# Y2K — style guide for coding agents

> Generated from the Aesthetary record for **Y2K**.
> Research: **Partly sourced** · Build guidance: recorded in 7 of 8 research dimensions.
> 11 sources attached. 1 claim 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:** Translucent coloured plastic, blob forms, chrome and gloss, chunky rounded type

**Recognise it by:** High-gloss chrome and translucent coloured plastic — blob forms with smooth curves and no sharp edges, casings with clear accents or wholly see-through shells, gradients, visible specular highlights — with rounded, chunky display type. The diagnostic property is the material optimism: the surfaces are meant to look expensively manufactured and new. Shares chrome and gradient with both Vaporwave and Frutiger Aero; Vaporwave's scene, by the label coiner's account, looked more to the 1980s and mid-1990s, and Frutiger Aero is the successor that followed in the mid-2000s.

**Family:** Retro & Period Revival
**Era:** y2k
**Native medium:** screen, print

**Scope:** The visual register of late-1990s and early-2000s consumer technology and graphics, as catalogued retrospectively under 'Y2K': translucent coloured casings, chrome, gloss, gradients, rounded type, blob forms. McBling and Frutiger Aero stay separate.

**Our reading:** Metallic bubbles, lens flare and star sparkles are our screen reading of that vocabulary, not attested period features.

## What it is arguing

Presents the near future as frictionless, clean and desirable, using the visual signals of consumer technology at the moment it became an object of aspiration.

## What it is not

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

- Camp
- Vaporwave
- Frutiger Aero
- Chrome

## 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 · disputed · Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Our reading · Documented · Source attached · Seen in the work.
- **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/y2k.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 · disputed

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

- **color** — Colour: pastel metallic.
  - Kind of claim: From our catalogue entry · disputed · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · disputed · Product area: Color

### 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._

- **register** — The label is a retrospective coinage, systematised by Evan Collins of the Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute in 2016 from a 2014 collection. Nobody working in the period called it this.
  - 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** — Floating translucent panels overlapping on a soft gradient ground, without a visible grid — reasoned from the signature's bubble-and-panel vocabulary, which implies objects rather than a layout.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Layout
- **hierarchy** — Rank by specular highlight and depth — the glossiest, nearest object leads. Genuinely native to the register and unusual.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Hierarchy
- **motion** — Highlights travelling across surfaces, panels drifting with slight parallax. Continuous and ambient.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Motion
- **imagery** — Imagery: translucent coloured casings and blob forms, rendered with gradients and layered transparencies.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Imagery
- **surface** — Form / surface: gloss, chrome and mirror; translucent coloured plastic; blob forms with smooth curves and no sharp edges.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Surface
- **typography** — Our reading, from the neighbours and the material: a soft-cornered geometric or rounded grotesk, tight, with gloss or bevel treatment on display.
  - Kind of claim: Our reading · Evidence: Our reading · Product area: Typography

## 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.

- **Typography** — Display type is often rounded, bloated or chunky.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-1` · Covers graphic design strand; retrospective descriptions (2016 to 2022).
- **Typography** — In the period, techno and futuristic fonts were installed (per the Guardian).
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:typography-2` · Covers period vernacular use, not a named typeface list.
- **Interface** — One practitioner (The Digital Fairy) lists implied tech elements like loading bars and rendered buttons, and hyper-digital metallics, gloss and mirror, among Y2K traits.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:interface-1` · Covers one practitioner's description (The Digital Fairy), 2022.
- **Motion** — Around 1999-2000, Flash made animated intros easy, and splash pages with animated logos, 'enter site' prompts and loading bars were in vogue.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-motion-1` · Covers Describes period web design in 2000 generally, not material catalogued under the 'Y2K' label specifically..
- **Motion** — By 2000 web users had come to expect motion and sound as part of a page's design, a break from the static pages of a few years earlier.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:w2-motion-2` · Covers Period web generally..
- **Motion** — An archive record describes an animated typographic GIF, said to capture the '90s and early 2000s, in which flames move slowly while the letters stay still.
  - Evidence: Seen in the work · Claim: `kcc:w2-motion-3` · Covers One artefact, dated 1995 by the archive and tagged Y2K by a contributor, not by a curator..
- **Technique** — The curves, blobs, gradients, layered transparencies and lens flares depended on computer-aided design and drafting software that had only just become capable of them.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-1` · Covers testimony of the label's coiner (Collins) reported by the Guardian.
- **Technique** — The product strand depended on injection-moulded plastic, especially translucent coloured polycarbonate, and on CAD and rapid prototyping, which made translucency cheap.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:technique-2` · Covers industrial design strand.
- **Form** — Objects take the blobject form: brightly coloured, smooth curves, no sharp edges; the iMac G3 is the museum-held exemplar and influenced the shapes and colours of domestic electrical products.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:form-1` · Covers product strand.
- **Form** — Casings often had clear accents or were entirely translucent coloured shells.
  - Evidence: Documented · Source attached · Claim: `kcc:form-2` · Covers consumer technology.

