Horseshoe Maximalism: How Polarization in Culture Creates Convergence
Join OAS for a talk and panel to celebrate the launch of the second OAS Dossier.
Progress is one of humanity's most enduring yet contested ideas. Is progress an actuality or is it a myth? What does progress mean when the present feels so futureless today?
Horseshoe maximalism is the social temperament of our times, an emerging cultural logic and aesthetic that will dominate consumer and business industries in the coming half-decade.
Following up from our last report on Hyper-Optimization, the Office of Applied Strategy is proud to announce OAS Dossier 2: The New Pantheon, which explores the phenomena of horseshoe maximalism across multiple industries over the span of 80+ pages. Join us for an evening where we unpack this term with a keynote talk by Tony Wang, followed by a panel discussion with several of the authors, where we explore how political polarization today has given way to new cultural trends that embrace contradiction and extremities.
All attendees will receive a complimentary copy of the dossier. There will only be 1,000 copies produced, with no online distribution of the full report.
Join us afterwards at Time Again Bar (105 Canal St, New York, NY 10002) for a public launch party.
Program
7-7:15PM — Guests Arrive
7:15-7:45PM — Keynote Talk
7:45-8:30PM — Panel Discussion
8:30-9PM — Q&A Panel
9PM to Late — Public Launch Party at Time Again Bar
Resources
To learn more about the Office of Applied Strategy and last year's Dossier report, entitled “Hyper-Optimization,” visit this link here.
The introduction portion of Dossier 2: The New Pantheon, is available to read here.
Panelists
Helen Yin Chen
Helen Yin Chen is a strategist and researcher working at the intersection of technology, culture, and ecology. She has held roles at the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General, R/GA, IDEO, and Arup Foresight. She is also a research-based artist collaborating with living systems, such as fungi and bacteria, to explore transformative frameworks that deeply enrich both her art and strategy practice.
Chloé Desaulles
Chloé Desaulles is a creative director, artist and researcher. Previously at The New York Times R&D, she now leads Touch Response, a creative studio helping cultural institutions and forward-thinking clients navigate an evolving digital landscape through storytelling innovation, full-service design, and R&D.
Chris Gayomali
Chris Gayomali is a writer, editor, and creative consultant based in New York City. He is currently the editor of SSENSE and writes the health and wellness newsletter HEAVIES, which was a 2024 featured publication on Substack. He has written for New York Magazine, GQ, The Believer, and National Geographic, among others.
Serena Wang
Serena Wang is a technology designer and researcher with an emphasis on human-computer interaction, systems thinking, and speculative design. She currently designs operations tools for public transit and has previously done work with autonomous robotics, autonomous trucks, and blockchain platforms. She has given talks at University of Michigan and Northeastern.
Victoria Massey
Victoria Massey is a strategist specializing in luxury fashion and beauty, grounded in her ongoing career as an international model. Working across the industry's major fashion capitals, her real-time access to creative culture allows her to bridge her modeling career with her practice as a strategist. Her work focuses around developing creative strategies shaped by her lived experience within the luxury industry.
Host
Tony Wang
Tony is a strategist and the founder of the Office of Applied Strategy. He has over a decade of multinational experience in luxury, technology, and management consulting. Previously, he was at SSENSE overseeing brand and content strategy. He has also worked at McKinsey, Google & IDEO.
About OAS
The Office of Applied Strategy is an independent strategy practice that operates as a consulting firm, venture fund, and think tank researching the future of media, culture, and technology through anti-disciplinary thinking.
OAS Think Tank publishes cultural forecasting research. Our hybrid approach incorporates insights from expert and practical perspectives to uncover hidden signals and patterns, with insights for both commercial and creative outcomes.
We self-fund and publish our research as a free resource to founders, builders, and leaders in business and cultural spheres. Contributors are a mix of practitioners and researchers who work across strategy, technology, academia, public policy, science, art, and the humanities.
To learn more, please visit our website here.