RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE AND WILL*AMS SONOMA CEO LAURA ALBER
And OPTIMISM with some very wonderful photos of IRA's "AIRSHIP" in SF. LONG LIVE HUMAN QUIRK!
TODAY we’re talking WILLIAMS SONOMA AND THE DOWNFALL OF DÉCOR; IRA KURLANDER’S “AIRSHIP”; SUSAN SONTAG; and a small little window into why you, A HUMAN, must always matter
*WE PROMISE THIS ENDS ON A HIGH NOTE*
Dear Snoops,
Today, we take inspiration from the act of seeing our new-favorite images of Ira Kurlander’s CRITCAL SAN FRANCISCO HOMEWORLD (which he refers to as “AIRSHIP”), by FOR SCALE pal Austin L. Here:
(How this leads us to rage against WILLI*MS SONOMA CEO Laura Alber we shall swiftly explain. In short, the humanity of décor is at stake. Sadly.)
For now, return to the images above and appreciate AIRSHIP through AUSTIN eyes.
The double-height living room, it is explained by Ira, is his version of some “great European spaces, rooms with domes, with frescos, with fireplaces in the shape of faces” – a description that has just a dash of the unhinged to it. Highly approved.
The face he devised, early → revised → reality:
The result, a “PERSONALIZED HOME” is also “HOME, PERSONIFIED”.
Plus, here’s to his Exhibitionist Bathroom, whose shower bar preempts the style of a 00s pop star’s stage rig.
And, all of this human quirkiness caused us to reflect on Culture’s current “quirk” drug of choice: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE.
And yet, as QUIRK as A.I. may be (and so far, it doesn’t seem to be a choice but a limitation), we shall question the value of that particular sort of quirk in décor, as well as raise some flags about A.I. as a force of DÉCOR BANALITY – both in ways that will be obvious to you and also perhaps not.
And, Yadda yadda, we land on some concerns about Williams Sonoma, via Ashley Homestore and Wayfair. THIS IS IMPORTANT STUFF, so we implore you to open your brains to this today:
SUCCESS IS IN HUMAN ERASURE FOR WILLI*MS SONOMA; A.K.A. YOU CAN’T SPELL WILLI*MS SONOMA WITHOUT “SO, NO.”
LAURA ALBER, their CEO, is a darling of the World Economic Forum, and that truly delivers enough information about her for us to be EXTREME SKEPTICS. And, yes, are they the worst culprits of what we are about to explore – No. But, we are sensitive and caring about Williams Sonoma because it was beloved by a FOR SCALE ULTIMATE HERO, Julia Child.
To explain our concern:
To Décor (VERB) is – and must remain, and must be reinforced as – a deeply HUMAN experience. As we have maintained, greater permission must be given to us to explore DÉCOR EXPERIENCES FROM WITHIN i.e. TASTE as self-determination, not as participation; STUFF as nesting, not as status; (and, separately, the strict limitations to overhead lighting).
This is not an opinion shared by corporate Excel sheets, who demand instead Always More Consumption and efficiency, and F*CK if that’s the energy we seek to import into the homesphere.
Various players currently offending us are all doing so by leaning in ARTIFICIAL INTELL:
→ DUFRESNE SPENCER GROUP AKA “ASHLEY HOMESTORE”
You have never shopped at ASHLEY HOMESTORE, if we were to venture a guess. And, yet they are noteworthy as one of the latest to employ ARTIFICIAL “INTELLIGENCE” in the form of an enslaved, ever-available, disembodied woman - the chatbot “JENNY”. (In the spirit of SIRI, ALEXA, CORTANA by Mirc*soft, and ‘GOOGLE ASSISTANT’ – all of which, when launched, were ‘A Lady’ Only…) It’s the digi-home’s new “GET BACK IN THE KITCHEN”. (ASIDE: CURIOUSLY AT ASHLEY HOMSTORE SHE WAS NOT SIMPLY NAMED “ASHLEY”?)
→ WAYFAIR
When artificial intelligence isn’t being used to reinforce the nasty structures of humanity, it is being used to gaslight us into believing we are “CREATING”. In the last year, seventy thousand of us have “created” rooms using the crutch of Wayfair’s interior décor A.I. “tool” which they call “DECORIFY”.
You are told that by uploading an image of your home and receiving rendering-ified shoppable suggestions you are in fact ”DESIGNING A ROOM”. No matter what prompts you offer, we promise you this is not décor-ating, and YOU are not “DOING” it. (Décor is a life lived; not an Image Shopped.)
Their slider-example is a “Wasn’t this better before?” gaslightery mindf*ck (not that it was really “It” in ‘before’):
→ OF COURSE, WILLIAMS SONOMA
And, now to LAURA ALBER, keen on amplifying her profits by applying A.I. to chat-bottery (POLL! WHAT WOMAN’S NAME WILL WILLIAMS SONOMA USE?!), supply chain yadda yadda, and – this one is personal – COPYWRITING.
There will be, we must argue, a significant disruption to Good Décor should this become a common investment – and, who cares about Dufresne, but hungry competitors are definitely looking to Williams Sonoma for ideas.
