潮流的魔力就是让你忽然就讨厌起原来喜欢的事了，这是背叛的力量。朋友说流行九分裤以后大家一夜之间就不怕冷了也不养生了，真奇怪啊。
现在的潮流还是在极简的大旗下吧，其他的分类比如说复古，街头，蒸汽波，都在和极简的风格不断搭配，就连大行其道的禁欲系也是极简的。
极简 + 科学风 = 禁欲系 ？
对科学的崇拜已经很多年了，最近人们又喜欢上了科学家，睿智的科学家，甚至只是理科生们也可以，在人们的想象里他们是一群不会谈恋爱的人，一定是常常欲火焚身，有爱不能说，只能直瞪瞪的忍着，这个形象真是惹人爱怜。
但很遗憾这不是同情弱者，科学家是强者，他们的角色设定是一群有发达的大脑，清晰的逻辑，洞悉真理的能力，分分钟能毁灭世界的人。他们的羞涩被定义成尊重妇女，不强人所难……
所以禁欲系的意思不是你不行，而是你不能，暗指你能力特大。和闷骚一样，但闷骚有不敢的意思，禁欲系是你敢，但你被束缚了。
被什么束缚了呢？比如世界杯上遵守斋戒的运动员，比如亚洲人儒雅内敛的性格，或者当权而廉政的官员。
你为什么会听从这个束缚呢？这里有点意志的胜利的味道吗？
禁欲系是对意志的胜利的修正，禁欲是禁止你能力强的部分，而不是禁止你能力弱的部分。法西斯的意志是让人控制自己精神上的弱点，走向完美。这个意志开放了上限，敦促你不断向上，而禁欲系则是开放了下限。
吃是一个下限，一个人会吃、爱吃就不会是凶恶的。大家聚在一起谈论着厨艺，其乐融融。放松了下限，种花养草吃饭恋物拜金就都不是问题了，对情色的追求也成为人性的合理性，人们撤销了对情感的道德要求，不要求永远的爱了，劈腿离婚不婚都可以，社会生活中的家庭形式面临解体。在生活中人们已经不能承受充满回忆的老物品之轻，断舍离教人把家扔空，号称极简到了极致。饱含情感的电影、绘画作品，都让人羞愧不耐，而相对平和中立的抽象艺术越来越被喜爱。
现代完美的人不设下限，个人主义让人相信：我的low点就是我的亮点，我人性闪耀的那一刻就靠它了。魔戒里的霍比特人一天吃七顿饭，每天除了邻里之间就没什么像样的追求了，只有他们抗拒了索隆的诱惑。最后弗罗多·巴金斯带着魔戒艰难走向末日火山，在电影中，弗罗多的形象和米开朗基罗的大卫一模一样。
魔戒刻画了今天社会的主要类型：被魔戒诱惑的普通人咕噜姆变得不人不鬼，贪吃爱享受重友谊的霍比特人皆大欢喜，最后才归顺吾王的博罗米尔，还有一些大人物：白袍巫师，各位王……还有一类，魔兵，据说是被抓的精灵不堪折磨黑化而来。想起来就一身冷汗，我一定要当大脚丫子的霍比特人啊！
2016年新版电影《泰山归来：险战丛林》中，泰山知书达理敏而好学有勇有谋还长得一身好肌肉，但他算半兽人吧。这预示着禁欲系已经尾声了，也许川普做了禁欲系的终结者呢，但放松的下限是收不回来了。早已开始的复古风也是对禁欲系的反驳。复古主要有两个，一个是复到了灿烂的三十年代，像《了不起的盖兹比》这样的电影，是对极简的翻盘。而在中国的对三十年代的复古有其他的原因，比如对民国时期的中国人生活美好的想象，这是在否定现在的生活。
另一个复古是八十年代，对于我这个亲身经历过八十年代的人来说，看到现在的复古风，我只能感叹：原来你是这样的八十年代！我都没见过，你是哪国的？
八十年代的复古风是极简的，大色域的，是反禁欲的，更萌而可爱。
新媒体艺术是什么？
过分点说视频就是绘画早已到来的未来，综艺节目是装置艺术的发展。技术发展快，新媒体很快就变成了旧媒体，作品中重要的不是技术。
新的技术为什么会向这边发展，而不是那边？这个方向是人能选择的，因为潮流给了边缘文化充分的机会不断的翻盘，新的概念在生长过程中会定义自己，修正以前，改变现在的生活方式。
（展览的名字叫 “数字house”，仿照了 live house 的名字。）— 文／董菁
The magic of trend lies in its power to take one away from what used to be an appeal, in other words, the power of betrayal. Overnight few of us got cold easily or talked about regimen anymore when ninth pants came into fashion, a friend told me.
