What's Contemporary Now?

Season 6 Trailer

What's Contemporary Now?

Show Notes

What’s more contemporary than the pursuit of happiness? The restless task of creating it, sustaining it, sharing it. It’s a game not so far from that of the creative class, with its inevitable demand for the next turn, the next gesture, the next affirmation of relevance. Designers, editors, critics, even self-anointed new media mavens know it all too well. Exploring larger cultural truths in their microcosmic forms is a habit we’ve happily returned to this season, and one we look forward to sharing across the months ahead.

Because happiness, like relevance, is never fixed. It slips just out of reach the moment it seems secured, requiring constant reexamination and reinvention. The same holds true for the people and industries we cover: what feels urgent today risks redundancy tomorrow. That cycle of fulfillment, exhaustion, and reinvention, is the rhythm of both creativity and life. And in that rhythm lies the story of what it means to be contemporary now.

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More from What's Contemporary Now?

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Alastair McKimm returns to What’s Contemporary Now?, this time on camera, to discuss life after 23 years at i-D and the launch of Prototype, a new creative venture bringing publishing, product design, and creative services under one roof. Now also Chief Creative Officer of Visual Talent Group (VTG), McKimm reflects on building a new model for creative businesses, his work with Gap, Marc Jacobs, and Miley Cyrus, and the role of curation in navigating an increasingly saturated world. From editing creative work to editing our own lives, we explore instinct, ambition, insecurity, and the challenge of sustaining a career without losing sight of ourselves.

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