To Being A Little More Dazed And Confused
Linklater’s Suggested Menu for Reducing Information Carbs. Also: Trash Art, Sprite Sheets, and Reality APIs
The theatrical release of Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused recently turned 30. Vanity Fair sat down with Linklater to discuss the film’s lasting cult appeal.
In a quote, Linklater points out the currently reality of filmmaking in Hollywood:
And this is what’s lost today: the idea that you could make a weirdo film like Slacker, but it’d be a kind of a cult hit on its own indie terms, and then a studio would like your script and give you $6 million to just make a film. That is just never happening again.
In truth, he is right. It’s not the 90’s anymore. Studios have become extremely risk-averse alongside a drive to create by trusting the data. There’s been backlash about the discovery that studios have even started creating “super fan focus groups”.
Those who did talk with Variety all agreed that the best defense is to avoid provoking fandoms in the first place. In addition to standard focus group testing, studios will assemble a specialized cluster of superfans to assess possible marketing materials for a major franchise project.
“They’re very vocal,” says the studio exec. “They will just tell us, ‘If you do that, fans are going to retaliate.’” These groups have even led studios to alter the projects: “If it’s early enough and the movie isn’t finished yet, we can make those kinds of changes.”
As a result, the only ground-breaking is the continued, systemic fracking of the IP, spilling forth more guard-railed slop. There’s this insistence that data is supreme, no matter the form.
The truth is, I don’t think this is unique to the film industry. As the cost of data keeping and data analysis has continued, it’s become easier to launder decision-making to a metric or data-point. In the pursuit of derisking and being ‘objective’, a decision has to be backed up by data.
The inclination isn’t wrong: knowing more is better. The problem occurs when certain data *crowds out* out a balanced information diet. Companies become engorged on processed data carbs because it’s easily available (21st century tech), tastes good (number go up), and gives you energy (actions).
But, it’s risky when data becomes a peer to judgement. The production of data, especially in the creative industries, should be an ancillary bonus, not its pursuit.
Companies don’t just have the same problem. We all do, and a part of the film’s appeal shows us what life was like before the chronic availability of information.
The Theme of Dazed and Confused
Taking place in the 70s, it follows a group of teenagers on their last day of school (for the year). It’s famously thin on plot and thrives on vibes, focusing on rebellion, freedom, and the oppressive mundanity of small town life.
I’m not a rewatch kinda guy, preferring new stories over comfort. But, if there’s one film I’ve watched the most in my life, it’s Dazed and Confused. It found me at the same time as the plot: transiting from a teenager to a young adult. Facing similar conditions, living in a small town dominated by an overpowering partriachal and masculine culture, rewatching it was my little rebellion. To see nerds look down on initiation rituals, fighting back against “male monkey motherfuckers”, and just really wanting to dance, was catnip for me: the nerdy kid who loved doing musicals.
As life continued, I eventually tempered my middling teenage misanthropy and the film took a backseat. In part, it’s also because I “found” my people, being able to meet really smart and interesting people as university continued, joining a great post-graduate research lab, and eventually starting to code in crypto in 2014.
Having recently watched it again in 2024 (after I realized my wife hadn’t seen it), some of the themes don’t land for me anymore: the teenage hormonal drama, the abuse, and the destruction of perfectly fine mailboxes. But, if there’s one thing that still sticks around: it’s the value of unstructuredness.
Until cellphones and the internet came to be, you *had* to live life with a sense of accepted unstructuredness. You couldn’t communicate with everyone at any time and so even if you tried, you had to go with the flow when plans didn’t exist. As a middle millennial, I got my first cellphone on the cusp of becoming a teenager. So, I only remember a youth of landlines and unstructured neighborhood play.
But now, focal points in society (like a local hangout) have decreased and with it, unstructured social-ness. No one “drops by” anymore. A random party in the woods (after the last day of school) at the drop of a hat through word of mouth doesn’t happen anymore. Woodstock wouldn’t happen today, because people would’ve been notified to turn back.
In both film-making and life, we’ve become accustomed to treating easily produced information as the most important.
Modern society does not know how to opt out of chronic availability of direct communication in the same way that creative studios don’t know how to opt out of the chronic availability of data-driven decision-making.
