Is Taste Dead? We Asked 4 Of London's Most Exciting Creatives To Unpack Our Obsession With The 'Hyper-Curated' — They Didn't Hold Back
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Livingetc reported on a panel discussion held in London during the Frieze fairs, where four creatives considered whether social media and algorithmic recommendations are narrowing personal taste. The report presents the question as an open debate, not a finding that taste has disappeared; the panelists’ full views are not included in the supplied material.

Livingetc brought four London creatives together for a Frieze Connect panel on whether social platforms and algorithmic recommendations are reshaping personal taste. The discussion, held during the Frieze fairs’ return to Regent’s Park, put a cultural question to designers and artists: can people still develop preferences through lived experience when online feeds increasingly suggest what to like, wear, buy and watch?

The roundtable, titled “The Future of Taste,” was moderated by a Livingetc journalist and staged at Aethos London Shoreditch as part of Frieze’s membership programme. The publication named three panelists: Sophie Ashby, founding designer of Studio Ashby; Emmanuel Lawal, a visual and music artist and designer who founded Forestalgia; and Panayiota Soutis, a writer focused on culture and food. The report identifies food designer Giuseppe Burdo as the creator of a food installation, made with Aaj Fernando, the venue’s executive chef.

The article frames the debate around the tension between individual preference and platform-shaped recommendation. It describes a shopping culture in which people can use Google Lens to identify clothes seen on Instagram and try outfits on digital avatars. It also points to filters, AI-manipulated images and appearance trends as forces that may make certain ideals easier to copy and purchase. These are the report’s framing and examples, not evidence that all audiences respond to them in the same way.

The piece also links taste to time, money and social life. It argues that choosing décor, clothing or travel can feel like another task for people facing financial and time pressures. Soutis has separately written about a decline in informal hosting and a rise in gatherings staged as online content or brand events. The report’s central takeaway is more cautious than its headline: the panel asks whether taste is changing, while suggesting it may persist through personal curiosity and experience.

At a glance
reportWhen: Panel held during the Frieze London and…
The developmentLivingetc convened four London creatives for a Frieze Connect discussion about personal taste and the influence of online curation.

How Feeds Shape Everyday Choices

The discussion matters because recommendation systems now sit between people and cultural choices, from clothing and interiors to food and entertainment. If users rely heavily on platform feeds, influencer images or shopping tools to guide those choices, the distinction between a personal preference and a suggested trend can become harder to see. That question affects consumers as well as designers and artists whose work is discovered through digital platforms.

The report also connects taste to more than aesthetics. Its account raises questions about time, affordability and social connection: when leisure decisions feel like chores, and gatherings become content or sponsored events, people may have fewer opportunities to explore interests without an audience or commercial prompt. The panel offers a discussion of these pressures, not a study measuring their scale or proving that online systems have erased individual taste.

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From Personal Taste to Online Curation

The Livingetc article contrasts an older idea of taste as something that develops over time with a present-day culture of visible, shareable curation. In its account, social media gives people ways to present a chosen identity, while recommendation tools make it easier to reproduce styles already circulating online. The report does not claim that these tools are the only influence on taste, nor does it provide data comparing preferences across generations.

The event was timed with the annual Frieze London and Frieze Masters fairs, which the source says were running in Regent’s Park through October 18. The panel brought together perspectives from interior design, visual art, music and food culture. The provided article includes an initial response from Lawal about childhood curiosity and footwear, but does not supply the full exchange or all four contributors’ answers to the questions posed.

““I’ve always been drawn to things that felt considered but slightly unexpected.””

— Emmanuel Lawal, designer, visual and music artist, and founder of Forestalgia

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What the Panel Does Not Establish

The supplied material does not show whether the panelists agreed that taste is declining, how each of the four participants answered the discussion’s questions, or what evidence they used beyond personal experience and cultural commentary. Although the headline says four creatives were asked to unpack the subject, the excerpt provides only the names of three panelists and a partial response from Lawal; Burdo is described as contributing the food installation. The exact event date and any audience response are also not stated.

The article does not establish that algorithms cause people to share the same preferences, or that filters, beauty trends and shopping technologies have produced a measurable change in taste. Those points are presented as concerns and examples. The scale, effects and audience differences remain unquantified in the material provided.

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Further Views From the Creatives

Livingetc’s report presents the panel as a way to explore how design, art and food practitioners maintain personal points of view amid online curation. The source material does not announce a follow-up event, research project or policy change. The next useful development would be publication of the full panel responses, allowing readers to compare the participants’ accounts and see whether they view digital platforms mainly as a constraint, a tool or both.

For now, the event adds a discussion to an ongoing cultural debate rather than resolving it. Readers can distinguish the panel’s reported observations from broader claims about social media: the question is posed, but the evidence in this report does not settle whether taste is dying.

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Key Questions

What was the Livingetc event about?

It was a Frieze Connect panel titled “The Future of Taste,” focused on how personal taste may be affected by social media, algorithms and online shopping culture.

Who took part in the discussion?

The report names Sophie Ashby, Emmanuel Lawal and Panayiota Soutis as panelists. It also identifies Giuseppe Burdo as the creator of a food installation for the event, but the supplied material does not list him as a discussion panelist.

Did the panel conclude that taste is dead?

No such conclusion is established in the supplied report. Its headline poses the question, and the article suggests that taste may remain alive through individual curiosity and experience, but the full panel discussion is not included.

What examples of online influence does the report give?

It cites social media feeds, Google Lens, virtual outfit try-ons, filters and AI-manipulated images as examples of tools and trends that can guide shopping or influence appearance ideals. The report does not quantify their effects.

Source: rss

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