{
  "contract": "aesthetary.record/1.0",
  "record_spec": "1.1.0",
  "semantics": {
    "vocabulary": "aesthetary.public-evidence/1.0",
    "definitions": "vocabulary.json"
  },
  "slug": "vaporwave",
  "name": "Vaporwave",
  "identity": {
    "definition": {
      "state": "resolved",
      "text": "Pastel gradients, classical statuary, retro OS chrome, glitch and VHS artefacts"
    },
    "scope": {
      "state": "withheld"
    },
    "aliases": [
      "Seapunk",
      "mallsoft",
      "A E S T H E T I C"
    ],
    "layer_verdict": {
      "state": "withheld"
    }
  },
  "native_medium": {
    "state": "owed",
    "owed": "judgment",
    "why": "A judgment on the material the record already holds is still owed."
  },
  "research": {
    "line": "graded_not_sourced",
    "text": "Graded, not yet sourced",
    "sentence": "No source attached. 2 claims graded by our research brief."
  },
  "areas": [
    {
      "area": "layout",
      "state": "owed",
      "owed": "research",
      "why": "No source has been examined for this yet."
    },
    {
      "area": "typography",
      "state": "owed",
      "owed": "research",
      "why": "No source has been examined for this yet."
    },
    {
      "area": "color",
      "state": "owed",
      "owed": "research",
      "why": "No source has been examined for this yet."
    },
    {
      "area": "imagery",
      "state": "owed",
      "owed": "research",
      "why": "No source has been examined for this yet."
    },
    {
      "area": "surface",
      "state": "owed",
      "owed": "research",
      "why": "No source has been examined for this yet."
    },
    {
      "area": "interface",
      "state": "owed",
      "owed": "research",
      "why": "No source has been examined for this yet."
    },
    {
      "area": "motion",
      "state": "owed",
      "owed": "research",
      "why": "No source has been examined for this yet."
    },
    {
      "area": "motif",
      "state": "resolved",
      "canon": "specified",
      "importance": "unknown",
      "posture_basis": "synthesis",
      "label": {
        "text": "Specified"
      }
    },
    {
      "area": "technique",
      "state": "owed",
      "owed": "research",
      "why": "No source has been examined for this yet."
    },
    {
      "area": "form",
      "state": "owed",
      "owed": "research",
      "why": "No source has been examined for this yet."
    },
    {
      "area": "hierarchy",
      "state": "owed",
      "owed": "research",
      "why": "No source has been examined for this yet."
    },
    {
      "area": "density",
      "state": "owed",
      "owed": "research",
      "why": "No source has been examined for this yet."
    }
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "vw-r1",
      "text": "Greco-Roman statuary placed among consumer-electronics imagery is the specific marker. Pastel gradient and retro interface chrome alone are shared with Y2K and Synthwave and identify nothing.",
      "role": "rule",
      "area": "motif",
      "basis": "documentary",
      "support": {
        "state": "graded_unlinked",
        "for": [],
        "against": [],
        "contested": false
      },
      "label": {
        "kind": "graded",
        "mark": "none",
        "text": "Graded by our research brief · No source attached"
      },
      "derives_from": [],
      "ruling": null
    },
    {
      "id": "vw-r2",
      "text": "The genre's critical intent is contested and must not be stated as settled: read as accelerationist by Adam Harper (2012) and as punk-lineage anti-capitalist subversion by others. Aesthetary reports the disagreement rather than choosing.",
      "role": "context",
      "area": null,
      "basis": "documentary",
      "support": {
        "state": "graded_unlinked",
        "for": [],
        "against": [],
        "contested": false
      },
      "label": {
        "kind": "graded",
        "mark": "none",
        "text": "Graded by our research brief · No source attached"
      },
      "derives_from": [],
      "ruling": null
    },
    {
      "id": "intent",
      "text": "Reuses the visual language of late-20th-century corporate optimism — its stock imagery, its interface furniture, its classical borrowings — to display that optimism as empty.",
      "role": "argument",
      "area": null,
      "basis": "synthesis",
      "support": {
        "state": "none",
        "for": [],
        "against": [],
        "contested": false
      },
      "label": {
        "kind": "reading",
        "text": "Our reading"
      },
      "derives_from": [],
      "ruling": "D0-3 C1 prose"
    },
    {
      "id": "gestalt",
