https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-44/the-intellectual-situation/why-is-everything-so-ugly/
Such bad lighting - and such large portions! We exit the movie theatre to a bright realization: our films are exactly as overlit as our reality. As our environment has become blander, it has also become more legible-too legible. That's a shame, because many products of the new ugliness could benefit from a little chiaroscuroed ambiguity: if the world has to fill itself up with smart teapots, app-operated vacuum cleaners, and creepily huge menswear, we'd prefer it all to be shrouded in darkness. For thousands of years, this was the principle of illumination that triumphed over all others. Louis XIV's Versailles and Louis the Tavern Owner's tavern had this in common: the recognition that some details are worth keeping hidden. But now blinding illumination is the default condition of every apartment, office, pharmacy, lanudromat, print shop, sandwich shop, train station, airport, grocery store, UPS store, tattoo parlour, bank, and this vape shop we've just walked into.
