I’ve been thinking about the body, the ability to human, and the things that can’t be done without us, whether that is right or wrong. Last week, I mentioned that I was trying an Etsy tarot card reader, and she actually cancelled because she got so sick. I immediately said, “what does that say about me?!”, and proceeded to continue to be stressed about how I can’t even get answers from the universe.
In looking at this week, I was thinking about our beautiful beings and how much we revolve around chatter, conversation, debates. Our ability to be human kind of keeps us looking at things, i’ve been thinking so much about commentary and how to some extent, it gives us the ability to feel connected to conversations.
Rest in Power, Betye Saar (1926–2026)
Betye Saar, pioneer of Assemblage, passed this week in LA, just four days short of her 100th birthday. Using found objects, Saar's seven-decade career used everyday objects and racist memorabilia to remix into powerful meditations on race, spirituality, and freedom. "I'm the kind of person who recycles materials. But I also recycle emotions and feelings," Saar told NPR. "And I had a great deal of anger about the segregation and the racism in this country. And so this series sort of evolved." Her pieces force us to reckon, but also see found materials and reuse it to create visual art pieces. She expressed how the negative feeling behind these pieces can be turned into a positive, thus creating The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, using derogatory imagery such as the Aunt Jemima mammy to empower the Black woman by making her a revolutionary, as a way to rebel against her past enslavement.
I love cringe: The DM heard round the feedMinneapolis logo designer Allan Peters recently shared a post on his IG where rapper A$AP Rocky DMed to ask about his rate for brand logo revisions. What followed was Peters posted the now deleted DM screengrab with "I have no words", to which he received messages of folks congratulating him and aspirations of being an instagram entrepreneur. Within a few hours, Rocky replied in the comments that it was distasteful and pulled the offer. The news sparked conversation online as to whether it was a breach of privacy or Rocky being a hard customer. I'm team superstitious, it's not worth saying anything, especially without contracts signed. The comments remind me so much about how hard it really is out here to be a creative trying to sell a business online, so mistakes are to be made, and as Peters had mentioned hitting over 1 million followers following this, it's clear that all press is press.
Motte & Bailey Fallacy: Don’t call Nara Smith a tradwife & Don’t comment on Ariana Grande’s body (they say and we say)
On Call Her Daddy, tradwife OG Nara Smith rejected the tradwife label she’s been made the face of, calling being cast as its poster child “bizarre”.
This GQ article from 2024 depicts otherwise, while the words claim a certain lifestyle, the images are rudimentarily focused on homestead, domesticity, and building an idyllic life with designer fashion.
I’m fascinated by whatever this kind of content critique is called right now. As someone chronically online, what we’re watching is motte-and-bailey fallacy, a term coined by philosopher Nicholas Shackel in 2005, named after a medieval castle: the bailey, open land you want but can’t defend, and the motte, the fortified tower you run to when attacked.
In this term of an argument, we’re saying something provocative, then retreating when something harmless is pushed. The motte here is Smith’s safe room, talking about it being “just cooking, an aesthetic, not that deep”, but the bailey is the real message behind it; women back home, housewife. Nara didn’t invent it but she took it as is.
This motte-and-bailey approach is being aimed at women right now because of 1- money 2- society’s need for a visual example. I have my own opinions, but from a theory POV, her backpedaling can also be speculated to be because of the economy, and how trad-life is actually unaffordable, with The Atlantic reporting that among families with stay-at-home moms, roughly 75 percent had a household income under $50,000 a year, with more than two-thirds reporting difficulty paying bills. Selling the aesthetic to folks who aspire to be trad, but realistically, now that more light is being shone on the American recession and economy being impacted with food shortages, no one can actually even live this lifestyle. Critics read it from either the “everything from scratch” ideology, and defenders see it as content only.
In that same beat, Ariana Grande’s new “petal” video took the social issue of thinness and used her as the example that splits the discourse. Her figure is a whole Hollywood thinness uptick right now. From the moment she became vocal, calling it “dangerous” to comment on women’s bodies despite her extremity, she became the spotlight on the topic rather than the growing trend/standard. A day after her team said she was walking back from the spotlight, she stepped back in to say “f the haters”. When it starts to impact profits, it gets walked back. The bailey holds as long as it sells, and the retreat to the motte shows up right when the numbers do.