      "text": "Pastel gradients, Greco-Roman statuary, the window furniture of a 1990s operating system, and VHS or glitch degradation, assembled as collage without narrative connection. The diagnostic element is the classical statuary: pastel gradients and retro interface chrome are shared with Y2K and with Synthwave, but the Roman bust placed among consumer-electronics imagery is specific to this and marks the ironic distance. Full-width Japanese characters are a frequent marker and carry the concern recorded below.",
      "role": "diagnostic",
      "area": null,
      "basis": "synthesis",
      "support": {
        "state": "none",
        "for": [],
        "against": [],
        "contested": false
      },
      "label": {
        "kind": "reading",
        "text": "Our reading"
      },
      "derives_from": [],
      "ruling": "D0-3 C1 prose"
    },
    {
      "id": "intent-negation",
      "text": "Refuses both sincere nostalgia and straightforward critique; the ambiguity between celebrating and condemning consumer capitalism is the position.",
      "role": "argument",
      "area": null,
      "basis": "synthesis",
      "support": {
        "state": "none",
        "for": [],
        "against": [],
        "contested": false
      },
      "label": {
        "kind": "reading",
        "text": "Our reading"
      },
      "derives_from": [],
      "ruling": "D0-3 C1 prose"
    },
    {
      "id": "intent-cost",
      "text": "Costs accepted: Legibility of the critique; Being read as endorsement",
      "role": "argument",
      "area": null,
      "basis": "synthesis",
      "support": {
        "state": "none",
        "for": [],
        "against": [],
        "contested": false
      },
      "label": {
        "kind": "reading",
        "text": "Our reading"
      },
      "derives_from": [],
      "ruling": "D0-3 C1 prose"
    },
    {
      "id": "intent-audience",
      "text": "Audience: A viewer who recognises the borrowed material as corporate and dated.",
      "role": "argument",
      "area": null,
      "basis": "synthesis",
      "support": {
        "state": "none",
        "for": [],
        "against": [],
        "contested": false
      },
      "label": {
        "kind": "reading",
        "text": "Our reading"
      },
      "derives_from": [],
      "ruling": "D0-3 C1 prose"
    },
    {
      "id": "v1-distinguishing",
      "text": "Ironic and flat; the classical references are the tell",
      "role": "diagnostic",
      "area": null,
      "basis": "inherited",
      "support": {
        "state": "inherited",
        "for": [],
        "against": [],
        "contested": false
      },
      "label": {
        "kind": "catalogue",
        "text": "From our catalogue entry"
      },
      "derives_from": [],
      "ruling": null
    },
    {
      "id": "v1-era",
      "text": "Era: 1990s, y2k",
      "role": "context",
      "area": null,
      "basis": "inherited",
      "support": {
        "state": "inherited",
        "for": [],
        "against": [],
        "contested": false
      },
      "label": {
        "kind": "catalogue",
        "text": "From our catalogue entry"
      },
      "derives_from": [],
      "ruling": null
    },
    {
      "id": "v1-mood",
      "text": "Mood: strange, nostalgic",
      "role": "context",
      "area": null,
      "basis": "inherited",
      "support": {
        "state": "inherited",
        "for": [],
        "against": [],
        "contested": false
      },
      "label": {
        "kind": "catalogue",
        "text": "From our catalogue entry"
      },
      "derives_from": [],
      "ruling": null
    },
    {
      "id": "v1-cross-library",
      "text": "Cross-library: Imagery: statuary and OS chrome · Color: pastel",
      "role": "context",
      "area": null,
      "basis": "inherited",
      "support": {
        "state": "inherited",
        "for": [],
        "against": [],
        "contested": false
      },
      "label": {
        "kind": "catalogue",
        "text": "From our catalogue entry"
      },
      "derives_from": [],
      "ruling": null
    }
  ],
  "web_translations": [],
  "standard_practice": [],
  "sources": [],
  "relations": [
    {
      "slug": "synthwave",
      "kind": "confused_with",
      "status": "proposed"
    },
    {
      "slug": "y2k",
      "kind": "confused_with",
      "status": "proposed"
    },
    {
      "slug": "glitch",
      "kind": "confused_with",
      "status": "proposed"
    },
    {
      "slug": "pastel-palette",
      "kind": "uses_module",
      "status": "confirmed"
    }
  ],
  "open": [
    {
      "kind": "open_question",
      "question": "[split_candidate] Alias \"Seapunk\" on Vaporwave may be a distinct concept rather than a label. Split, or keep as a Label with an assigned role?"
