TL;DR,
WELCOME TO THE·BY·PRODUCT. A WEEKLY RECAP OF WHAT IS GOING DOWN & WHAT IS COMING UP ON THE INTERNET.
THE WEEK IS UPON US AND WITHOUT FAIL ANOTHER EDITION OF THE NEWSLETTER IS HITTING YOUR COLLECTIVE INBOXES.
THIS WEEK’S “HOT TAKE”
A CARTEL OF SUPERSTARS HAS CONQUERED CULTURE.
CATEGORY: CHILL VIBES
It’s common for New Yorkers to seek refuge in air-conditioned cinemas during a heatwave. So when Chinese electrical appliance manufacturer Midea wanted to launch its Midea U cooling unit in the US market following the hottest July on record for New York City, it played on this insight.
Working with agency Pereira O’Dell, New York, Midea created a 90-minute film starring the air conditioning unit and held the premiere at the Village East by Angelika cinema in Manhattan.
Attendees were offered a discount on a Midea AC unit, and viewers were encouraged to cool down, check their emails, and make phone calls if they wanted, said Robert Lambrechts, CCO of Pereira O’Dell, in a press release. ‘The draw is the chill, not the content.’ / Via Contagious
CATEGORY: NOT COOL
Is anything cool anymore? “Nothing is great because everything is good,” W. David Marx writes in his new book Status and Culture. Marx’s book is wide-ranging, touching on everything from music to mega-yachts to explain the mechanisms of culture: the way trends work, how taste is formed, why Roman emperors were totally obsessed with squashing purple dye-excreting sea snails. The book represents a massive attempt to decode why we like the things we do. / Via GQ
CATEGORY: METAVERSE
Roblox outlined a vision for the future of its busy social gaming platform on Friday, incrementally ushering its community into a new era that might not always resemble what’s come before.
At RDC, its annual developer event, the company highlighted new features designed to improve the platform, with a focus on expanding the platform to offer more sophisticated experiences to age groups beyond the 13-and-under crowd that’s long been its bread and butter. Now, Roblox will implement age guidelines to make clear lines between content that’s appropriate for all users, those nine years old or up or only those above the age of 13. / Via Tech Crunch
CATEGORY: FASHION
Time Sensitive is a super cool, thoughtfully designed, audio forward platform. In this episode they go deep on what makes Rachel Comey tick. The wife and I were actually in her shop this past weekend. So I can attest to all that follows.
Fashion designer Rachel Comey has always done things in a tightly focused way—and on her own terms. For more than two decades, she has followed an independent, wholly original approach to clothing design and retail that has resulted in her eponymous brand’s staying power. Read or listen here. / Via Time Sensitive
CATEGORY: ROBOT ART
Artist Agnieszka Pilat has been teaching Spot® to paint self-portraits. The agile mobile robot, made by Boston Dynamics to resemble a dog-like creature, faced a backlash last year when the New York Police Department revealed one for the first time in public. The incident caused a commotion and the NYPD stopped the use of the faceless machine after public outcry.
These robot creatures make many of us uncomfortable, but Pilat is a techno-optimist, and I haven’t met one in ages. / Via Hyperallergic
CATEGORY: SUBSTACKED
Matt Klein, the power behind zine just went down the rabbit hole on all things pertaining to reboot-culture. It would make little to no sense to say anything more than go read it now. / Via Zine
CATEGORY: THAT’S HOT
Heat recycling is the new hot thing. Cities in Sweden and Norway are aiming to recycle the heat given off by data centers in an innovative effort to repurpose what's usually treated as a useless byproduct of computer servers' constant number-crunching. / Via Axios
CATEGORY: MATERIAL WORLD
In a generational riff on a Madonna classic, “We are living in a material world, and Gen Z is a material girl.”
The desire to easily afford material goods is driving 45% of the generation to achieve financial success, according to Bank of America’s new Better Money Habits report that surveyed over 1,000 adults. They’re the generation most likely to feel this way—only 34% of millennials and 30% of Gen X and boomers each feel similarly. / Via Fortune