Infinity pools. These pretentiously-termed architectural fads seek to blur the boundary between inside and outside, between private and public, artificial and natural.
Are they Asian? Yes and no.
They are everywhere. Proliferating at a rate organic enough to undermine their novelty. Greece, Dubai, Singapore. Modern Asia seeks to trump former colonial masters at their own game of slick commercial excess. If fascism was the aestheticization of politics, infinity pools represent the aestheticization of global wealth.
Asian century, downfall of the West, blah blah blah. By seeking to surpass another, you implicitly acknowledge their superiority. It's a circular, if comfortable, trap.
Perhaps the entire world is converging on objective standards of beauty. Yeah well, proponents of universal aesthetics don't often stop to think about how 'white' those universalities seem to be. History also shows the arbitrariness of beauty. It wasn't so long ago that we swooned over renaissance paintings like pale-skinned chubby chasers.
Nevertheless, this is Asia. Pity it aspires to look like everywhere else.
Welcome to the bonus level.
Might as well jump.
Jump into playing these levels! They're now hosted at ModDB.
Are they Asian? Yes and no.
They are everywhere. Proliferating at a rate organic enough to undermine their novelty. Greece, Dubai, Singapore. Modern Asia seeks to trump former colonial masters at their own game of slick commercial excess. If fascism was the aestheticization of politics, infinity pools represent the aestheticization of global wealth.
Asian century, downfall of the West, blah blah blah. By seeking to surpass another, you implicitly acknowledge their superiority. It's a circular, if comfortable, trap.
Perhaps the entire world is converging on objective standards of beauty. Yeah well, proponents of universal aesthetics don't often stop to think about how 'white' those universalities seem to be. History also shows the arbitrariness of beauty. It wasn't so long ago that we swooned over renaissance paintings like pale-skinned chubby chasers.
Nevertheless, this is Asia. Pity it aspires to look like everywhere else.
Welcome to the bonus level.
Might as well jump.
Jump into playing these levels! They're now hosted at ModDB.
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