When Minimalism becomes one of the key words these days, other styles, like vintage, street, vaporwave, and even the prevailing abstinent line, without exception, are trying to match with it.
Minimalism + Science = Abstinence ?
Our worship of science can be dated back to the early times, and now we fall in love with scientists, smart scientists, or even science majors, who are believed to be a tribe that never fall in love but get burnt by the fire of desire. When love is inhibited, they can do nothing but resist the urge — what an adorable image!
But unfortunately, it is far from sympathy for the weak, because scientists, as they are, are overmatches with powerful brains, strict logic, keen insight, who can annihilate the world any second. Their shyness is interpreted as respect for women, so they do not push…
So the abstinent line refers to those who are physically empowered but morally disciplined, implying extraordinary capacity. It is similar to “man show”, but in “man show” there is a hint of timidity. Abstinence, however, emphasizes that one has the guts but is highly restrained. Then, what restrains an athlete fasting during the World Cup, a gentle and reserved Asian, or an honest official with considerable power?
Why should one allow himself or herself to be restrained? Is there anything about victory of the will?
Abstinence amends the victory of will, as it is directed at one’s most powerful part rather than the opposite. Fascism tried to bring under control the weakest part of our mind so as to reach perfection. In other words, Fascism urges one to grow and rise by breaking through all previous ceilings, whereas abstinence cancels the lower limits.
Food belongs to the lower limit, so a gastronome is never a cold-blooded guy. When we gather to talk about cooking, joy is overflowing around. With relaxed lower limit, we won’t make a fuss about gardening, belly-worship, fetish or money-worship, and sexual drive is naturally justified as human nature, demand for ethics in love is reduced — not asking for everlasting love, accepting escapade, divorce and cohabitation, allowing family, basic unit of social life, to disintegrate. In our home, there is less and less to recall our memory, when minimalism teaches people to keep only the fundamentally necessary stuff at home: extreme minimalist life style. Emotionally charged movies or paintings fail to appeal, while the mild and neutral abstract style began to catch on.
In our days when there is no lower limit for a perfect guy, individualism leads to the belief that the lowest part makes the highlight that will earn people their most decisive moment in life. The Hobbits in The Lord of Rings had seven meals a day, and life offered nothing more than their stories with the neighbors unless they managed to resist Sauron’s temptation. The movie ends with Frodo Baggins carrying the ring to the volcano of Mount Doom. In many ways Baggins was like Michelangelo’s David.
The Lord of Rings presents a cast of characters on our social stage: half-man and half-ghost Gollums under the spell of the ring, the gluttonous but kind Hobbits who were always contented, Boromir who did not come onto the right track until the end, and some other major characters, like Saruman the White and other lords… There are also soldiers who were said to have been transformed from imprisoned spirits. It sends chill down my back, so I have to be a big-footed Hobbit!
The Legend of Tarzan, released in 2016, featured a knowledgeable, smart, inquisitive and well-built Tarzan, but he is anyway half — probably, Trump will be the terminator of this line. However, the relaxed lower limit can never be raised. Similarly the vintage style that started long ago is also a reaction against the abstinent line. The vintage style has a fond memory of the two periods. One is the gorgeous 1930s. The Great Gatsby, for instance, is the opposite of minimalism in any way. In China the return to the 1930s can be understood in another way, like the Chinese aspiration for a better life in the Republic of China period: it is a denial of today’s life.
The other period is the 1980s. Seeing the prevailing vintage style in this age, I, with all the firsthand experience of the decade on my back, can only give an exclamation: how did I never know the 1980 represented in this way! By the way, where are you from?
The vintage style has a clear minimalist vein, expansive and anti-abstinence, therefore more adorable and cuter.
What is New Media Art?
Allow me to be a bit excessive. The video, as a medium in art, is painting’s future that has arrived long ago. Variety shows are the evolved form of installation. As techniques progresses, new media rise to replace the old, but what matters most in a work of art is never on the technique side.
Why do new techniques progress this way, not that way? The direction, as a matter of fact, is in our hands, as the trend gives marginal culture enough room for revival, and new concepts will define themselves while amending the past and bringing changes to the present life style. (Text by Dong Jing)