What should the future look like? Inside the tech-funded program to create a new aesthetic

In late December, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison and libertarian economist Tyler Cowen published a one-page website proposing a grant program to fund artists and thinkers who want to define the aesthetic of the 21st century. 20th century design, they noted, largely followed a modernist ethos from the Bauhaus school that emerged in Germany in 1919.

They offered no specifics but pledged to issue grants ranging from $5,000 to $250,000. Hundreds of ideas poured in, and in May, Collison and Cowen announced they had issued 28 grants. The projects range widely, including designers exploring new architectural styles, publishers experimenting with bookmaking, technologists examining the role of design in software, and makers.

One grantee wants to "rethink what personal computing should be when the software inside it can think," while another aims to build a "silent, analog meditation timer." The grants are not tied to specific methods, and Collison and Cowen aren't concerned about whether their initiative results in a new aesthetic movement or not. They are excited to see what the grant recipients create.

This approach to sparking cultural change is a novel and open-ended endeavor, similar to how patrons have historically spurred design movements in the past.