The Crisis of Legibility

I try to always wait before writing about the new hot thing and cultivate a period of observation. Phenomena in the cultural landscape, particularly new introductions, demand time to reveal their longevity and sociocultural impact.

I’ve started to think of “cultural artifacts” and “memes” as particles in a chaotic pressure chamber of social forces. I want to introduce the concept of the meme as “radioactive cultural product” – radioactive because of two properties: radiation and half-life.

In the context of cultural products, "cultural radiation" can be understood as the extent to which a particular meme, trend, or product disseminates or "radiates" out into various social and cultural spheres. Specifically, how it traverses, digitally local circles (niche podcasts and indie publications), to the larger industry or trade publications, all the way to large publications, and ending in the mainstream.

Radiation model of cultural propagation

Essentially, a cultural product with high "radiation" is one that quickly becomes pervasive, cutting across various demographic and psychographic boundaries, often altering the cultural conversation in some measurable way.

However, it's worth noting that just as radioactive material eventually decays, even highly "radioactive" cultural products may lose their potency over time, subject to the whims of collective attention and the emergence of new, competing cultural phenomena.

This is the concept of “cultural half-life”. In the context of cultural products, it refers to the duration over which a particular meme, trend, or artifact maintains its cultural relevance or influence. Originating from nuclear physics, where half-life describes the time required for half of a given amount of a radioactive substance to decay, the term when applied to culture captures the idea of fading impact or decreasing popularity.

A cultural product with a "high half-life" would be one that endures over a considerable period, retaining its influence, recognizability, or relevance. Such long-lasting impact could be attributed to various factors, such as deep aesthetic resonance, legibility, or the establishment of a dedicated community that continues to engage with it.

Conversely, a "low half-life" would indicate that the cultural product quickly fades from collective consciousness, losing its influence or impact soon after its introduction. The term essentially serves as a measure of how long it takes for a cultural product to decline to half of its peak relevance or popularity.

People optimize for the legibility they value. By legibility, I mean how symbols (I use this term broadly to mean visual artifacts that carry significance) are read or deciphered by a specific audience.  Augmenting legibility is an art. It has been the purview of marketing and brand masters for decades now to increase “brand awareness”, i.e., the recognizability of a product by the general public. But the promise was also endurance, originally people sought to create long-lasting heritage brands, with a durational quality so that across decades, the name of X could be recognized and understood as a marker of XYZ positive attribute.

With the advent of social media and viral marketing, the concept was turned on its head.

For instance, the banker fleece vest with the embroidered company logo does not photograph well but is highly legible on a lunch run in midtown. We’ve come to value photographic legibility above IRL legibility. The digital has shifted our awareness of legibility because it can now be quantified in that realm.

In this context, the MSCHF Red Boot stands as an exemplary case study. It demonstrates the optimization of what I term "digitally mediated legibility." In most digital communications, there is a constraint: the screen. And in spite of growing sizes, the mobile screen remains a medium which does not render details very well. The “post” itself on platforms is even smaller.

MSCHF plays with this by making the boot grotesque, spectacular. All the design elements of the boot point towards high-visibility and high digital legibility. The color red immediately draws attention. The boot’s size further draws the eye of the scroller towards it. MSCHF succeeded in designing something visually unavoidable, a visual ear-worm, if you will.

Yet, it is important to note that the half-life of such symbols in the digital sphere is exceedingly brief. Therefore, while MSCHF’s Red Boot has successfully penetrated the collective visual vocabulary, the question remains: how long before its radioactive properties decay into cultural insignificance?

Interest over Time in “MSCHF Bid Red Boot”, Google Trends, Past 12 months

“But Ruby, that’s the point,” you say. And certainly penetrating the zeitgeist is MSCHF business, but I think it’s time for a more profound provocation of the way we interact with culture, it is not enough to not buy a product, as purchase has become secondary to the view.

It used to be “you get the culture you pay for” but now it’s “you get the culture you engage with”.

To influence culture is to directly, conscientiously and intentionally direct attention to areas we think deserve it. Choose where you want to be on the quadrant, carefully.