# Pop Art — style guide for coding agents

> Generated from the Aesthetary record for **Pop Art**.
> Research: **Partly sourced** · Build guidance: recorded in 5 of 8 research dimensions.
> 15 sources attached. 2 claims graded by our research brief, no source attached.

## How to use this

Paste this file into your agent as context before asking it to design or build something in this visual language. It states what is established, what is our interpretation, and what nobody has established. Treat all three differently.

**The most important section is "Not researched yet".** Its purpose is to stop you and your agent inventing rules that sound right and are not recorded anywhere.

## What this language is

**Defining:** Ben-Day dots, thick black outlines, primary colours, speech-bubble devices

**Recognise it by:** Ben-Day dots enlarged until individually countable, thick uniform black outlines around every shape, flat unmodulated primaries, and speech-bubble or caption devices borrowed from commercial comics. The diagnostic condition is reproduction quoted at scale: the halftone dot is magnified into the subject rather than used to reproduce a tone, which is what separates quotation from mere halftone printing. Memphis shares flat bright colour but assembles unrelated shapes with no source being quoted. Sticker-bomb layers found graphics without the outline-and-dot grammar.

**Family:** Maximal & Ornamental
**Era:** mid-century

## What it is arguing

Commercial reproduction is the subject, not the medium. Enlarging the machinery of mass printing — the dot, the outline, the flat primary — until it is impossible to overlook makes an argument about what images are made of and what they are worth.

**It refuses:** Refuses the hand of the artist, tonal modelling, and the distinction between fine art and advertising.

## What it is not

Commonly confused with these. Getting the difference right matters more than getting the surface right:

- Memphis
- Sticker-bomb
- Manga — Panels and reading order determine page structure

## Established rules

Grouped by what kind of claim each is. A requirement of the language and our own interpretation are not interchangeable.

**How to read each rule.** Every rule states two separate things, and neither stands in for the other:

- **Kind of claim** (the heading): From our catalogue entry · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Our reading · Documented · Source attached.
- **Evidence** (how it is established): Graded by our research brief · No source attached (`DOCUMENTED`) · From our catalogue entry (`SUPPORTED`) · Our reading (`CURATORIAL`) · Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`) · No grade recorded (no grade in the record). Where a claim has its own canonical label, the Evidence line gives that label instead of the grade.
- **Product area**: which of the twelve areas the rule belongs to (Layout, Typography, Color, Imagery, Surface, Interface, Motion, Motif, Technique, Form, Hierarchy, Density), mapped from its raw area label in bold. "Context" means the rule is about the Aesthetic (its name, origin, lineage) rather than a part of the design. "Not mapped" means the raw area has no single area yet.
- The code in brackets is the `grade` field at `implementationConstraints.tokenRules.value.rules[].provenance.grade` in https://aesthetary.com/data/pop-art.json. "From our catalogue entry" means: Stated in Aesthetary’s existing catalogue entry. An outside source is named only where one is linked to the claim.

### From our catalogue entry

_Carried over from Aesthetary's original catalogue entry. The reasoning behind it was never recorded._

- **color** — Colour: primaries, flat.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Color
- **imagery** — Imagery: halftone dots, mass-culture source.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: Imagery
- **form / motif / surface / technique** — The Ben-Day dot must be countable — large enough to read as individual dots, not as a texture. A fine halftone screen is ordinary printing; the enlargement is the argument.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · Product area: not mapped

### Graded by our research brief · No source attached

_A research brief graded this documented, but no source is attached yet. A grade is not a source._

- **reproduction** — The machinery of mass printing is the subject at magnified scale: the halftone dot is enlarged until countable, not used to reproduce a tone. A halftone at working size is reproduction; a halftone as subject is this.
  - Kind of claim: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Product area: Motif
- **register** — The term was a critic's, not the artists'. Lawrence Alloway of the Independent Group (ICA, London) coined it in the 1950s-60s, and the movement began as British discussion of AMERICAN consumer culture before the American painters it is now identified with.
  - Kind of claim: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Product area: Context (not a design area)

### Our reading

- **layout** — Panel-derived, with a single enlarged subject per field and captions in borrowed comic devices. Reasoned from the signature's comic sources. Not a claim.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Layout
- **hierarchy** — Rank by outline weight and dot scale — the most heavily outlined, largest-dotted element leads.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Hierarchy

## Found in research

What research established from sources Aesthetary opened and checked. Each line names its area, how it is known, and where it is scoped. "Seen in the work" means the source documents particular works or products rather than the Aesthetic as a whole.

- **Layout** — In Whaam! Lichtenstein used two panels, echoing the self-contained comic-strip unit, with a clear line dividing the attacking plane from the explosion, and enlarged the aeroplane and the burst of flames to fill more of their canvases.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:layout-1` · Covers Lichtenstein comic paintings, 1961-1965.
- **Typography** — Lichtenstein carried comic lettering into paintings: in Whaam! the sound word is integrated with the image, and he changed the source text, painting letters marked white in yellow.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-1` · Covers Lichtenstein comic paintings.
- **Surface** — Lichtenstein found Magna gave flat, uniform colour akin to the commercial graphics he mimicked, and the smooth, matte, commercial look he liked.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:surface-1` · Covers Lichtenstein.
- **Motion** — Lichtenstein's Three Landscapes (1970-71) are one-minute film loops collaging footage of the sea or a fish tank with still images of the sky, a rocking black horizon line, and his Ben-Day dots.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motion-1` · Covers 1970-71, just after the 1960s scope.
- **Motion** — In the static paintings, dot patterns are read as suggesting movement.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:motion-2` · Covers Whaam!.
- **Technique** — Lichtenstein's Ben-Day dots evoke a printing process rather than being printed: dots were oil paint rolled or dabbed through a stencil (a handmade metal screen in Whaam!), often by an assistant, and Whaam! was drawn in pencil on canvas and painted in oil and Magna.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-1` · Covers Lichtenstein, from 1961-62.
- **Technique** — Warhol turned to photographic silkscreen in 1962, combining hand-painted backgrounds with screen-printed photographic images.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-2` · Covers Warhol.
- **Form** — Pop sculpture replicated ordinary objects at larger scale: monumental replicas in pliable fabric stuffed for flaccidity (Whitney), and Warhol's re-creation of Brillo packaging at increased scale and in multiples.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:form-1` · Covers sculpture strand, 1962-1964; outside the Ben-Day/comic register the record teaches.

## Positions by area

The overall position recorded for each area. "No overall position recorded" means rules exist for the area but no position above them; the rules still apply. It is not the same as "Not established", which means nobody has researched the area.

- **Layout** — Specified
- **Typography** — Specified
- **Color** — Specified
- **Imagery** — Specified
- **Surface** — Specified
- **Motion** — Specified
- **Motif** — Specified
- **Technique** — Specified
- **Form** — Specified

## Design grammar — web primitives

A starting grammar for a website in Pop Art: comic panels in one heavy black outline, flat primaries, Ben-Day dots enlarged until they can be counted, and comic lettering and balloons borrowed as devices.

Three kinds of line: **On the record** names a rule this record holds (its wording is under Established rules) and states what it becomes on the web. **Web translation** is Aesthetary's choice for the web, derived from the rules it cites; change it if you have a reason, keep the cited rule. **Not specified by the source** means the research reached this but the sources say nothing about it; **Not researched yet** means the research has not reached it yet. Either way, follow the instruction and do not invent a rule. Structured version: `designGrammar` in data/pop-art.json.

### Colour

| Role | Value | Contrast | Use | Kind |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ground | `#FFFFFF` | — | Panels and gutters. | Web translation |
| ink | `#000000` | 21:1 | The outline and all text. | Web translation |
| red | `#E4202C` | 4.6:1 (white on it) | Dots, the burst, active states. | Web translation |
| yellow | `#FFE01B` | 15.9:1 (ink on it) | Caption strips, buttons; also the sound word's letters. | Web translation |
| blue | `#0B5FB0` | 6.4:1 (white on it) | Dots and fields. | Web translation |

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:color-5` → Primaries, flat.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:surface-1` → Flat, uniform, matte colour, as in commercial graphics.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-1` → No tonal modelling or gradient.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-4` → No muted or secondary palette.

### Typography

Family: comic display capitals (Bangers), with Archivo Narrow for text. Stack: `"Bangers", "Impact", sans-serif`

| Role | Size | Weight | Line height | Case | Tracking | Measure | Use |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| display | 5rem | 400 | 0.95 | uppercase | 0.02em | — | Headlines and sound words. |
| balloon | 1.5rem | 400 | 1.12 | uppercase | 0.04em | 22ch | Words in balloons. |
| body | 1.125rem | 400 | 1.5 | not specified | not specified | 60ch | Running text, in Archivo Narrow. |
| caption | 0.8125rem | 700 | 1.3 | uppercase | 0.06em | — | Caption strips. |

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:typography-1` → Carry comic lettering into the image: the sound word is part of the picture, not a label on it.
- **Web translation** — Bangers for display and balloons, Archivo Narrow for text. _Why:_ Hand-lettered comic capitals for the borrowed devices, a narrow sans for reading. The typeface itself is not researched; both are the room's choice. (`claim:kcc:typography-1`, `claim:freedom-typography`)

### Grid and layout

Comic panels: a strip of self-contained units divided by clear lines, one enlarged subject in each.

| Viewport | Columns |
| --- | --- |
| all | 6 |

- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:layout-3` → Panel-derived, with a single enlarged subject per field.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:layout-1` → Echo the self-contained comic-strip unit; divide with a clear line; enlarge the subject to fill more of its field.
- **Web translation** — Lay panels on a six-column grid with white gutters. _Why:_ A comic page is a grid of panels; six columns let panels of one, two or three units sit together. (`token_rule:layout-3`, `claim:kcc:layout-1`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not specify density. _Instead:_ Do not pack panels to fill a quota; one subject per panel is the only rule.

### Shape and geometry

Tokens: outline `5px` · radius `0` · dot `12px` · dot-pitch `18px`

- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-5` → Thick uniform black outlines around every shape; no thin or varied outline weight.
- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:surface-8` → The Ben-Day dot must be countable: large enough to read as individual dots, not as a texture.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-2` → No fine halftone screen.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:hierarchy-13` → Rank by outline weight and dot scale: the most heavily outlined, largest-dotted element leads.

### Imagery

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry** · `token_rule:imagery-7` → Halftone dots, mass-culture source.
- **On the record · Graded by our research brief · No source attached** · `token_rule:pa-r1` → The machinery of mass printing is the subject at magnified scale.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-3` → No visible brushwork or authorial hand.
- **Web translation** — Draw generic comic devices (dots, balloons, bursts); never reproduce or pastiche a specific artwork. _Why:_ The record describes named works; copying one is not using the language. (`token_rule:imagery-7`, `claim:kcc:technique-1`)

### Quotation

Reproduction quoted at scale: the dot enlarged until it is the subject. Shrink it and it is ordinary print.

- **On the record · Graded by our research brief · No source attached** · `token_rule:pa-r1` → The halftone dot is enlarged until countable, not used to reproduce a tone.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:technique-1` → The dots evoke a printing process rather than being printed: paint through a stencil.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:failure-7` → Not open: shrinking the dot below countable.

### Components

Anatomy, tokens and states below are Web translation: Aesthetary's specification for the screen. Each value line after them says whether it restates a rule this record holds.

#### Button

A caption box: flat yellow, the one heavy outline, lettered in comic capitals.

- Anatomy: flat primary fill; 5px black outline; square corners; label in comic capitals
- Tokens: fill `#FFE01B` · label `#000000` · border `5px solid #000000` · radius `0` · shadow `none`
- State, default: Yellow field, black capitals.
- State, hover: Inverts: black field, yellow capitals.
- State, focus: 4px black outline, 3px outside the box.
- State, active: Red field, white capitals.
- State, disabled: White field, label struck through.
- Accessibility: Black on yellow is 15.9:1; yellow on black the same.
- Accessibility: White on red is 4.6:1, used only at display size.
- Accessibility: At least 44px tall.
- **Web translation** — Draw the button as a caption box: flat fill, one heavy outline. _Why:_ Captions in borrowed comic devices, flat primaries, one outline weight. (`token_rule:layout-3`, `token_rule:color-5`, `claim:failure-5`)

#### Card

A comic panel: one enlarged subject, a yellow caption strip across the top, the same outline.

- Anatomy: 5px black outline; yellow caption strip; one enlarged subject or statement; optional Ben-Day field behind
- Tokens: border `5px solid #000000` · radius `0` · caption `#FFE01B` · dot `12px at 18px pitch`
- State, default: Panel in its outline.
- State, hover: The caption strip turns red, its text white.
- State, focus: 4px black outline outside the panel.
- Accessibility: Text never sits directly on a dot field: it sits in a white or yellow box.
- Accessibility: The dot field is decoration.
- **Web translation** — Panel-derived: a single enlarged subject per field, captions in borrowed comic devices. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`token_rule:layout-3`)
- **Web translation** — Divide panels with a clear line, as the two panels of Whaam! are divided. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`claim:kcc:layout-1`)

#### Input

A white box in the heavy outline with a caption-strip label.

- Anatomy: white field; 5px black outline; label in a yellow caption strip above
- Tokens: border `5px solid #000000` · radius `0` · background `#FFFFFF`
- State, default: White, outlined.
- State, focus: Background turns yellow; outline stays one weight.
- State, error: A red caption strip beneath, white text beginning "Error:".
- State, disabled: Label struck through.
- Accessibility: A visible label on every field.
- Accessibility: Errors are written, not only coloured.
- **Web translation** — Keep the field white and give it the one outline weight. _Why:_ Thick uniform outlines around every shape; no thin or varied weight. (`claim:failure-5`, `token_rule:hierarchy-13`)

#### Navigation

A strip of caption boxes; the current page is a speech balloon.

- Anatomy: caption boxes in a row; shared 5px outline; current page as a balloon with a tail
- Tokens: border `5px solid #000000` · current `balloon, white, tail down`
- State, default: Caption boxes.
- State, hover: Yellow fill.
- State, focus: 4px black outline.
- State, current: A balloon: it speaks, it is not a link.
- Accessibility: aria-current on the current page.
- Accessibility: The balloon shape is decoration; the label is plain text.
- **Web translation** — Mark the current page with a speech balloon. _Why:_ Speech-bubble devices are part of the recorded signature; a balloon says "here". (`claim:dcc:gestalt`, `token_rule:layout-3`)

### Motion

- **Web translation** — In the static works, dot patterns are read as suggesting movement. _Why:_ The cited rule belongs to the Aesthetic's own medium; applying it to a screen component or motion is our translation. (`claim:kcc:motion-2`)
- **Web translation** — Let the dots and bursts suggest movement; animate nothing by default. _Why:_ Movement is depicted in the paintings; the one moving work (1970-71 film loops) falls outside the 1960s scope. (`claim:kcc:motion-2`, `claim:kcc:motion-1`)

### Deliberately not added

- **Interface conventions** (components): The source medium is painting and print. The four components are contemporary translations of its documented rules.
- **A typeface** (typography): Comic lettering is documented; which face is not researched.
- **Density** (gridLayout): Not specified by the source.

## Coverage — what has been looked at

One row per research dimension a research pass considered. "Not researched yet" (`UNKNOWN`) means exactly that; a dimension can carry an Aesthetary recommendation and still be unresearched, and those are different things.

| Research dimension | Evidence | Resolved by | Carries a rule |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Composition | Specified | Aesthetary decided | yes |
| Typography | Specified | Aesthetary decided | yes |
| Hierarchy | Specified · Our reading | Aesthetary decided | yes |
| Colour | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Density | Not specified by the source | Aesthetary decided | no |
| Imagery | Specified · From our catalogue entry | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Form / motif / surface / technique | Specified | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Motion | Specified | Aesthetary decided | no |

Unresearched: Composition, Typography, Motion. Where a rule appears for one of these it is Aesthetary's implementation recommendation, not a property of the language, and its Evidence line above says so.

## Not researched yet

Nobody has established a position for this language on:

- Interface

**Do not fill these in.** An absent position is absent research, not permission and not a blank for you to complete. If the work needs a decision in one of these areas, make it on other grounds and do not attribute it to this language.

## Grade your own work

18 checks: 7 mechanically testable, 9 needing a person to look, 0 needing a source Aesthetary does not hold, 2 with no recorded position. 3 further research dimensions produced no rule (Typography, Density, Motion). This rubric is silent on them. 1 context rule is listed apart: known about this Aesthetic, not something to check finished work against. Scores do not add up. A failure against a required rule and a departure from something we invented are not the same result, and no total should let them cancel.

### Recognition — does this read as the intended Aesthetic?

- **[visual_human · recognition signature · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Strip every logo, word and borrowed image out of your work, then show it to someone who knows the collection. Do they land on this Aesthetic? The signature to hold is: Ben-Day dots enlarged until individually countable, thick uniform black outlines around every shape, flat unmodulated primaries, and speech-bubble or caption devices borrowed from commercial comics. The diagnostic condition is reproduction quoted at scale: the halftone dot is magnified into the subject rather than used to reproduce a tone, which is what separates quotation from mere halftone printing. Memphis shares flat bright colour but assembles unrelated shapes with no source being quoted. Sticker-bomb layers found graphics without the outline-and-dot grammar.
  - _If it fails:_ The work may be competent and still read as a different Aesthetic, or as none. Nothing below matters until this passes.

### Fidelity — are its defining rules present?

- **[unassessable · no recorded position · Evidence: Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`)]** Nothing is recorded as a requirement of this Aesthetic. There is no rule here that your work must hold — which means nothing you do can fail this dimension, and nothing you do can satisfy it either. That is missing research, not freedom: our research brief does record failure modes to avoid, listed under avoidance below. They are recorded judgement, not requirements.
  - _If it fails:_ Not applicable. An empty dimension is an absence of research, never a pass and never a failure.

