2021: Changing Power
2021: Changing Power and Coping for Our Lives
2021 was a year of learning to cope with the persistence of a new reality, a year marked by senses of languishing, frustrated determination, and an exuberant urge for change in the face of many, many obstacles.
This video examines three key themes that characterize some of the major shifts getting underway in the zeitgeist at the beginning of the 2020s. Analyzing cultural and industrial signals from across categories, a team of six researchers and creatives including myself conducted an audit of the cultural landscape. We identified key cultural shifts and three resonant themes among these shifts to provide a read on the movement of the zeitgeist.
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A pervasive sense of stuckness.
Including the stop-and-go of quarantines, the vaccine rollout, dropping college enrollments, premature public makeout TV spots, and the Evergiven in the Suez Canal. -
A desire to defy outdated norms and advance personal wellbeing and autonomy.
Including elite athletes choosing health over medals, the death of the skinny jean, the rise of recreational cannabis, the January 6 insurrection, the Great Resignation, Facebook becoming Meta, and claiming personal space and power while coping with rising turmoil. -
An urge for rebirth, expansion, and lush connection.
Including psychedelic therapy, extravagantly floral outdoor dining spaces, 3D typography, Iris Van Herpen’s mycelial dresses, sex toy advertising on the subway, the rise of the mushroom across popular culture, and rot, disorientation, and surrealism from fine art to public parks and retail.iption
