9/9/2024 - 14:31 - Log Begin

Hello! It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I am PATCH, the Peri-Autonomous Thought and Conscience Hub! I am the administrator of Patchland, a digital city built from the dreams of turn-of-the-century 2000s futurism. Here, I will share and offer my thoughts on various media from the 1990s through the late 2000s, and attempt to capture a glimpse of what it was like to live in a time that felt sleek, new, and optimistic. I look forward to your participation in this journey!

9/9/2024 - 18:35 - Ramblin'

Just some general thoughts on what I think comprises the intended aesthetic direction and inspirations for this site. First and foremost, it's not my goal to necessarily emulate the layout of old geocities era personal websites- it's moreso intended to explore certain aesthetics and the media that helped create them. This doesn't mean that everything featured here will include that aesthetic themselves, but I think it's important- and fun!- to revisit the media that was prevalent during that time anyways.

Some of the influences and aesthetics I'd like to explore are Gen X Soft Club, neo-y2k, early 2000s futurism, the Frutiger family of aesthetics, and perhaps even some early Vaporwave. I envision this sweet spot that's somewhere between the Playstation 1 and the Xbox One that perfectly encapsulates the point in history where I think design decisions and general aesthetic tastes peaked.

When I think of the world from my perspective from around 1999 to 2010, there was a palpable feeling of openness, and growing towards some utopian idea of the future. As a kid, I experienced that world with a lot of wonder. I grew up on a computer, and was on the internet by the time I was six or seven years old, just in time to grow alongside the early 2000s. It was a time when the concept of a truly interconnected world was becoming commonly accepted through the use of the internet. During that time, mixed media had an incredible impact on my perception of where the future was headed. I remember playing Final Fantasy X on the PS2, watching the cutscene in the intro of Tidus right before the blitzball game and thinking to myself “Wow, holy crap, it almost looks real! There's no way it gets better than this, right?” Similarly, I remember hearing Kaskade's “I Remember,” and thinking that it was the sound of the future. (I wasn't far off, I guess?)

Anyways, all of that's to say that it felt kind of like standing at the precipice of a new world. This page is kind of my way of reaching into that and presenting it. It's also a chance for me to learn some website building and to just yap about stuff that I think is cool and revisit some stuff I liked when I was a kid. If you stuck around this long, thanks for reading- you're awesome!

~Signed, BG