B13_#138 // The Cloud Parlour // Pui Quan Choi
Vaporwave was a short-lived micro trend originating in the early 2010s that referenced glitch art and music of the 80s and 90s, nostalgic internet graphics and 3D rendered objects, among other items. This genre of art was totally dependant on the internet with an inherent ‘cut and paste’ quality to the work.
By 2012, vaporwave originators became disillusioned with the growing popularity of the niche genre and its adaption into the mainstream by various music artists, forcing them to coin the ominous phrase ‘vaporwave is dead’.
As far as internet culture goes, 8 years after its birth, vaporwave is now considered an ancient form of art. The altar to vaporwave remembers this fleeting internet phenomenon, raising the important question of cultural remembrance in an age of digital obsolescence. Do we need to create shrines and museums in the digital world to prevent a future collective amnesia of our own history?
Christopher Delahunt is a part 2 graduate from the Bartlett School of Architecture
Volume64 CubeLab 