolia]

I've always liked stuff sort of like this. Mainly like the first gif. It's a bit hard to explain- I guess kind of like "3D sprites". I realize the second gif is just voxels- I don't like those, but it demonstrated what I meant by "3D sprites" so I included it anyways. Basically just a 3D model that looks like it's a sprite. I don't think it really has a name yet, primarily because it's such a hard aesthetic to pin down and relatively niche, but I'd absolutely love to play a game with this style someday hopefully this becomes foreshadowing and I hope it catches on.


I also have a soft spot for that shitty old internet compression from the 90s where everything had dithering and slightly-off colors. It's really hard to find examples, so I'm mostly taking from a game called Hypnospace Outlaw that recreates the feel really well (alongside whatever old-ass websites I have rotting away in my bookmarks).

Coromon does this really well but for whatever reason I cannot link to gifs of its sprites for the life of me and they break when I try to download them
Also going to shout out the spiritual cousin of Pixelated 3D, which is basically just really good spritework that looks semi-3D.

I was going to make a separate thread for these but I'm realizing now that their definitions are so extremely vague that i kinda can't lol. So i'm just posting here instead. Excuse the excess of Pokémon, its fanart is the only kind I bother to download most of the time.

 

[Anonitolia]

Apologies for the double-post, but I so badly miss when water looked great in games that it's not even funny. So many gorgeous games set on tropical islands with lots and lots of water purely so that new consoles could flex their brand-new 3D graphics. Even if the rest of the game looked like mid-poly dogshit, the water would always look great. Glorious



These really aren't the best examples (since most of the graphics look good even outside of the water), and I couldn't think of too many off the top of my head, but I distinctly remember water being a thing and a shortcut to showing off that your game had good graphics until like 2006 or something. Then people started caring less and less until we reached modern day, where most water is just a flat blue color with maybe a few gradients here and there.

 

[LinkinParkxNaruto[AMV]]

I also have a soft spot for that shitty old internet compression from the 90s where everything had dithering and slightly-off colors. It'

If you havent played it already the game Hylics might be up your alley.

but I distinctly remember water being a thing and a shortcut to showing off that your game had good graphics until like 2006 or something.

I remember Mario sunshine, FFX and the first level of Sonic Adventure. the tropical levels there frel nostalgic for that era. The gamecube was originally going to be named the dolphin just to go with a water theme, water was the hype back then.

 

[Anonitolia]

If you havent played it already the game Hylics might be up your alley.

Oh god, don't remind me
That poor game has been stuck on my backlog for so long

 

[bliblblblbbllb]

I'm just not a minimalist. I have a whole little library of books on minimalism (this is an ironic clue) and I do agree with a lot of the principles at play. I only own clothes I actually wear, I live a pretty modular lifestyle, I don't buy random crap for the sake of it and I'm a real stickler about iconography.... But guess what. I like having things. I like buying things.

For instance, I wanted to bring a casserole to an event. I could have wrapped the dish in a towel to keep warm. Instead I bought a pretty anchor hocking casserole kit with a dish and lid and carry case. I was excited for actual days and still get a rush out of looking at it because I like cooking for others and I value presentation.

I also hang a lot of art on the walls, and buy gizmos that could be automated by a computer, like owning a physical calculator and memory game.

That's where I disagree with minimalism, and I think this is more of an internet meme variety.

Hur dur, why would you ever invest in anything when you can:
Sit in a plastic folding chair
In an empty room
Look at your computer
Entertain yourself with virtual simulations of having things

It might even be some kind of psych-op that having cheap virtual hobbies is a good replacement for reality.

You know how ZOO ANIMALS live in exhibits full of stuff? As ENRICHMENT? You know how they give toys to chimpanzees? And you think humans should live in plain white boxes with nothing on the walls? Only if you spend all your waking hours outside your house doing exciting things, maybe.

Another consideration is space. I like the wabi sabi style. I went through a coffee table book that showed off every room of a wabi sabi house. The owner said their beloved hobby was plants. Most rooms had one or two plants. Something clicked in my head. Yeah, you can have 1-2 plants per room when you have 10 rooms in your house. I lived in a studio apartment with one window. My hobby was plants but I literally didn't have the floorspace to spread it out and make it look minimalist. If I downsized to only 1 or 2 plants total, that's not really a hobby anymore. Instead I had 8 plants in my windowsill, and this guy had maybe 15 plants across an entire house.

Another strange nitpik: The standard feng shui and general advice is to have floor length curtains in a bedroom. I. Cannot. Keep. Them. Clean. I open my window a lot and paint in large scale in my bedroom, and the curtain flies around even if I tie it back, and my cats play in it, etc. Buying sheer white was one mistake I guess. I'm buying new curtains that go to the windowsill, and the old ones will be scrap fabric. The "right" fix isn't always right at all.

 

[NoReturn]

For instance, I wanted to bring a casserole to an event. I could have wrapped the dish in a towel to keep warm. Instead I bought a pretty anchor hocking casserole kit with a dish and lid and carry case. I was excited for actual days and still get a rush out of looking at it because I like cooking for others and I value presentation.

Honestly, there's something to be said for that.
There is value in beauty, I think, even if it's just that it inspires you to keep things nice or treat them well. Presentation isn't everything, we all know this, but I'm sick of the uglyfication of everything in modern life. It's nice to have beautiful things and a nice space.
It doesn't need to be what other people consider "nice" or what society tells you you need, but sometimes I see photos here and elsewhere of people's rooms and apartments and I think it's just reflective of their internal reality.

the curtain flies around even if I tie it back, and my cats play in it, etc. Buying sheer white was one mistake I guess. I'm buying new curtains that go to the windowsill, and the old ones will be scrap fabric. The "right" fix isn't always right at all.

It's kind of like the toilet paper thing.
Putting the roll the "wrong way" makes sense if you have a cat that likes to unroll the TP.

 

[bliblblblbbllb]

This might be an overly specific thing....
But I've met several people who think they're some elite because of their minimalism and eshewing expensive goods....

When really they are afraid of the responsibility that comes with beautiful things and value. And potential judgment.

 

[NoReturn]

This might be an overly specific thing....
But I've met several people who think they're some elite because of their minimalism and eshewing expensive goods....

When really they are afraid of the responsibility that comes with beautiful things and value. And potential judgment.

You know, I've noticed this as well, it's like a bell curve, too, but one where the hump lies earlier along the income line than the actual middle.
If you're poor-but-smart, you don't want to end up falling victim to the Diderot effect (thanks Kiwis for teaching me about that), or being burdened with a white elephant.
Once you have a little more money, though, you can trick yourself into doing things that you "can afford" in the name of minimalism. E.g. Maybe you don't buy certain things because "If I need them, I can just buy or rent them later."