    },
    {
      "kind": "open_question",
      "question": "[split_candidate] Alias \"mallsoft\" on Vaporwave may be a distinct concept rather than a label. Split, or keep as a Label with an assigned role?"
    },
    {
      "state": "withheld"
    },
    {
      "kind": "open_question",
      "question": "Module gap: Two distinct concepts in one hint: classical statuary as subject matter, and retro operating-system interface furniture."
    },
    {
      "kind": "open_question",
      "question": "Module gap: A color module for a desaturated high-lightness palette."
    },
    {
      "state": "withheld"
    }
  ],
  "aesthetary_build": {
    "note": "Values Aesthetary built with. Not claims about the Aesthetic.",
    "measured": {
      "note": "Read from the page's own stylesheet at build time. Values Aesthetary built with, not claims about the Aesthetic.",
      "slug": "vaporwave",
      "stylesheet": "vaporwave.css",
      "bytes": 17265,
      "colours": [
        "#C0C0C0",
        "#1A1A2E",
        "#FDF6A8",
        "#C3A6FF",
        "#3A1BD1",
        "#000080",
        "#4A4560",
        "#5A1D8C",
        "#FF71CE",
        "#FFFFFF",
        "#404040",
        "#808080",
        "#FF9AD5",
        "#8EE9F5",
        "#000000",
        "#EDE7F4",
        "#6B6282",
        "#8A82A0",
        "#E8E2F0",
        "#F4F0FA",
        "#F1ECFB",
        "#D6D6D6",
        "#F7F5FB",
        "#ECE6FA"
      ],
      "radii": [],
      "fontSizes": [
        "15px",
        "16px",
        "17px",
        "18px",
        "19px",
        "20px",
        "23px"
      ],
      "faces": [
        "Work Sans",
        "Silkscreen"
      ],
      "tokens": [
        {
          "name": "--vw-ink",
          "value": "#1A1A2E"
        },
        {
          "name": "--vw-ink2",
          "value": "#4A4560"
        },
        {
          "name": "--vw-link",
          "value": "#3A1BD1"
        },
        {
          "name": "--vw-navy",
          "value": "#000080"
        },
        {
          "name": "--vw-pink",
          "value": "#FF71CE"
        },
        {
          "name": "--vw-chrome",
          "value": "#C0C0C0"
        },
        {
          "name": "--vw-hi",
          "value": "#FFFFFF"
        },
        {
          "name": "--vw-lo",
          "value": "#404040"
        },
        {
          "name": "--vw-mid",
          "value": "#808080"
        },
        {
          "name": "--vw-paper",
          "value": "#FFFFFF"
        },
        {
          "name": "--vw-gut",
          "value": "clamp(16px, 3vw, 30px)"
        },
        {
          "name": "--vw-w",
          "value": "980px"
        },
        {
          "name": "--vw-face",
          "value": "\"Work Sans\", \"Helvetica Neue\", Arial, sans-serif"
        },
        {
          "name": "--vw-pixel",
          "value": "\"Silkscreen\", ui-monospace, Menlo, monospace"
        },
        {
          "name": "--vaporwave",
          "value": ":after { content: none"
        }
      ],
      "animates": false,
      "absent": [
        "no rounded corner anywhere",
        "nothing animates"
      ]
    },
    "design_grammar": {
      "note": "Aesthetary's translation of this record into web primitives. Every value carries a basis: \"record\" is a rule the record holds (cites names it), \"translation\" is our choice derived from the cited rules (because says how), \"not_recorded\" means the record is silent (guidance says what to do). A \"record\" value restates a claim the record holds; its standing is that claim's own kind in the record (a requirement, period practice, modern practice, or our interpretation), which the cited rule states. \"record\" does not by itself make a value a property of the language.",
      "slug": "vaporwave",
      "version": "2026-09-26",
