Thread by @visakanv

i feel like somebody might've done this thread before but there's something funny about how like the nolan batmobile aesthetic went on to reverberate thru so much of product design FOR MEN, just like how zimmer's inception Bwongggg is in all movie trailers now

my casual instinct/guess is that this was sort of influenced by the stealth bomber. you know, the... [googles] Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk.

very distinctive, looks like it's from a video game with low polygon count

as people are saying, the blocky aesthetic of the F117 was a consequence of the limitations of the hardware – much like Lara Croft's ol' blocky titties

and as brian eno pointed out, once a limitation is transcended, it will be romanticized. you see kids on tiktoks and fancams etc doing this right now with artificially grainy fancams meant to look like VCR footage

interesting to observe how the honda civic has evolved over my lifetime

the evolution of advertising might be even more revealing

everything has to be cinematic now, everything has to be IMAX, everything has to be sexy, thrilling, swoosh

of course then you get supernormal stimuli burnout. it's like the loudness war in audio. something has to give

your car must now look like a battlestation from which you can drone strike your enemies, otherwise what's the point

here's the entertaining thing for me though: when it comes to actual performance on the battlefield, both US Army Rangers and goddamn ISIS agree that Toyota pickups are the best

thinking also about how they turned all the power rangers into ironrobocopman in the 2017 movie reboot

everything just has to look more like a murderbot

digressing but I'm thinking *also* about how they gave spiderman – your friendly neighborhood spiderman! – a goddamn super-surveillance portable palantir NSA tool

they even made robocop more robocop ykwim

more lens flare

they somehow strip away even more of the human