Illuminating letters: influence and taste
What is creative taste? Do your influences make you who you are? How have algorithms shaped how we’re influenced? Who is the well-est man in the land?
Dear reader,
As evidenced by a work blog post from 2018, I’ve been thinking about how our influences shape us for a long time. While I definitely don’t look as young as I did in that photo, I do still wholeheartedly agree with this tweet:
That’s why I’ve made it my mission to ask every friend and family member I can about a certain advert that’s become ubiquitous on the tube.
In the spirit of acknowledging your influences, this zine would not have come together without my reading of Filterworld by Kyle Chayka, so many of Austin Kleon’s great newsletters referencing taste, The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge, and this evergreen video on the taste gap from Ira Glass.
As always if you want to have a physical copy of this zine, perhaps to read on your own public transport journey, there are a few copies in my store. All profits will go to Art Refuge, as there isn’t a charity for terrible adverts.
Last but not least, if you’ve enjoyed this letter or any of the previous editions please do share it. Personal recommendations are how we break out of relying on algorithms for the content we consume and share our taste with the people we like.
It also helps me make more of these!
Write/draw again next month,
Natalie