Synthetic textures can evoke a timeless Now rather than signifying the Future

Evidence

This is an electronic sound removed from the hustle and bustle of the present. An obvious comparison for a track like the majestically mournful ‘Skyscraper’ would be Vangelis’ Blade Runner soundtrack, but, in the main, the synthetic textures are relieved from the pressure of signifying the Future. Instead, they evoke a timeless Now where the urgencies of the present have been suspended. Some of the best tracks – especially the closing quartet of ‘Shadow City’, ‘Interlude’, ‘Thought Experiment’ and ‘Hand Held Skies’ – are slivers of sheer atmosphere, delicate and slight. They are gateways to what Heronbone used to call ‘slowtime’, a time of meditative detachment from the commotions of the current. — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life, 351

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘slowtime’ concept and timeless-Now aesthetic connect to Fisher’s hauntology thesis and Derrida’s out-of-joint time discussed across this book. — connects to: Postmodern pastiche blurs the present into a timeless simulacral past — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 86; Beauty is the temporal synthesis of past, present, and future that we desire.; Digital images are both momentary and seemingly eternal — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory: A Marxist…, 75

Broader Connections

• Postmodern pastiche blurs the present into a timeless simulacral past #contradicts (0.80) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 86
• Beauty is the temporal synthesis of past, present, and future that we desire. #expands (0.72)
• Digital images are both momentary and seemingly eternal #exemplifies (0.72) — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 75