—Julia Fox & Niki Takesh of Forbidden Fruits
THE FUTURE OF ATTENTION: SUPERBLOOM
VOL.1
Mickey Rapkin
BLESSED MADONNA X ARE WE ON AIR?
Arman Naféei
A KANGAROO ENTERS THE CHAT Cache Bunny
SUPER HUMANS Montea Robinson & Ghetto Film School
PAUL KALKBRENNER X ARE WE ON AIR? Arman Naféei
PHOTO SERIES: ONE Daniel Prakopcyk
FAST & CURIOUS
Malibu Babie
RICK OWENS X ARE WE ON AIR?
Arman Naféei
DISCO IS DEAD. LONG LIVE DISCO. Gregory Alexander and Loren Granich
PHOTO SERIES: TWO Danielle deGgrasseAlston
DANIEL ARSHAM X ARE WE ON AIR?
Arman Naféei
“WE’RE OBSESSED WITH ATTENTION, AND THIS ZINE… READ IT OR DIE.”
it out in 2022. Vala Afshar, the Chief Digital Evangelist for Salesforce, posted it earlier this year. For some reason, an account selling real Florida oranges also used it as a caption alongside some citrus slices on a marble slab.
The quote belongs to Herbert A. Simon, a celebrated political scientist and economist who researched the “attention economy”; as the world becomes more and more flush with information, he predicted, people would need to filter out what’s irrelevant or risk becoming paralyzed by everything everywhere all at once.
He was right about it all, of course, which isn’t surprising. (Dr. Simon won a Turing Award for his early work in artificial intelligence.) What is astounding, however, is how early he was. Herbert A. Simon said those nine prescient words—“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention”—in 1971, when there were exactly three television networks on-air and no Internet. Steve Jobs was a teenager in 1971. When Dr. Simon died some four decades later, Kim Kardashian was still an unknown 21-year-old living in Beverly Hills.
Dr. Simon was a genius. And we’re still chewing over the same issues. The comedian Bo Burnham basically riffed on the idea in 2021, ominously singing: “Welcome to the Internet, come and take a seat. Would you like to see the news or any famous women’s feet?” But what Simon couldn’t predict is how—in the face of relentless digital information—we might find comfort in each other.
At the height of the pandemic, a visual effects artist called Cache Bunny created a 24/7 co-working space—on Zoom—called the Edit Party. Part virtual coffee shop, part WeWork, it was a way to be together when actually being together was too dangerous. The world has since opened back up and yet the Edit Party continues to rage. Why are people still logging on?
That’s just one of the modern curiosities explored in this zine—the first produced by SuperBloom House in partnership with our Creative Collective; our global community of artists and thinkers who have come together to reimagine content in the age of attention overload. SuperBloom was founded as an antidote to Dr. Simon’s fears, and we’re crafting advertising and producing content that deliver a better experience for viewers and stronger results for brands. You’ll get a taste of our creative collective’s voice in these pages, which feature work from members including Gregory Alexander (founder of the polysexual dance party A Club Called Rhonda) and producer Malibu Babie (Nicki Minaj and Megan Thee Stallion’s secret weapon).
SuperBloom volume 1 began with a question: Can acknowledging our current attention-obsessed reality help us navigate our future? (It can.) We’re exploring the tension between engagement and presence, between noise and nature, impulse and passion, clickbait and craft. What better place to confront a modern, existential crisis than with a zine—a throwback tool of the counterculture that got its start in the coffeehouses of the 1960s, and our homage to the artists who found new ways to create, collaborate and capture attention.
This zine isn't a stunt or a one-off. SuperBloom House will be producing a new issue quarterly. Our intention is for this zine to be thought-provokingly original and so chic it earns a place inside your capacious handbag. Our first issue is an introduction to our Creative Collective and our point of view on the future of creativity (hot tip: we believe in art over an algorithm). If a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, let’s show you where to look.
Every few months, this same quote about the economy makes the rounds on Twitter.
“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” Tim Ferris, the 4-hour workweek guy, Tweeted
The future of co-working is a 24/7 Zoom room “where no one talks.” A dispatch from the Edit.Party and Superbloom House’s, Cache Bunny’s accidental Clubhouse killer.
What Inspired you to start Edit.Party?
Co-working has always been such a fulfilling part of creating , so when the lockdown started my excitement for work took a major hit. Sitting at my desk all day got more and more difficult and there was no end in sight. I tried connecting with the creative community by doing editing livestreams, but that felt more like I was putting on a show, which was exhausting and unsustainable. I also stayed connected via creator group chats, which were (and still are) great, but those are designed for more intentional conversations. For example, you wouldn’t randomly write to a group chat to tell them you’re going to make a cup of coffee. That kind of in-the-moment talk usually only happens when you are sharing a space with someone, and that is what makes coworking so special-- you create an atmosphere together. I first proposed Edit Party on my Instagram story, framing it as “a zoom meeting where no one talks and everyone just works on stuff together.” It sounded strange, and I wasn’t sure how it would be received. To my surprise, I got a lot of responses right away from people who had been searching for exactly that! I started up the first Zoom meeting a few minutes after posting the story, and people from all around the world joined immediately. Many of the people who joined in those first few hours are still regulars today, and I actually currently live with some of them!