Both of these are fights over an aesthetic, despite the person. Nara’s aesthetic argues what her words won’t; homesteading shot like a fashion campaign. Ariana’s is similar; thinness being a quiet luxury rather than red-carpet obvious so that everyone can comment on. Her music video even satirizes this, in the same way that Nara Smith’s TikTok depicted a life of costumes, refined nails, while being a housewife.
The real structure is women’s economics, thinness standards, that get put into a visual example people can grasp onto. The body becomes the image being fought over to avoid seeing the societal machine/issues behind it.
Ragebaiting AI Ads: Orchid AIA new AI startup Orchid launched a dystopian AI ad that has reached over 22m views; it pitches a "second brain" that texts on your behalf. The ad itself features a wacky couple where the man forgets his anniversary, so the sassy AI triangulates between the couple (in this case, they're in a throuple) to book a date and buy flowers for the man, and offers to collaborate on the emails you're too scared to send. In an interview with its founder, who seems like he created this for himself, focused "1st on going viral" and to think about how people will be interacting with agentic AI in the future. This is coming on the same week that Sam Altman posted this tweet:
Sam Altman@sama
cool use case of chatgpt work i heard last night: connect your family calendars and explain your kids' interests. every morning for the drive to school, have it make a podcast that talks about one kid's soccer game that afternoon, one kid's upcoming birthday, some news, etc.
4:01 PM · Jul 31, 2026 · 14.4M Views
4.48K Replies · 377 Reposts · 12.1K Likes
If we pull away for a second and remember that our tech start-ups were created by anti-social nerds who have now grown up with the inability to figure shit out with themselves because all they've done is create shortcuts to do things for them, such as finding girls to talk to through a computer screen, or now how to be a partner and a parent. Truthfully, this campy Orchid AI ad should receive an award for ragebaiting users into understanding the product more or less. Is this type of content what's to be expected more on AI advertisements? Making me mad? It's working; I laughed because, of course, people are kind of using AI to talk to each other and we're interjecting it into our lives, but the question remains: as an ad, is it appropriate when advertising a product?
OpenAI’s summer camp
OK I know I talk a lot about Sam Altman, but it’s because to me, OpenAI is The Office (2026). If we think about story: eccentric queer man who doesn’t blink (casting: Zach Woods will do), makes a company intended to make his life easier, but little things kind of go wrong every week.
This week’s episode (in addition to the tweet), OpenAI flew a group of influencers to Summer Club, its first-ever creator brand trip. The all-expenses-paid weekend was at Wildflower Farms in upstate New York, where rooms run around $2,000–$3,000 a night. The trip consisted of using ChatGPT along with indulging with “touching grass” such as beekeeping, farm-to-table dinners, a painting workshop. The irony is that surrounding this is AI’s environmental impact globally, as this week there was also a speech by Washington about how we need to deal with AI Data Centers being built in our neighborhoods.
My take: Would you do the trip? The tighter the belt is put around us to create content, the devil looks easier to look away and enjoy. I would love a trip to Auberge. Sometimes I get exhausted by the TikTok critiques because damn, if it were me, I’d be like, sure, do it for the plot. And I gotta be real for that; we’re living in times where maybe it’s wrong or right? Does it matter when we’re split about everything?
Other things moving:
I’ve been on a Nowness kick and have been really enjoying the Dancing in Architecture series.
Rulx Thork’s photographs
Current Rothko: Generates a Rothko based on your location (sorry Mark)
How I feel actively answering the question “if money wasn’t an object, what would you do?”
— Nicole 🧠
Go To This
Wed, August 5, 5-8pm - SVA Artist Residency Programs Open Studios at SVA Flatiron Gallery
August 20, 6-8pm - You Weren’t There: ‘90s Graffiti in New York. The Stunt: Panel Discussion & Q&A at Printed Matter
Save the Date
Sept 17, 2026– Feb 14, 2027 Amant, Sentient Earth at 315 Maujer St, Brooklyn
Opens 11/ 21 - artport: A History of Internet Art at Whitney Museum
Apply To This
Deadline: September 15, 2026.- Lucie Foundation Photo Book Prize 2026 (fee: $50 photographer / $75 publisher)
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