Digital Malefactor

idleworm.com on the seizure of power by technocrats:

No longer is the artwork on paper, it’s digital. Multiple versions can be saved. The image is on layers. Changes can be made for ‘free’ by any opinionated bumbleduff in a suit. Once the bean-counters realised that they could stand behind the artist’s shoulder and issue commands, we entered the age of pixel-pushing. The artist/designer no longer has any real autonomy as final decisions about tones, saturation, and composition were ceded to bean-counters who have little knowledge of the concepts, beyond the crudest level…

Once total control of the design process passed to bean-counters, it created a negative feedback loop. There was no apparent penalty for this method, and the public continued to buy movie tickets or magazines. The expectation that a certain level of design competence was required unconsciously began to fade…

A similar rot infests architecture, journalism, writing, politics, and other areas. Where will it end? There seems to be a drift towards a contempt for excellence, a dumbed-down worship of the banal or third rate, and rule by bean-counters.