## 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** — No overall position recorded
- **Typography** — Specified
- **Color** — Specified
- **Imagery** — Specified
- **Surface** — Specified
- **Interface** — Specified
- **Motion** — Specified
- **Technique** — Specified
- **Form** — Specified

## Design grammar — web primitives

A starting grammar for a website in Y2K: translucent coloured plastic, blob forms with no sharp edges, gloss and chrome, chunky rounded type, and a page ranked by how glossy things are.

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/y2k.json.

### Colour

| Role | Value | Contrast | Use | Kind |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ground | `#DFE4F2` | — | The pastel-metallic page ground. | On the record |
| pearl | `#F4F5FB` | — | Every surface that carries reading text. | Web translation |
| ink | `#1D2340` | 14.9:1 on pearl | Text. | Web translation |
| chrome | `#6C79A3` | — | The chrome mid-stop in display gradients. | On the record |
| pink | `#FF9ADF` | — | Translucent coloured plastic, one of two tints. | Web translation |
| ice | `#A6C8FF` | — | Translucent coloured plastic, the other tint. | Web translation |
| link | `#3B3FD8` | 6.6:1 on pearl | Links and focus. | Web translation |

- **On the record · From our catalogue entry · disputed** · `token_rule:color-5` → Keep the palette pastel metallic.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:form-1`, `claim:kcc:form-2` → Colour objects brightly; tint plastic rather than paint it.
- **Web translation** — Set reading text on near-solid pearl, never on the gradient or a translucent tint alone. _Why:_ Gloss and translucency are surfaces; the words need a calm ground to stay legible. (`token_rule:color-5`)
- **Not specified by the source** — The sources do not specify numeric colour values. _Instead:_ The sources give no colour values; these hexes are this page's and can be changed.

### Typography

Family: rounded sans. Stack: `"Nunito X", "Varela Round", "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif`

| Role | Size | Weight | Line height | Case | Tracking | Measure | Use |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| display | clamp(4rem, 14vw, 9rem) | 900 | 0.9 | not specified | -0.04em | — | The name, in chrome. |
| heading | 2.375rem | 900 | 1.1 | not specified | -0.02em | — | Panel headings. |
| body | 1.0625rem | 500 | 1.6 | not specified | not specified | 64ch | Everything read. |

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:typography-1` → Set display type rounded, bloated or chunky.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:dcc:typography-4` → Use a soft-cornered, rounded grotesk, tight, with gloss on display.
- **Web translation** — Use Nunito at 900 for display and 500 for text. _Why:_ A rounded sans at heavy weight is chunky; one family keeps the page soft. The face is this page's, not a recorded one. (`claim:kcc:typography-1`)
- **Not specified by the source** — No period typeface is named. _Instead:_ Period users installed techno and futuristic fonts, but the sources give no list; do not present a face as the Y2K face.

### Grid and layout

No visible grid: floating objects with alternating offsets. This is our reading; how Y2K compositions were arranged is an open question.

