The Bluestocking, vol 79: Blue, Gold and Grey
Happy Friday!
I know, I know, you're reading this in a sleep-deprived haze, high on the sheer excitement of the local election results. Richmond, eh? Trafford!
In case you have not been glued to Twitter and telly overnight, here is my upsum: like a campsite toilet, British politics is blocked, and no one wants to go in and sort it out because they know how messy it's going to be.
The next election is wide open, so ignore anyone who tries to read across from the results: it depends on who the Labour and Tory leaders are, whether Brexit is "finished" (ha) and what on earth the state of the economy is. My biggest question is: what in hell's name are the Tories going to put in their next few Queen's Speeches?
Helen
Blue is in fashion this year (because an algorithm says so)
Other ways in which our experiences are warped by algorithmic platforms include Spotify possibly commissioning original music from “fake” artists to match the latent content desires of its audience, as Noisey noticed; delivery restaurants that are only virtual, conjuring a digital brand out of a shadowy group kitchen and serving food via Uber Eats; the surreal kids’ YouTube videos, which exist because they are rewarded with views by the feed algorithm and thus earn their creators advertising profit; and the globalized visual vernacular of Airbnb interior decorating, which approximates a certain style emerging from the platform itself. Having analyzed the data from some platform or another, these are things the machine thinks you want, and it can serve them up immediately and infinitely.
Related: this start-up sends you extremely plain clothes. Also related: there are some crazy jeans out there.
Ethan Zuckerman: Why the internet is boring
So Google has the first model that really works on the internet, which is directed advertising. Where someone basically says, “Hey, I’d like someone to come fix the hole in my roof; I’m in this town, find me a roofer.” And Google doesn’t really want to hold on to you; Google wants to send you on to a roofer very quickly. The roofer wants you to show up as a qualified lead. Everybody’s happy; everybody benefits.
But when I go onto Facebook and I grouse about how much it sucks that it’s still snowing in western Massachusetts and my roof is leaking, I don’t really want someone to lure me away at that point. I particularly don’t want to hear about a vacation; I don’t want to hear about the new car that would make my life happy. What I really want is to grouse and get sympathy from friends, so Facebook at that point is in conflict with me.
For the Intelligence Squared podcast a few weeks ago, I talked to Jamie Bartlett of Demos about AI, tech addiction, the big companies and the future of democracy. Here's another take on that, which explains something I hadn't even noticed: why internet innovation has stalled over the last decade.
Secrets of the casting director
Bad audition stories are a reliable source of grim humour in an actor’s life. Like Redmayne, who got carried away in his conjoined-twin-rocker audition and tried to strangle himself with a sock. (“The thing about Nina Gold is that she has a pot of videos that could be career-ending,” he said.) Or Jake Gyllenhaal, who was told by Peter Jackson he was the worst actor he had ever seen, when he went in for Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings. Some actors develop tricks to better their chances. Chris O’Dowd apparently used to enter an audition and, in a bid to be remembered, announce that he’d just been bitten by a dog.
Sophie Elmhirst is a very classy feature writer (and former colleague). This Nina Gold profile has quotes to die for.
Quick links:
The Reunion brings together some of the cast and creatives on The Young Ones, my favourite sitcom as a teenager.
An excellent Twitter thread of proof we live in a "boring dystopia"
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: the milkman of public intellectuals. She always delivers.
Reece Shearsmith sings Here Comes The Hotstepper.
Guest gif: I filed a 4,000-word feature this week. Emerging back into the world like:
See you next time!