THE INDIVIDUAL ENJOYMENT OF DÉCOR REQUIRES THE SKILLFUL INTERROGATION OF DÉCOR
There are two reasons we’d like to highlight that intersect with our general philosophy on DÉCOR AND THE INDIVIDUAL ENJOYMENT OF IT:
THING IS THING; DÉCOR IS CONTEXT
What transforms “thing” to “décor” is its arrangement, i.e. the context in which it is placed. “Thing” can be judged in isolation, of course, but it’s almost silly to do so before it lands somewhere – you may or may not like a rug, but who cares? Usually one instead asks the question “Does it work?” i.e. “Does it work with that chair?” Its value can only be realized in context.
Context is visual, in part – and Wayfair is already working to ensure your visual cues are completely UGH-ified (or Turn Keyed).
But, in another part, context is words. Words take an image and have the ability to then suggest to you “You see it like this here, but it can be more.” or “You are looking, but did you notice this?”, yadda yadda yadda
Décor writing, sadly, is already a bit UGH – do we think A.I. will somehow UGH-ify imagery but make good décor writing and description? (No.)
Do we think layoffs at magazines (i.e. Condénast) and a squeeze-death of the middle-profit independent publication make décor writing better? (No.)TRICKLE UP WRITERNOMICS
Exceptional décor writing – LIKE OURS!!!! :) - doesn’t just happen. We have greying hair; we’ve seen a lot. We don’t write basic furniture descriptions unless we really want to; but, CRUCIALLY, once upon a time we had to.
Writers with minds for décor might often start with such work. Sh*t copy*, like that of Williams Sonoma, is a training ground. (*Things like “Create barista-quality coffee at home with a little help from Breville.” It could have been divine but it’s generic. Also, it only helps “a little”? HOW CONDESCENDING!) For writers to advance as Givers of Décor Context, we must first be terrible at it.
Do you get what we’re saying? Laura Alber would like A.I. to suck up the space where future Décor writers can be terrible and banal. She sees a short-term problem that is: copywriters must be paid. She imagines a future where no humans but her and the shareholders of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. are paid from the wealth created by Williams Sonoma.
BUT, back on message: Without terrible, there is no good; without good there are no smart ideas about context; without smart ideas about context, décor is more likely UGH.
ASIDE: ON FINAL NOTE
A.I. reflects and reinforces the cr*p of life, it has no ambition to shock the system. (If it’s happy to reinforce racism, it’s happy to reinforce majorly UGH décor.)
LAURA ALBER doesn’t want A.I. to help you interrogate your décorworld.
BOOK CLUB: A NYer ARTICLE ON “RETHINKING LUDDITES IN THE AGE OF A.I.” BY FOR SCALE PAL KYLE C.; AND “WILL A.I. BECOME THE NEW MCKINSEY” in which it is written:
“The Luddites were not anti-technology; what they wanted was economic justice” - and we add to that the want for Meaningful Human Décor.
ENDING ON A HIGH NOTE: A return to IRA and AUSTIN L. and the AIRSHIP
The relationship between the A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) and A.I. (Austin-Ira) is thus: good décor requires not just “quirk” but human quirk. Décor is to be read like a book; it helps us understand humanity, and to mechanize it entirely is really to make it all “PRODUCT”. (BUMMER!)
THE IRA OF IT
Of course, décor is not instant, not flat. It is produced as reactions to one’s interests and personal version of The World, and is also - at its best – the result of time passing and EVOLVING desires and things being accumulated to fill the emotional and practical needs of the time / a time.
Even if Decor*fy had the power to create IRA’S EXACT DÉCOR EXACTLY LIKE THIS, it would never (NEVER!) be as compelling as that created by Ira’s own human life – the one life he had to lead, and which resulted in these decisions.
THE AUSTIN OF IT
In MOST cases, exceptional décor is brought to us through the lens of image (AND/OR writing, of course), and this is very CULTURAL THEORY 101 yadda yadda but ergo “things are ‘mediated’”. We don’t see Ira’s Airship, we see A STORY ABOUT IRA’S AIRSHIP, and a story is a kind of interrogation.
THE POINT IS we have seen IRA’S “AIRSHIP” probably forty times, in different pictures of it, and yet how can it appear to us as newly engaging?
It gives you the chance to be interested in both THE IRA (place) and THE AUSTIN (interrogator, story-teller).
THIS IS WHERE WE SHALL SUGGEST YOU WATCH JOHN BERGER AND SUSAN SONTAG DISCUSS “STORY”, 1983. Here is an hour-long full version (BEST WITH POPCORN).
And, HERE is the most crucial 1 minute, where Sontag reminds us that STORY is BOTH TRUTH TELLING and also INVENTION (how delightful! And “BEST WHEN HUMAN” in our humble opinion):
A.I. FOR A.D. EXPERIMENT
This is Artificial Intelligence (by way of DALL-E 2), asked to make “the perfect Architectural Digest interior in a photographic style”:
You have nothing to interrogate here except for the quality of A.I. itself.
Long live DÉCOR! Long live HUMAN QUIRK!
Until next time,
The living room of “Airship” !!!
...I think about Kurlander’s house and also Charles Jencks The Cosmic House a lot...