What will coworking and collaboration look like in the year 2040, in your opinion? This is a great question! Let me start by saying that I believe physical coworking will
always exist. Many companies are now having employees work remotely, which is great, but it’s human nature to want to be around people. That’s exactly why places like WeWork are so successful! So I would predict that 2040 will be no different, and physical coworking will still be alive and well. By then most companies will probably allow and encourage remote / hybrid work, so there will be more coworking options both digitally and physically. This next prediction may not age well... but I don’t see VR coworking becoming popular unless things change drastically. As of now, VR coworking feels very unnatural and severely limits what work you can do. Seeing real video of people in small zoom boxes feels significantly more connected than walking around a virtual space together as cartoon characters. I’m sure by then there will be an AR solution that merges the best of both worlds, but it has to be designed correctly by people who use it every day or else it will just be another gimmick.
Collaboration is another timeless aspect of creating. No matter how easy it gets to create, collaborating with other artists will always bring something new to the table that you wouldn’t have imagined alone. The traditional methods of collaboration will still exist but be facilitated by new technology, faster internet, smaller file sizes, and likely more cloud-based workflows that allow people to work simultaneously. I also believe we will see more people collaborating with AI in unique ways. Like how cool would it be if I could train an AI on my style and then collaborate with the machine version of my younger self!
Why are people still logging in 3 years later, now that the pandemic is “over”?
Digital coworking spaces like Edit Party open up a whole new world of possibilities that physical spaces can’t offer. It is free, international, 24/7, and you can join even when you can’t leave the house. So if you don’t have the money to rent a space, or a mode of trans-
portation to get there, or if you have a child to care for or are sick/injured, you can still safely cowork from the comfort of your own home! We have struck the right balance of immersion and separation, which a lot of other coworking solutions haven’t nailed. For example, I want to be able to see people and have people see me, but also be able to hide the mess in my room. I want to have organic conversations and connections, but be able to take phone calls or watch TV without being considered rude. When Clubhouse came around everyone flocked to it, myself included, but that hype was extremely short-lived because it required too much focus. In smaller rooms there was too much social pressure to maintain a conversation, and in big rooms you weren’t part of the conversation. Edit Party has stayed consistent for almost 3 full years because it is so much more sustainable! Because we only chat over text (not audio) you can simply hide the chat and everyone will understand that you’re not ignoring them, you’re just working. It is designed to be as passive or active as you want it to be, which is why people can be on 8+ hours a day without getting burnt out.
Tell us about an unexpected connection that came out of Edit.Party and why that could only happen in this new way or working?
I connected with some of the most important people in my life on Edit Party— three of my roommates and my manager! All of these connections were extremely unique to how EP works. I modeled the community after the traditions of AA— we are completely self-sustaining, we remain forever non-professional, and the ONLY requirement for joining is the desire to be there. We do not promote or incentivize anyone to join, and this will never be for profit... so when you’re in Edit Party, you know everyone is there for the right reasons. That has brought us a crowd of truly passionate, fun, and supportive people! When I needed help figuring out how to run E.P. in the early days I would always ask the Zoom chat. Several people continually rose to the occasion and put in lots of work to selflessly give back to the community. Those are people that I really appreciated and became close with, and three of them-- Collin O’Malley, Modifeye, and Ryan Laux-- are now my roommates! In 2021 they all moved across the country to share a home in LA, and together we have built an amazing space where we cowork in our home office, throw creator meetups in our backyard, and shoot together all over the world. I would never have met them through other forms of coworking or networking, because we all lived thousands of miles away and had different career paths. Edit Party gave
me an outlet to not only meet them, but also see what kind of people they were.
I also met my manager Diva through Edit Party! At the time I was struggling to find a manager who was a good match for me. Diva had been a regular of Edit Party for a few months, and shared that same quality of helping with whatever needed to be done for the community. In 2021 about 80 members of EP came together to make me a surprise video for my birthday! My good friend Lucy stressed how huge of an undertaking it was and how important Diva was in making it all happen. That was the exact skillset I was looking for in a manager, so I asked Lucy if it would be crazy for me to hire a girl who lived across the world in Indonesia who I never met and had zero experience to be my manager, and she immediately said “NO, SHE’S PERFECT!” And she was right!! Diva and I have been working together for about 2 years now and I couldn’t have asked for a better fit!
What is your favorite memory of Edit.Party thus far?
