Buzzfeed told me “Cottagecore” aesthetic. But is it true?

Throughout the beginning of this course, I have been contemplating my personal aesthetic and how to define it, whether that be through style of dress, interior decoration, preferred media, etc. When polling my loved ones, the consensus was a blend of “earthy industrial” and “normcore,” perhaps typical of the Colorado region. According to the Buzzfeed quiz titled “You Might Know Your Outer Aesthetic, But What’s Your Inner Aesthetic?,” my internal aesthetic is “Cottagecore,” which I am not sure I agree with:

My Personal Aesthetic

Alas, I would also self-define my aesthetic under the “E-ndustrial” or “earthy industrial” umbrella, inspired by the following 20th Century design movements:

• Art Nouveau, which drew heavily from organic forms and colors of plants and flowers;
• Art Deco, which incorporated popular manufacturing materials and sleek, clean aesthetics;
• Biomorphic Surrealism, which paired organic shapes with dream-like images.

When googling “earthy industrial aesthetic and art,” some of the images that pop up (1,2,3):

Aesthetic Influences

Beyond these influences, my personal aesthetic has been influenced by many things. To start with, my ancestral home and upbringing, which took place in Sykesville, Maryland. As a small town with access to the coast, mountains, and miles of farmland in between, I appreciated the great outdoors from a young age. This appreciation was further underscored by five years of childhood prior to the Y2K technology boom, where I learned to entertain myself by playing drums, trail running and biking, beekeeping, fixing cars, and creating art in any ways that I could. As video games and small electronic devices became the norm, my hobbies grew to include the occasional movie and early Nintendo 64 video games like Zelda, Super Mario 64, and Pokémon. And a common thread found in these hobbies? The presence of natural forms and exploration.

Main Project Ideation

With these influences in mind, I do hope to branch out of my comfort zone for at least one aspect of my main project. For example, I could involve my woodworking skills during the fabrication process but resist the temptation to fall back on these skills to guide my idea generation. Despite still being in the brainstorming phase with the goal of at least 20 ideas to start with, I know that I would be overjoyed to involve my love for music and to strengthen a growing skill through my project. During a recent conversation with the Director of Composition at CU Boulder, Jeffrey Nytch, for my Advanced Product Design class, he mentioned how his brain synthesizes the “shape of music.” I thought this idea of substituting one sense for another (i.e. visualizing music rather than hearing music) was really intriguing. Looking into this topic briefly, I came across Martin Wattenberg’s The Shape of Song, a quest to see musical forms of different genres (4):

With that, one of my main project ideas is some sort of audio visualizer, either using sand or ferrofluid alongside some sort of speaker design. This would cause the material to move through the vibrations and frequencies of the music, bringing “the shape of music” to life. As I continue to lean into the brainstorming process over the next week, I look forward to seeing where this idea or others will take me! Stay tuned.

Image Sources:

1. Natural Industrial Interiors by Spiffy Spools
2. Men’s fashion, earth-tone coordinates by Otokomae
3. ” Tree Texture Triptych I ” 2 – Pieces Painting Print by Orren Ellis
4. The Shape of Song by bewitched.com
5. Feature Image: Earthy Industrial Aesthetic Design by Fancy House Interior Design