HYPERCULTURE

By WGSN Creative team, 14 January 2011

A/W 12/13: macro trends Hyperculture Radical Neutrality Eco Hedonism

Discard singular ethnicity in favour of multiple origins and influences, sowing the seeds for an aesthetic revolution. Between cultures, genres, media and timelines lies the raw material for this infinitely versatile trend.

The increasingly important cross-cultural design and socioeconomic conversations have created a new visual order. The web has broken down physical distances and also accelerated cultural evolution. Global networked connections linking a new generation of artists, designers and thinkers make use of old traditions while also transcending their limits to create something new.

Research & Reference

MODERN FRIENDSHIPS / 360 HISTORY / GLOBAL HERITAGE / OPPOSITES ATTRACT

MODERN FRIENDSHIPS The internet and shifting economic power around the world have opened up new friendships and new cultural understanding. Globalisation moves from a sometimes negative force to one that promotes a positive exchange of skills, ideas and culture.

Made In... project by Prada

Young boy reads DC comic The 99

Made in... Miuccia Pradas latest project, Made In, involves luxury collections from around the world from Japan to Scotland, India and Peru. Produced in traditional workshops, the items exemplify the skill of each location. The idea subverts common conceptions of made in China or made in Italy as instantly denoting mass-market or luxury. Rather, Prada looks again at the origins of a garment as a statement highlighting specialised skills within that country. www.wonderlandmagazine.com

Rebranding culture The 99 is a group of Islamic comic heroes based on the 99 attributes of Allah. DC comics, an American publisher of pop culture icons, is combining these heroes with the traditional American characters in an attempt to help educate the young and break down post-9/11 prejudices. DC comics will publish six special crossover issues in which the 99 will be fighting crime while representing a peaceful, multicultural version of Islam. www.the99.org
WGSN 2012

Source: Leap, issue 3, July 2010

New visual conversations Leap is a newly launched bilingual Chinese arts magazine that opens up the contemporary Chinese art world to an English-speaking public. Issue 3 looks at the emerging relationship between China and Africa and how art is being used to strengthen mutual understanding. "The aesthetic emerging from the African/Chinese cultural crossover may be one of the most powerful to come out of the 21st century," says Phil Tinari, editor-at-large.

Coup decal Chinois

The Coup-Decal is a traditional dance of the Ivory Coast that actually began life in a Parisian nightclub. It fast became an underground DJ and dance scene favourite, spreading through many parts of Africa and into Europe via France. The arm gestures of the dance speak about daily life, work and globalisation. Recently it has spread via the internet to China, where it has evolved to include kung fu gestures in a powerful example of cultural absorption. www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

360 HISTORY New channels of accessibility make it possible to redraw global history to include multiple perspectives.

100 years of Chinese women

Global Aesthetics: Intersecting Culture, Theory, Practice conference artwork

Parallel histories In August 2010, the 5th anniversary edition of China Vogue ran a central spread entitled 100 Years of Chinese Women. Alongside this ran a second timeline mapping out the corresponding Western cultural happenings of the time. The multiple perspectives of the feature take a broader view of what is understood as traditional history by inserting the parallels and developments within other cultures.

A new visual order This years landmark Humanities Conference at New Yorks Cornell University was themed Global Aesthetics. The conference included speakers in arts, music and media from North America, South America, Asia, Australia, Africa and the Middle East. Professor Bruno Bosteels predicted a 21st century aesthetic revolution in our network-connected, globalised world, and promoted a democratic understanding of international visual culture. as.cornell.edu
WGSN 2012

(left) Iona Rozeal Brown (right) Serge Mouangue

Early work by Peng Lei

Beyond ethnic The Global Africa Project is a travelling exhibition featuring the work of over 100 artists working in Africa, Europe, Asia, the US and the Caribbean. The exhibition surveys the rich pool of new talent emerging from the African continent and its influence on artists around the world. Spanning ceramics, textiles, jewellery, furniture, fashion and architecture, the exhibition challenges conventional ideas of a singular African or ethnic aesthetic and identity. www.madmeusem.org

Recontextualised memories Chinese Renaissance hipster Peng Lei recently launched his paintings of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck (Mimi and Gaga) onto the art market. "This art is my vision of what Disney characters would look like if they were Chinese," he said in an interview at the 2010 Vice Young Creators project held in Beijing. His recontextualised childhood memories give a cultural twist to popular icons, adding the national idiosyncrasies of a country beyond its origin. thecreatorsproject.com

GLOBAL HERITAGE Future heritage is being created now and will be a non-traditional super-hybrid mix of influences.