The first few weeks of Edit Party really hit different. Everyone was SO happy to finally have a way to organically socialize and meet new people during lockdown. We would listen to music together, and each add our own songs to a rotating playlist, and many nights turned into crazy dance parties! Within our little EP world we had “viral” moments constantly, so if one person started dancing, or put on a filter, or showed their pet on screen, everyone else would immediately follow suit. If you looked away from the screen for too long it would be a totally different scene by the time you looked back! One time things got so unhinged that a member named Sky got an Edit Party inside joke tattooed on his finger in real time while we were there watching! Another extremely notable moment had to be when Zane Filby, a 16 year old boy from rural Australia, joined the Zoom with his kangaroo! There have been
too many wild moments to list them all, but a few others include-- someone joining from a sportscaster box at a baseball game and having them mention Edit Party on live radio, 43 people flying from around the world for a week-long meetup in LA, throwing a 30 hour virtual festival with 30 different live DJs from 6 different continents (twice), being featured on CBS Boston morning news, and finding out that some of our members were in romantic relationships! A lot has happened!
What excites you the most about the future of Edit.Party and how do you feel that will impact storytelling?
Edit Party will organically evolve based on what the community wants, and I’m excited to see what that will be! Technology is changing faster than any one person can keep track of, so EP has been a great resource for staying up to date on all of these new advancements together. Chatting about these things on EP with friends is a much more pleasant and less intimidating way to learn than trying to research things every day. As far as the impact on storytelling, I think it will just emphasize its importance. Right now there is a big focus on technique and equipment, so sometimes story is overlooked. As creating gets easier, the story behind your imagery will be much more interesting than the imagery itself.
What is the importance of community as it pertains to Edit.Party and the work you personally create?
Edit Party makes working more fun. It gives me a team to learn from, share my successes with, commiserate with when things are challenging, and help me when I can’t figure something out. It’s a place to find new people to work with, make friends, and be completely humbled, because sometimes I think I’m working like crazy but then I see how many people work just as hard as me if not harder. It has been motivating, grounding, and enriching to be part of the EP community these last few years and I am excited to continue to grow together!
I modeled the community after the traditions of AA— we are completely self-sustaining, we remain forever nonprofessional, and the ONLY requirement for joining is the desire to be there.
Montea Robinson is a producer, film educator, arts manager and alumna of Ghetto Film School. She got her start as a broadcast and post production producer in commercial advertising and has since dedicated her career to serving young people who have a passion for the arts. Today, she is thrilled to continue her work as CEO of Ghetto Film School (GFS). Montea is also an Advisor to the SuperBloom House Creative Collective.
In a first person perspective, Montea shares with us the importance of relentlessly developing the next generation of storytellers and proudly centers the future of creativity around the who and how we support these creative stories, not in what we use to tell them.
“At Ghetto Film School, our mission is to educate, celebrate and develop the next generation of great storytellers. I initially joined the organization at 15 as a student in one of its original cohorts. As a young filmmaker, GFS broke open the art and science of filmmaking and my relationship to the power of storytelling.
Since our inception, GFS has grown tremendously in scale and impact but in the most important ways we’ve remained exactly the same: we give young artists the autonomy to make their own creative decisions, we set high expectations for them and their work, and support their access to industry standard equipment and resources.
What I love about working with young people is that they challenge the world and its premises as if they’re new, because for a short time, they are. What I love about working with young filmmakers is watching how their tenacity, voice and perspective grows with each new project.
I am reminded of a GFS alumna and young director, Jasiel Louison, who has been making inventive and beautiful films with us since she joined as a Fellow in 2017. On set in Iceland directing one of three original films as part of GFS’ 2022 International Thesis Project. Jasiel was directing a young actor who suddenly became intimidated to perform a stunt they’d rehearsed effortlessly in the days before. The team was losing light and a storm was approaching quickly, pressure was mounting from her crew to cut the scene. In that moment Jasiel turned on a quiet, graceful and singular focus, one she had developed over
the years into an instinct that now defines her creative work and relationships.
Jasiel’s film, The Ocean Listens To No One, is in the final stages of completion. Watching the film now, there is no evidence of that day on set. The film is among her best work yet.
Since becoming CEO of GFS in 2022, I’ve spent a lot of time considering how the organization will continue to adapt, expand and perfect the core of what we do, thinking deeply about the future of storytelling in the rapidly changing educational and entertainment industries.
Looking back on the last twenty years of our work and ahead to the next twenty years, our future will be a renewed commitment to long term development of our students. Great artists don’t happen overnight. Authenticity, rigor and candor will be our currency for meaningful creative growth.
Ghetto Film School is as much about what we accomplish on screen as it is about what happens behind the scenes; the care and stewardship of many hands, most of which people will never see. The future of storytelling will be not about what, it’s about who - and how we will prepare them.
