#almostdone

digital tears - don elektro - 2025

Aesthetics is a Trap

In the post-ironic age of constant communication, aesthetics becomes a snare. What shines, distracts. What looks good, feels true. And what fits neatly into the feed gets rewarded—regardless of emptiness or deceit. “Aesthetics is a Trap” is not some shallow anti-beauty slogan, but a warning: against surfaces, against the seduction of form, against dressing up the void. Design becomes camouflage, sedation, a simulation of meaning. Critique? Framed. Rebellion? Layouted. Resistance? Curated for export.

Graphic Design is just the Spearhead of Propaganda

Graphic design is never neutral. It always points somewhere. It has a purpose, a direction, an agenda. It is the spear, piercing the first layer of perception. In advertising, politics, activism, or education—design organizes vision, encodes meaning. And rarely questions what it's delivering. In the neoliberal megamachine, good design becomes an accelerant for ideological flow. Whoever controls design, controls the story—or hides it.

NeoLibArt always wins

Here’s the brutal punchline of the now: even resistance gets commodified. Subversion sells. “Radical aesthetics” become branding tools. Institutional critique becomes an exhibition theme. Capitalism eats everything—including its enemies—and turns them into limited edition merch. What once screamed is now a market trend. “NeoLibArt always wins” isn’t resignation—it’s a bitter refrain, a reminder that even critical art isn’t safe.

*The fetishisation of things* - don elektro - 2025

The fetishisation of things as a form of modern escapism—especially in a society increasingly detached from cohesive moral or communal values—can be seen as a symptom of a deeper existential and spiritual vacuum.

Where Marx viewed fetishism as a misrecognition of labor in commodities, and Freud saw it as a psychological displacement, your framing suggests a more contemporary and perhaps more cynical twist: people turning to objects, brands, aesthetics, or even ideologies not just for meaning, but as a distraction from a crumbling moral or ethical framework. In such a context, the object doesn't just stand in for labor or desire—it becomes a surrogate for belief itself.

In this view, fetishism isn't a misrecognition but an active substitution: when shared values collapse, the mind clings to things—tech gadgets, luxury fashion, wellness rituals, online identities—as stand-ins for coherence and purpose. These objects don’t just symbolize desire; they create a false sense of control and rootedness in an otherwise fragmented and unstable world.

Just a few more days until you finally say goodbye to all the stress and anxiety of exams!