Album artwork for Odd Blood by Yeasayer, 2010

Gonjasufi and GLK

Super-hybrid Art critic and Frieze magazine editor Jrg Heiser has introduced the concept of super-hybridity to the art world, claiming this movement will become the 21st century avant-garde. Super-hybrid art moves between cultures, references and media and uses the multiple influences and sources made possible by the internet. This idea moves on from last seasons JPEG Gen, with a strong message of cultural crossover.

Hyper-diverse The musician Gonjasufi has been quoted as an example of the super-hybrid the dreadlocked yoga teacher and exrapper from Las Vegas was born to a soul-loving Mexican mother and a jazz-loving Ethiopian-American father. During college he studied Islam and later turned to Sufi mysticism. His sound mixes Californian hip-hop, moody Memphis soul, George Clinton funk and a soft bossa nova with distorted Asian pop na-na-na vocals. WGSN 2012

www.frieze.com

www.sufisays.com

Enter the Ninja video by Die Antwoord, 2010

Post-authentic Die Antwoord is a futuristic hip-hop rave group from Cape Town, South Africa. Their songs and absurd music videos merge local African mythology and American hip-hop with Asian kung fu and Euro-Afrikaans trashy style elements. Die Antwoord toured Europe, the USA and Canada this year and have enormous internet circulation at a time when concrete notions of authenticity and identity are crumbling at an increasing rate. www.youtube.com

Everything In Between This informal music video created by a fan of the punk band No Age for their newly released single Skinned (Everything In Between) is a trademark super-hybrid aesthetic experience. Cultural practices and traditions, brands, icons, and various film genres are sourced from the internet and fused into a single story with multiple perspectives. The LAbased band is a strong advocate of the All-ages Movement Project which connects people across the world through independent music. www.youtube.com

www.dieantwoord.com

OPPOSITES ATTRACT Create a new cultural aesthetic by mixing brands, styles, values and icons that embody their cultural origins.

Logomania Pig by Hangfeng Chen, 2007

Jupiter Masjid by Kenny Irwin

Mega-business and ancient heritage Logomania Pig is a traditional Chinese hand-made papercut from Chinese rice paper by artist Hangfeng Chen. Mixing and manipulating corporate logos and traditional Chinese symbols and craft, the Shanghai-based artist makes intricate cutouts in the shape of a pig, an animal

Digital histories Futuristic Masjids is a Tumblr group where JPEG Geners celebrate the beauty of Islamic architecture. The mathematically intricate structures of the traditional Islamic school mix with the Western science fiction tradition and new digital image-making to create a psychedelic/futuristic
WGSN 2012

which symbolises fertility. He weaves a mixture of megaglobal businesses and his own ancient heritage. www.chenhangfeng.com

take on Islamic symbolist art. The page statement says: "It is all about Masjids of futuristic design existing or yet to exist. This a place to let your imagination soar." www.flickr.com

Shang Xia by Herms

Fork carpet by We Make Carpets 2010

Global luxury French luxury brand Herms opened its highly anticipated first boutique for its Shang Xia brand in September last year. The Shanghai store represents a bold and unique strategy by the international fashion house, which has created this entirely new Chinese brand and plans to make it global. Its second store will open in Paris in 2011. www.chinapost.com.tw

Cultural hypermarket At the Dutch Design week 2010, the humorous design collective We Make Carpets presented a traditional Turkish Anatolian rug constructed from European plastic cutlery waste made in China. The iconic 1950s American retrocommercial colour palette, recontextualised materials and mixed cultural reference highlights the contemporary cultural hypermarket of available materials. wemakecarpets.wordpress.com

WGSN 2012