GFS engages over 200 entertainment companies and philanthropic foundations that are dedicated to supporting GFS’ young storytellers. Through customized multi-year partnerships, media and entertainment companies like Netflix, NBCU, Sony Music, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and Wieden + Kennedy sustain our free 30-month curriculum, and support our programming through donated equipment, guest speakers, live set/ studio visits, and internships. If you have an interest in supporting the next generation of storytellers, we’d love to hear from you development@ghettofilm.org
Training under legendary photographer Danny Clinch, Daniel Prakopcky has a keen eye for motion and an attention to detail. Daniel’s passion for music helps him capture moments in time that speak volumes.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DANIEL PRAKOPCYK OF THE SBH CREATIVE COLLECTIVE
Our mental storage capacity as humans has been officially downgraded from 7 to 4 as the magic number for memory recall. In honor of humanity’s bite sized brain capacity, SuperBloom presents:
A creator feature you may actually remember. This month, we are fast and curious about
Hailing from Olympia, WA, a Vanderbilt graduate, Malibu Babie is a music producer/ singer songwriter with a resume that reads like Miranda Priestly’s coveted list. She is (wait for it), the first and only female producer to debut at #1 this century for her work on Nicki Minaj’s Super Freaky Girl. She has produced with the ferocious Megan Thee Stallion and the iconic Shania Twain, and is getting ready to catapult into your airpods with new music and collaborations with a handful of your favorite a list hitmakers. With this body of work, and backed by new memory science, the future is female and this is a name you won’t be forgetting anytime soon. Here are four fast things…
Question 1: Historically, there are very few female music producers having the type of success you are - why do you think that is? Do you feel that is changing?
The lack of visibility and opportunity for women in technical roles like production combined with so very few champions pushing for our inclusion and ideas has led to a huge void in the space. We don’t get the headlines or the press coverage. We are seeing signals of change as more women like me make waves, but it can and should move faster.
Question 2: What do you think the state of the music industry will be in the year 2040? The music business is evolving so rapidly it’s hard to say what things will sound like in 2040, but I do hope to have a studio in space. I hear rents are cheaper. Can we make this happen?
Question 3: Are you concerned about tools such as AI will warp and change the job producers & songwriters in the future?
I view AI as a tool like anything else. It’s incredibly interesting and will make some of our processes faster or easier, but it will never replicate the human element of inspiration or our human desire to connect and collaborate together.
Question 4 : What excites you the most about being part of the creative collective, and how do you see this shaping the future of collaboration?
Producing is largely about bringing the best of different elements together. The creative collective allows me access to work with a diverse talented group of people I’d otherwise not be exposed to in my line of work…which can only lead to the most fresh and innovative work. I’m excited to collaborate in other media and bring this to brands.
Loren Granich and Gregory Alexander created the sweaty, pansexual pop-up dance party of your dreams, A Club Called Rhonda, which launched a decade ago and (If we’re lucky) should live forever.
The Rhonda community represents a supportive, assorted underground with a high tolerance for everything except hatred and boundaries.
Q: In approximately 150 words describe who ‘Rhonda’ is and what A Club Called Rhonda is all about.
Rhonda is an all-powerful, ever-present, always felt yet never seen club entity that has guided us to international nightlife acclaim.
Rhonda is the brain-child & combined expression of the both of us (founders Gregory Alexander & Loren Granich), but she has become so much more to so many people. She is a small piece of every person that has ever attended her events throughout the years. She is ever-evolving, molded not just by us but by the interests and passions of our tireless team and the invigorating energy of our vibrant and diverse club community.
Rhonda is about combining unapologetic self-expression, rapturous revelry and the vast diaspora of dance music. Her events aim to support exploration, discovery, permissiveness and debauchery. She has brought her brand of partying to numerous cities in many countries over the years and now boasts around 50 events a year, with no signs of
stopping anytime soon.
Q: What does the Rhonda community represent, and where is Rhonda dancing in the year 2040?
The Rhonda community represents a supportive, assorted underground with a high tolerance for everything except hatred and boundaries. Those are two things we don’t do well with.
In the year 2040 I would love to think that Rhonda still exists but in an entirely different and new capacity that is not yet available, hopefully carried on by our children. And if not then I hope it’s a fond memory of years past that remains in the hearts of everybody we’ve encountered.
Q: How old will Rhonda be in the year 2040?
In the year 2040 Rhonda events would have been happening for over 30 years, though Rhonda herself is timeless. How can a feeling age?
can romanticize the simple things in life like relationships, home and nature,making these symbols of true happiness available to everyone. Always.
Danielle is a filmmaker and photographer from Chicago, who hopes her work
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DANIELLE DEGRASSE-ALSTON OF THE SBH CREATIVE COLLECTIVE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY DANIELLE DEGRASSE-ALSTON OF THE SBH CREATIVE COLLECTIVE
