International Playground Collective @intplaygroundcollective - Tumblr Blog

While pedantic, it’s important to state that, with CGI worldbuilding, there really is no world being built, only hacked dioramas that disappear as soon as we look away.

-- The Render Ender, Al Warburton

#AI #worldbuilding #light #al warburton

From disruptive parties to stunts at Ministry of Sound, the viral formula of UK promoter Lab54 proves spectacle sells for a new generation.

or... Late-Stage Capitalism Co-Opts Underground Rave Culture and Gen-Z Eats it Up

The vibe remained self-conscious and lightly performative, the sense of connection you'd hope for from any half-decent club night frustratingly elusive. It felt less like being at a party, and more like being on a film set, a background extra in a movie about raving.

#rave #underground #lab54 #popup

Yet these spaces—brick-and-mortar beacons of acceptance and testaments to the fortitude of a flourishing Black avant-garde going back to the 1920s—were still able to establish themselves as true centres for culture. Consistency and stability meant that crowds developed a personal relationship with the space itself, offering both a sense of comfort and familiarity as well as a supportive base from which to explore further creative experimentation. – The Hidden Histories of America's Black Queer Clubs by madison moore, 26 Feb 2026

#black #queer #stability #ownership #madison moore #RA #history #spaces

It’s easy to feel stuck between straight clubbing’s policing of norms and hostility towards otherness, and the sort of commercialised gay culture represented in Manchester’s gay village or London’s Soho, which has coalesced around its own set of norms, aesthetics, and assumptions, which are often no less strictly enforced. DIY collectives are fundamentally built on pluralism, by coalitions of individuals who can acknowledge their collective needs and dreams, while understanding and embracing their differences. The dynamic inherent to clubbing in general is that we, as consumers, pay to enter into a culture that’s dictated by those that hold the purse strings. But by offering a clear route of empowerment to ownership, collectives and co-operatives also empower us to create the culture, from the ground up. It’s only in this way that the idea of queer community, with its specific connotations of togetherness embracing difference, can be genuinely meaningful.

– from Why we need our DIY spaces and co-operative venues more than ever, by Mike Smaczylo

#Mike Smaczylo #mixmag #clubbing #cooperative #diy #empowerment #collective

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Tango Rinascita - David Szauder showing us how to use AI creatively in art, with music by Gotan Project

#gotan project #surrealism #tango #surreal #black and white #David Szauder #Instagram

thevisualvamp

Count not

A city doesn’t have to be thriving economically for scenes to emerge (New York in the 1970s: highly creative but crime-ridden and shabby). It just has to be a place where creative people can afford to live and work, where they feel free, and where there are common spaces for them to gather (bars, restaurants, bookshops) and to see or hear each other’s work (galleries, venues, museums).

– Ian Leslie, The Death of Scenius

#scene #common spaces #ian leslie #scenius #economics

februarytrash

#statue

I remember being in my twenties and like shaking myself and being like: you're asleep at the wheel! remember… you are absolutely free. what do you want to do today? wake up! you're actually here. i doubt anyone would be able to catch that as the running theme in my work, but maybe it would be nice if someone did.

– Miranda July, What Else Might You Do? on Art21

#miranda july #artist #wake up