Tokens: offset `6%` · gap `2.1rem`

- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:layout-3` → Float translucent panels on a soft gradient ground, without a visible grid.
- **Web translation** — Alternate each panel's offset so objects float rather than stack. _Why:_ Objects, not a column: the floating-panel reading, applied to a scrolling page. (`token_rule:layout-3`)
- **Not specified by the source** — Composition is an open question on the record. _Instead:_ Treat the floating layout as a choice. Do not cite it as how the period arranged pages.

### Shape and geometry

Tokens: radius-panel `28px` · radius-field `18px` · radius-pill `999px` · highlight `linear-gradient(180deg, rgba(255,255,255,.7), rgba(255,255,255,0))`

- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:form-1` → Give objects the blobject form: smooth curves, no sharp edges.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:form-2` → Make casings translucent coloured shells, or give them clear accents.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:dcc:surface-8` → Finish surfaces in gloss, chrome and mirror.
- **Web translation** — Put a specular highlight on the upper part of every glossy object. _Why:_ Rank by specular highlight: the highlight is how an object shows it is glossy and near. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`)

### Imagery

- **On the record · Our reading** · `claim:dcc:imagery-7` → Show translucent coloured casings and blob forms, rendered with gradients and layered transparency.
- **Web translation** — Draw objects; do not name or depict a real product. _Why:_ The iMac G3 is the exemplar, but a page borrows the form, not the brand. (`claim:kcc:form-1`)

### 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 rendered button: a rounded, glossy pill of coloured plastic with a highlight across its top half.

- Anatomy: full pill radius; pastel gradient body; white specular highlight on the upper half; label in Nunito 900
- Tokens: radius `999px` · background `linear-gradient(160deg, #FF9ADF, #A6C8FF)` · highlight `linear-gradient(#fff, rgba(255,255,255,.1))` · color `#1D2340`
- State, default: Glossy pill, highlight on top.
- State, hover: The highlight brightens and the pill lifts 2px.
- State, focus: 3px link-blue outline, rounded.
- State, active: The highlight drops; the pill sinks.
- State, disabled: Matte pearl, no highlight, label in secondary ink.
- Accessibility: The label sits on a solid-enough ground: ink #1D2340 on the lightest stop stays above 4.5:1.
- Accessibility: At least 44 × 44px.
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:interface-1` → Render buttons as glossy, dimensional objects.
- **Web translation** — Make the button a pill with no sharp corners. _Why:_ The blobject form has smooth curves and no sharp edges. (`claim:kcc:form-1`)

#### Card

A frosted, translucent shell floating on the ground; the glossiest card leads.

- Anatomy: 28px radius; translucent white body with backdrop blur; highlight across the top; ink text on a near-solid ground
- Tokens: radius `28px` · background `rgba(255,255,255,.58)` · blur `14px` · border `1px solid rgba(255,255,255,.9)`
- State, default: Frosted shell.
- State, hover: A highlight travels across it once.
- State, focus: 3px link-blue outline.
- Accessibility: Text never sits on the translucent part alone: the card is at least 58% white behind text.
- Accessibility: Order in the DOM is the order of gloss.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:hierarchy-13` → Rank cards by specular highlight and depth: the glossiest, nearest leads.
- **Web translation** — Make cards translucent shells. _Why:_ Casings often had clear accents or were entirely translucent coloured shells. (`claim:kcc:form-2`)

#### Input

A sunken, rounded well in pearl, with a chrome edge.

- Anatomy: 18px radius; pearl fill with an inner shadow; 1px chrome edge; label above
- Tokens: radius `18px` · background `#F4F5FB` · border `1px solid #C9CFE6` · shadow `inset 0 2px 4px rgba(40,50,110,.18)`
- State, default: Pearl well.
- State, focus: Edge turns link blue with a 3px outline.
- State, error: Pink well and a written message.
- State, disabled: Flat pearl, no shadow.
- Accessibility: A visible label on every field.
- Accessibility: Errors are written, not only coloured.
- **Web translation** — Round the field and sink it. _Why:_ Smooth curves and no sharp edges; a field is a recess in the object, not a box. (`claim:kcc:form-1`)

#### Navigation

A row of glossy pills; the current one is the most specular.