### Implementation — were those rules translated appropriately into this medium?

- **[visual_human · Our reading · Evidence: Our reading]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Panel-derived, with a single enlarged subject per field and captions in borrowed comic devices. Reasoned from the signature's comic sources. Not a claim.
  - _If it fails:_ Nothing. No one has researched the dimension yet, and this is only what Aesthetary would do. Departing from it costs you nothing.
- **[visual_human · Our reading · Evidence: Our reading]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Rank by outline weight and dot scale — the most heavily outlined, largest-dotted element leads.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Colour: primaries, flat.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Imagery: halftone dots, mass-culture source.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · Evidence: From our catalogue entry]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. The Ben-Day dot must be countable — large enough to read as individual dots, not as a texture. A fine halftone screen is ordinary printing; the enlargement is the argument.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. The machinery of mass printing is the subject at magnified scale: the halftone dot is enlarged until countable, not used to reproduce a tone. A halftone at working size is reproduction; a halftone as subject is this.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.

### Avoidance — known failure modes, neighbour drift, cloning

- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No tonal modelling or gradient.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No fine halftone screen.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No visible brushwork or authorial hand.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No muted or secondary palette.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No thin or varied outline weight.
  - _If it fails:_ A failure mode recorded in our research brief: recorded judgement about what weakens this Aesthetic, not a requirement of the language.
- **[visual_human · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Have you made any of these changes? Each one moves the work into a neighbouring Aesthetic: Against Memphis: quotation versus arbitrariness. Memphis's shapes come from nowhere; these come from commercial print and the source matters. Against Sticker-bomb: layered found graphics versus outline-and-dot grammar. Anti-signature: shrink the dots to a working halftone and it becomes ordinary print reproduction — or Pulp, which uses halftone sincerely under budget.
  - _If it fails:_ You have built the neighbour. That may be fine — but name which Aesthetic you are in.
- **[mechanical · declared closure · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: Not open: shrinking the dot below countable.
  - _If it fails:_ This one is closed, not open. The record says generation must not go here.
- **[mechanical · declared closure · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: Not open: softening the outline..
  - _If it fails:_ This one is closed, not open. The record says generation must not go here.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Manga? That language is: Panels and reading order determine page structure
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Manga than to this Aesthetic.

### Accessibility — the Aesthetic preserved without its inaccessible practice

- **[unassessable · no recorded position · Evidence: Not researched yet (`UNKNOWN`)]** Does this Aesthetic conflict with any usability floor? Nobody has recorded one for it.
  - _If it fails:_ Nothing — and that is the problem. An unrecorded conflict is not an absent one. Hold AA on reading matter and decide the rest on other grounds.

### Context — known about this Aesthetic, not a check

Where the Aesthetic comes from, what it is called, how it sits among its neighbours. Use it to understand the work; do not score finished work against it.

- The term was a critic's, not the artists'. Lawrence Alloway of the Independent Group (ICA, London) coined it in the 1950s-60s, and the movement began as British discussion of AMERICAN consumer culture before the American painters it is now identified with. _(Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached)_

**Not covered at all:** Typography: Specified; Density: Not specified by the source; Motion: Specified. These research dimensions produced no rule, so there is no check. Treat them as unscored, never as passed and never as failed.

## Rules for the agent

1. Do not invent rules for any area listed under **Not researched yet**.
2. Do not treat an absent position as permission to do anything you like — say that the language has no position, and decide on other grounds.
3. Keep our interpretations separable from the language's own requirements. If asked to justify a choice, cite which kind of claim it came from.
4. If you need something this record does not contain, say so rather than producing a confident answer from the aesthetic's name.
5. When you self-score against "Grade your own work", score only checks marked `mechanical`. Declare `visual_human` and `evidence_dependent` checks unjudged rather than guessing, and never score an `unassessable` one.
6. Evidence "Not researched yet" (`UNKNOWN`) is never a failure. It means nobody researched the dimension, so departing from what is written there costs nothing and must not be reported as a defect. "No grade recorded" is not a grade either: do not treat it as our decision or as an outside source.
7. In **Design grammar**, a "Web translation" line is our choice for the web and may be changed with a reason; the rules it cites may not. Never present a translation as a property of the language.

## Provenance

- Record: `pop-art` · status `draft` · research `partly_researched`
- Full structured record: https://aesthetary.com/data/pop-art.json
- Human-readable record: https://aesthetary.com/a/pop-art.html
- This file is a snapshot. The record may have changed since; check the page above.

_Aesthetary is an alpha. Where a page says nothing, nobody has done the work yet._