      "summary": "A starting grammar for a website in Vaporwave. The record's one design rule is a warning: pastel gradient and retro chrome identify nothing; the marker is classical statuary among consumer electronics. Type, layout system, interface and motion are not researched yet.",
      "color": {
        "roles": [
          {
            "role": "gradient-from",
            "value": "#F7B7DD",
            "use": "Top of the pastel gradient ground.",
            "basis": "translation",
            "cites": [
              "gestalt",
              "module_edge:4B252Z41PTCK45A6W0KH7THF23"
            ]
          },
          {
            "role": "gradient-to",
            "value": "#9EE6EE",
            "use": "Bottom of the pastel gradient ground.",
            "basis": "translation",
            "cites": [
              "gestalt",
              "module_edge:4B252Z41PTCK45A6W0KH7THF23"
            ]
          },
          {
            "role": "ink",
            "value": "#1E1330",
            "contrast": "10.7:1",
            "use": "Text on the gradient.",
            "basis": "translation",
            "cites": [
              "gestalt"
            ]
          },
          {
            "role": "chrome",
            "value": "#C0C0C0",
            "use": "Operating-system furniture.",
            "basis": "translation",
            "cites": [
              "gestalt"
            ]
          },
          {
            "role": "title-bar",
            "value": "#000080",
            "use": "Window title bars.",
            "basis": "translation",
            "cites": [
              "gestalt"
            ]
          }
        ],
        "alternates": [],
        "rules": [
          {
            "rule": "Use a pastel gradient as the ground.",
            "basis": "translation",
            "cites": [
              "gestalt",
              "module_edge:4B252Z41PTCK45A6W0KH7THF23"
            ],
            "because": "The recognition signature names pastel gradients among its elements; using one as the page ground is this grammar's choice."
          },
          {
            "rule": "A pastel gradient on its own identifies nothing; it is shared with Y2K and Synthwave.",
            "basis": "record",
            "cites": [
              "token_rule:vw-r1"
            ]
          },
          {
            "rule": "Exact colours are not researched yet.",
            "basis": "not_recorded",
            "cites": [],
            "guidance": "The values here are a starting point; keep text on the gradient above 4.5:1.",
            "silence": "unresearched"
          }
        ]
      },
      "typography": {
        "family": {
          "stack": "Tahoma, Verdana, \"MS Sans Serif\", sans-serif",
          "class": "not researched yet"
        },
        "roles": [],
        "rules": [
          {
            "rule": "Typography is not researched yet.",
            "basis": "not_recorded",
            "cites": [],
            "guidance": "The system-sans stack here only dresses the operating-system furniture. Do not present it as a Vaporwave face.",
            "silence": "unresearched"
          },
          {
            "rule": "Full-width Japanese characters: the recognition statement calls them a frequent marker and refers to a concern that is not recorded.",
            "basis": "not_recorded",
            "cites": [
              "gestalt"
            ],
            "guidance": "Do not use them decoratively until that concern is written down.",
            "silence": "unresearched"
          }
        ]
      },
      "gridLayout": {
        "summary": "Collage: elements assembled without narrative connection. A grid is not researched yet.",
        "rules": [
          {
            "rule": "Assemble the page as collage: overlapping fragments with no narrative order.",
            "basis": "translation",
            "cites": [
              "gestalt"
            ],
            "because": "Our translation of the record's recognition signature into this web primitive; the record states it as the look, not as a rule."