Easily available and easily produceable information is the equivalent of carbs, when you also need, protein, fats, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and water.
Information carbs are: easily available data that feels good and gives you energy, but is poor in excess.
Information protein are: knowledge that builds “brain” muscle and intuition. Requires habitual stress to learn.
Information fiber, vitamins, minerals, water are: process know-how, ensuring data gets where it needs to go.
This is a diagnosis: that we’ve increased the primacy of information carbs in our life.
But what to do about it?
A Healthy Balanced Information Diet
In data-driven decision-making it’s the realization that the most readily available data isn’t necessarily the right data. In Jerry Muller’s, “The Tyranny of Metrics”, a key recommendation is to avoid the pitfalls of narrowing success to a singular metric. It means that a company starts to prioritize the metric at all costs. In the worst cases of inertia, it even becomes impossible to redefine what the most important metric is.
In our social life, it’s realizing that the most readily available tools for communication isn’t necessarily the only way to engage with life. When people turn away from (real) carbs to a more balanced diet, it initially doesn’t feel good. And so in the same way, moving away from direct phone-to-phone or algorithmic social media to a more unstructured social life can feel empty and unsatisfying. You might even face the equivalent of a food desert, realizing no-one around you actually lives an unstructured social life anymore. In both cases, it’s moving away in the short-term from known, easy information carbs to a more uncertain and complex reality.
But, that’s okay. Because Richard Linklater’s film isn’t called “Clear and Certain.” Its lasting appeal comes from sometimes being a bit more dazed and a bit more confused.
Bonus Content!
A nice week of rest for me! Traveling, mostly alone without responsibilities has given me ample time to get back to my projects. Feeling spiritually rejuvenated!
🖼️ Art - Lumen Prize Benefit Auction
As I mentioned previously, “See You There” is taking part in an auction for benefit of the Lumen Prize, conducted by Sotheby’s. Lots close on the 16th, so if you want to bid, please do! Quite proud as this is the first time any of my art is conducted through an auction house like Sotheby’s. :)
There’s also works from other artists I admire: like Sasha Stiles, Botto, Damjanski, and 0xHaiku.
✍️ Writing - Drafting Continues
Found some time to write along the Pacific Ocean. So lovely. Progress is continuing, slowly, but surely. Also slowly but surely getting happier with the book. It’s filling in, like slowly building out a home with plants, furniture, and knick-knacks. It’s feeling more homely. It feels like it is getting lived in.
📚 Reading - Haruki Murakami - Kafka on the Shore
Finished it. Couldn’t put it down when I reached the second half. Definitely the 1st time I encounter a novel that’s more (magical realism) vibes than logic. Reminds me of abstract art where a larger part of the meaning comes from the experience, not the object itself. I enjoyed the way it felt, but it might just be because I enjoy new things. Whether I prefer post-modern magical realism vibes or more sincere plots, I don’t know. I enjoyed the confusion and the dreamyness of it. I also loved seeing a concept made, in part, literal: eg, having trauma literally present as a metaphysical dislodging. It’s actually very Pixar. 😅
🕹️ Gaming - Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
I’m such a sucker for Zelda games. Really adore the puzzles in this one! BTW, I recently wrote about how some franchises should their lore more like myth ((source)). Zelda franchise is a great example.
💾 Links!
Trash Art
Super interesting performance art: mimicking trash.
ht Misha!
Sprite Sheet Evolution
Ensemble has a great post on the history and evolution of sprite sheets.
I wouldn’t mind an art exhibition focused only on historic sprite sheets in gaming!
AI Style Transfers
I’ve become fascinated with these clips of AI generated graphics over older games.
I don’t know at all what computing capacity we’ll need to generate this as a real-time render. That’s not the interesting part for me. Rather, if this works, it begs the question what the most fundamental forms of a reality are, such that it’s possible to complete a style-transfer without errors. Like, at what point would an inference not understand that an object is *not* a car? Or a human? Or a building? Like, how low-grain can you make these objects before the AI infers the wrong thing?
What’s the most sufficiently legible API over reality?
🎶 Music
Back on my electronic kick. 😅
Departure - Tonada de Astromelias
Enjoy! That’s it for this week folks. Hope you get to enjoy a lovely (dazed and confused) sunset!
See you next week.
Simon