Bola Sociology Design

[Box1824 + Bola Sociology Design] Cosmopolitan Tribalism

14 de May de 2009

Studying trends isn’t the same as studying the future (that’s futurology). Studying trends means analyzing the present in depth to picture more clearly where something is going.

Cosmopolitan Tribalism is a piece by BOX1824 and Bola, compiled over the past year for a behavioral and aesthetic map of global youth, mostly focused on young “Globalists” (better known as Millennials, people born between 1980 and 1995, and who entered the workplace during the 2000’s).

The study, commissioned by a group of technology and style companies, sought to map behaviors and moods common throughout the first truly global generation.

The video, a product of the study, tries to group references for an aesthetic movement highly influential among members of this generation, incredibly widespread during 2008. We see here a little of the “globalist spirit” made tangible.

It does not represent most of mankind and global youth, but rather a niche of globalized young men and women living an interconnected culture in the most economically active capitals of the world. This is an inspiration video, aesthetically organizing how a culture expresses itself.

Since we are reaching the end of the decade, it also works as reference of what the last 10 years looked like, from the indie movement’s rise with the return of rock music early in the decade, through the metamorphosis of hip-hop and the rise of the new rave scene. We are witnessing the convergence of three fundamental worlds of young global pop culture: hip-hop, rock and electronic.

Cosmopolitan Tribalism arises from the democratization of creative, experimental youth culture: a multitasking generation, attuned to the world, armed with freedom and the tools to create and mix references in its own way, maximizing the sense of celebration through visual codes such as vibrant colors, collages, geometric patterns, tribal graphics, psychedelic textures, and elements from street art and facial painting. Of the primary fusions, the fusion of Hip-Hop, Rock and Electronic, the three most influential worlds of various global youth cultures, is the most important at the moment.

The Internet is the great facilitator of new social relationships, making modes of consumption and self-expression change how we make and think about music, fashion, entertainment, design and communication. The urban world, connected and cosmopolitan, opens door for a return to the primitive, where nature worship, spiritual quests and new states of being are again in the discussion. This is how we define a new way of thinking, challenging the border between old and new, primitive and modern, natural and technological, driving the cultural and consumer goods industry towards updating and rejuvenating its direction.

To sum up, the piece tries coalesce the zeitgeist of our decade.

Cosmopolitan Tribalism from box1824 on Vimeo.