          },
          {
            "rule": "A layout system is not researched yet.",
            "basis": "not_recorded",
            "cites": [],
            "guidance": "Keep reading order sensible in the markup even when the visual collage is not.",
            "silence": "unresearched"
          }
        ]
      },
      "shapeGeometry": {
        "tokens": {
          "radius": "0",
          "bevel": "2px"
        },
        "rules": [
          {
            "rule": "Square corners and 2px bevels.",
            "basis": "translation",
            "cites": [
              "gestalt"
            ],
            "because": "The operating-system furniture the recognition statement names was square and bevelled."
          }
        ]
      },
      "imagery": {
        "rules": [
          {
            "rule": "Place Greco-Roman statuary among consumer-electronics imagery. This is the specific marker.",
            "basis": "record",
            "cites": [
              "token_rule:vw-r1"
            ]
          },
          {
            "rule": "Degrade imagery the way VHS and glitch did: scanlines, colour bleed, tracking errors.",
            "basis": "translation",
            "cites": [
              "gestalt"
            ],
            "because": "The recognition signature names VHS or glitch degradation; scanlines, colour bleed and tracking errors are this grammar's rendering of it."
          },
          {
            "rule": "Which statues, which devices, and how they are sourced are not researched yet.",
            "basis": "not_recorded",
            "cites": [],
            "guidance": "Use drawn or licensed imagery; a classical bust is public-domain subject matter but most photographs of one are not.",
            "silence": "unresearched"
          }
        ]
      },
      "components": {
        "button": {
          "name": "Button",
          "becomes": "A late-1990s operating-system button: grey, bevelled light on the top-left and dark on the bottom-right, pressed in when clicked.",
          "anatomy": [
            "#C0C0C0 face",
            "2px bevel (white top-left, grey-black bottom-right)",
            "system sans label"
          ],
          "tokens": {
            "face": "#C0C0C0",
            "bevel": "2px outset",
            "pressed": "2px inset",
            "radius": "0"
          },
          "states": {
            "default": "Raised bevel.",
            "hover": "Unchanged, as the operating system had it.",
            "focus": "A dotted rectangle inside the label, plus a 2px outline.",
            "active": "Bevel inverts: pressed in.",
            "disabled": "Label embossed grey."
          },
          "accessibility": [
            "The dotted focus rectangle is backed by a real 2px outline.",
            "Black label on the grey face: 11.5:1."
          ],
          "values": [
            {
              "rule": "Draw buttons as bevelled operating-system furniture.",
              "basis": "translation",
              "cites": [
                "gestalt"
              ],
              "because": "The window furniture of a 1990s operating system is in the recognition statement."
            },
            {
              "rule": "Retro chrome alone does not make it Vaporwave; the chrome must sit with the classical marker.",
              "basis": "translation",
              "cites": [
                "token_rule:vw-r1"
              ],
              "because": "Our screen application of the cited record material. The record's native medium is not established as a screen, so a component value is a web translation, never a screen requirement of the language."
            }
          ]
        },
        "card": {
          "name": "Card",
          "becomes": "An application window with a title bar, holding one fragment of the collage.",
          "anatomy": [
            "navy title bar with a title and a close box",
            "bevelled grey frame",
            "content: an image, a bust, or a line of text"
          ],
          "tokens": {
            "titleBar": "#000080",
            "frame": "#C0C0C0",
            "radius": "0"
          },
          "states": {
            "default": "Window.",
            "hover": "Title bar brightens to the active-window blue.",
            "focus": "2px outline."
          },
          "accessibility": [
            "The close box is decoration and hidden from assistive technology.",
            "The title bar text is the card's heading."
          ],
          "values": [
            {
              "rule": "Frame each card as an application window.",
              "basis": "translation",
              "cites": [
                "gestalt"
              ],
              "because": "Operating-system window furniture is named in the recognition statement."
            },
            {
              "rule": "Place windows as collage: overlapping, with no narrative order.",
              "basis": "translation",
              "cites": [
                "gestalt"
              ],
              "because": "The recognition statement describes assembly as collage without narrative connection."
            }
          ]
        },
        "input": {
          "name": "Input",
          "becomes": "A sunken operating-system text field: white, inset bevel, square.",
          "anatomy": [
            "2px inset bevel",
            "white field",
            "label to the left or above"
          ],
          "tokens": {
            "bevel": "2px inset",
            "radius": "0"
          },
          "states": {
            "default": "Inset.",
            "focus": "2px outline.",
            "error": "Message in words, beginning \"Error:\".",
            "disabled": "Grey field."
          },
          "accessibility": [
            "Visible label.",
            "Field edge meets 3:1."
          ],
          "values": [
            {
              "rule": "Sink the field with an inset bevel.",
              "basis": "translation",
              "cites": [
                "gestalt"
              ],
              "because": "Operating-system furniture from the recognition statement."
            }
          ]
        },
        "navigation": {
          "name": "Navigation",
          "becomes": "A taskbar: a grey strip along the bottom with bevelled buttons, the current page pressed in.",
          "anatomy": [
            "grey strip, bevelled top edge",
            "one button per page",
            "current page shown pressed"
          ],
          "tokens": {
            "bar": "#C0C0C0",
            "position": "bottom of the viewport"
          },
          "states": {
            "default": "Raised buttons.",
            "hover": "Unchanged.",
            "focus": "2px outline.",
            "current": "Pressed in (inset bevel), and aria-current."
          },
          "accessibility": [
            "The taskbar is a nav landmark with a label.",
            "Pressed state is not the only cue: aria-current is set."
          ],
          "values": [
            {
              "rule": "Present navigation as an operating-system taskbar.",
              "basis": "translation",
              "cites": [
                "gestalt"
              ],
              "because": "Operating-system furniture from the recognition statement."
            }
          ]
        }
      },
      "motion": {
        "spec": null,
        "rules": [
          {
            "rule": "Motion, including animated glitch, is not researched yet.",
            "basis": "not_recorded",
            "cites": [
              "gestalt"
            ],
            "guidance": "VHS and glitch appear in the record as degraded images, not as animation. Keep degradation static unless you decide otherwise and say so.",
            "silence": "unresearched"
          }
        ]
      },
      "dimensions": [
        {
          "key": "marker",
          "label": "The marker",
          "summary": "What makes it Vaporwave rather than Y2K or Synthwave: the classical bust among consumer electronics.",
          "values": [
            {
              "rule": "Put a classical bust with consumer electronics in every key composition.",
              "basis": "record",
              "cites": [
                "token_rule:vw-r1"
              ]
            },
            {
              "rule": "Pastel gradient and retro chrome without the statuary identify nothing.",
              "basis": "record",
              "cites": [
                "token_rule:vw-r1"
              ]
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "key": "register",
          "label": "Stance",
          "summary": "The genre's critical intent is contested, and the ambiguity is the position.",
          "values": [
            {
              "rule": "Do not state the critique as settled: it is read both as accelerationist and as anti-capitalist subversion.",
              "basis": "record",
              "cites": [
                "token_rule:vw-r2"
              ]
            },
            {
              "rule": "Let copy stay ambiguous; do not caption the irony.",
              "basis": "translation",
              "cites": [
                "intent",
                "token_rule:vw-r2"
              ],
              "because": "The ambiguity between celebrating and condemning consumer culture is the position."
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "notRecorded": [
        {
          "category": "typography",
          "what": "Typography, and the concern about full-width Japanese characters",
          "why": "The recognition statement refers to a concern \"recorded below\"; none is recorded. A research gap."
        },
        {
          "category": "color",
          "what": "Exact colours",
          "why": "Pastel gradient is in the record; values are not researched yet."
        },
        {
          "category": "gridLayout",
          "what": "A layout system",
          "why": "Collage is in the record; a layout system is not researched yet."
        },
        {
          "category": "components",
          "what": "Interface conventions",
          "why": "The research record does not establish them. The four components are contemporary translations of documented visual rules."
        },
        {
          "category": "motion",
          "what": "Motion, including animated glitch",
          "why": "Degradation is recorded as a quality of images, not of motion."
        }
      ],
      "silence": {
        "color": "unresearched",
        "typography": "unresearched",
        "gridLayout": "unresearched",
        "shapeGeometry": "unresearched",
        "imagery": "unresearched",
        "components": "unresearched",
        "motion": "unresearched"
      }
    }
  }
}