High Tech Nu-Goblin Modernism

Abstract

Goblin modernism combined the abject side of closedloop biosystems thinking with the basic functionalism of modernist thought. This was the architecture associated with 1970s environmentalism, which came with a rigid moral aesthetic of individual autonomy and a solutionist mindset. However righthearted in rejecting the warmongering and pollution of industrialized capitalism, the architecture of 1970s environmentalism did not have a vision for the future of society apart from offgrid life. This movement idolized individual dropout from mass culture, selfreliance, and distrust of government. The New Alchemists compared their fish tank poopcycling greenhouses to Gothic churches in section drawings, and The Whole Earth Catalog enabled DIY survivalist fantasies with consumer convenience as a prerequisite that hypocritically rejected consumer culture and pop. It left a legacy of survivors who are, at best, obscure hermit gurus and, at worst, neoplantationists. The 2020s Goblincore lifestyle aesthetic represents a new fascination with things that are growing, decaying, living, dirty, moist, smelly, leaky, and ugly. The aesthetic presents itself as an offshoot of Cottagecore, looking beyond pastoral visions of the simple life to the slimy dark side. Both could be simply harmless fantasies of choice, safe worlds to escape to in the face of realworld systemic failure. Is the new goblin an aesthetic without an ethic? Conversely, in an earnestly postcapitalist 2020s, degrowth is an ethic without an aesthetic—yet. “Degrowth is a planned reduction of energy and resource use designed to bring the econ-