- Anatomy: pill links; current pill with the full highlight; others matte pearl
- Tokens: radius `999px` · current `glossy pink` · idle `#E8EBF6`
- State, default: Matte pearl pill.
- State, hover: White pill.
- State, focus: 3px link-blue outline.
- State, current: Glossy pink pill with its highlight.
- Accessibility: aria-current on the current page.
- Accessibility: The current pill is marked by a highlight and weight, not colour alone.
- **Web translation** — Mark the current page with gloss, not colour. _Why:_ Rank by specular highlight: the glossiest object leads. (`token_rule:hierarchy-13`)

### Motion

Durations, easing and the rest of this specification are Web translation: Aesthetary's choice for the screen.

- Durations: sheen 13–15s, drift 12s, state 200ms
- Easing: sheen `linear`, drift `ease-in-out`, state `ease-out`
- Transforms: translate and a small scale on decorative objects only
- Entrance: none
- Hover: A highlight travels across once; the object lifts 2px.
- Reduced motion: Everything holds still.
- **On the record · Our reading** · `token_rule:motion-14` → Let highlights travel across surfaces and panels drift slightly; continuous and ambient.
- **Web translation** — Keep text still; only highlights and decoration move. _Why:_ Ambient motion on the surface, never on what is being read. (`token_rule:motion-14`)
- **On the record · Documented** · `claim:kcc:w2-motion-1`, `claim:kcc:interface-1` → A loading bar or an animated intro belongs to the period web.

### Deliberately not added

- **How compositions were arranged** (gridLayout): An open question on the record; the floating layout is our reading.
- **A named period typeface** (typography): Not specified by the source.
- **Numeric colour values** (color): 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 | Open question | 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: form, surface, technique · Not researched yet: motif | follows the recorded claim | yes |
| Motion | Specified | Aesthetary decided | yes |

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:

- Motif

**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

16 checks: 6 mechanically testable, 8 needing a person to look, 0 needing a source Aesthetary does not hold, 2 with no recorded position. 1 further research dimension produced no rule (Density). This rubric is silent on it. 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: High-gloss chrome and translucent coloured plastic — blob forms with smooth curves and no sharp edges, casings with clear accents or wholly see-through shells, gradients, visible specular highlights — with rounded, chunky display type. The diagnostic property is the material optimism: the surfaces are meant to look expensively manufactured and new. Shares chrome and gradient with both Vaporwave and Frutiger Aero; Vaporwave's scene, by the label coiner's account, looked more to the 1980s and mid-1990s, and Frutiger Aero is the successor that followed in the mid-2000s.
  - _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. Floating translucent panels overlapping on a soft gradient ground, without a visible grid — reasoned from the signature's bubble-and-panel vocabulary, which implies objects rather than a layout.
  - _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 specular highlight and depth — the glossiest, nearest object leads. Genuinely native to the register and unusual.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · From our catalogue entry · disputed · Evidence: From our catalogue entry · disputed]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Colour: pastel metallic.
  - _If it fails:_ A defensible departure, and you should be able to say why you made it.
- **[visual_human · Our reading · Evidence: Our reading]** Your work may depart from this — but knowingly, not by accident. Highlights travelling across surfaces, panels drifting with slight parallax. Continuous and ambient.
  - _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.

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

- **[mechanical · recorded failure mode · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Check your work against this: No nature imagery.
  - _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 matte or unfinished surface.
  - _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 wear.
  - _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 beige or analogue-era material.
  - _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 Vaporwave: the same chrome and gradient, told apart by period and context. Y2K is the late-1990s and early-2000s consumer technology and graphics themselves; Vaporwave's scene, by the label coiner's account, looked more to the 1980s and mid-1990s. Against Frutiger Aero: no nature imagery. Against Cassette Futurism: a future imagined in 1999 versus 1979 — chrome and gloss against beige plastic. Anti-signature: add water, grass or sky and it becomes Frutiger Aero.
  - _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: nature imagery.
  - _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: matte surfaces..
  - _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 Camp? That language is: Irony is structural; the excess is knowing, where Maximalism's is sincere
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Camp than to this Aesthetic.
- **[visual_human · neighbour drift · Evidence: No grade recorded]** