1: the state of being homesick :homesickness

2: a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition;

also : something that evokes nostalgia

Nostalgia is a popular way for marketing companies to brand products and media for consumers.

An example of this can be seen from the interactive mobile game, "Pokemon GO." The game was a primary example of using nostalgia as a marketing tool. The app allowed there to be a blend between current technology and relevance with nostalgic memories of millennials.

Streaming old episodes of Friends on our smartphones, tablets, and laptops.

Even social media hashtags such as TBT(throwback Thursday) and FBF(flashback Friday). That take us back to personal.

Who wouldn't want to relive positive memories from their childhood? Robert Half, the world's largest specialized staffing firm, says that 77% of Generation Z (which we may or may not belong to) expects to work harder than their predecessors.

As to why we get nostalgic or experience feelings of nostalgia, Dr Wildschut says, "there can be many different reasons. One reason is that nostalgia can help us to overcome psychological challenges, like loneliness or a sense that life is meaningless."

Why does nostalgia appeal to us so much? How can we focus on moving forward, if we are always looking in the past. Is it possible to use the past to push things forward, can we gather new ways of design. Dr Tim Wildschut is Associate Professor within Psychology at the University of Southampton where there is a group dedicated to the study of nostalgia. Wildschut states that "Historically being nostalgic or using nostalgia as a form of expression in art or literature has not been seen as a good thing, rather it's been viewed as the antithesis of progression and innovation. Miuccia Prada once said 'nostalgia is a very complicated subject for me. I'm attracted by nostalgia but I refuse it intellectually.'"

What does this mean?
• As a whole nostalgia can be a form of escapism. A trip back to the past with fond memories of things that made us happy when we were younger. Something that we can sit and daydream about instead of being anxious about responsibilities that we have during our daily lives.


• Nostalgia sells, it's used by marketers and advertisers to tap into something deep inside us which makes us want to buy things that remind us of our youth, or of a time in the past which is particularly venerated.

How did your exposure to tech and early Internet impact your work?

My exposure to tech and early Internet was an outlet to express myself and find queer community as a young person. It has been a building block in my work--so it's greatly impacted how I think about community, body politics, and the democratization of graphic design tools to visualize language and identity.

How does this early tech/digital aesthetic function when trying to communicate in a piece?

Well, all form carries content. It suggests a time. Certain typefaces can communicate a type of voice, or conjure up an idea of the type of person who is saying it--for better or worse. Form and content are inextricably linked.

Can you describe for us, what your creative process is like?

My creative process is generative, fluid and comes from working with an extensive archive. I am constantly screenshotting content, downloading images, and saving them. I have folders upon folders of STUFF. My practice in a lot of ways comes from these "folder boulders" as I call it. I like to talk with images. And tweet in all capital letters. I tend to not know when I am working and not working. Things happen fast. I make a lot of stuff.
Some images that I've used to describe my process are here

What were your most frequently visited websites growing up?

Ah. Big confession. I was a huge Sarah McLachlan fan in the 90s. hahahaha. Before her tragic SPCA "angel" commercial. So I was a lot on this Sarah email list serve. And one for Liz Phair too. And some geocities queercore sites. Here is an example of what some websites looked like in high school (I was on livejournal a lot in my late teens, and a bunch of just random aol pages and stuff)
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Do you think that this early digital aesthetic that makes people nostalgic now, will shift as time goes on?

I think people get excited by old tools on any platform and era's aesthetics become trends. When I was in high school it was the 70s. When I was in college it was the 80s...in terms of fashion. So, I think people become nostalgic for things that they maybe did not experience for themselves, or were perhaps a bit young to really delve into it. So then, you see in your teens and 20s an interest in those eras. At least I can speak from my own experience and say that. Also, this early digital aesthetic is still very current. One who has very little knowledge of computers or design can use tools online that allow them to generate form--and a lot of times this form is of the "early digital aesthetic." There's a crudeness and urgency to the imagery. You can get your point across with a 3 frame gif, or some family lobby glitter text.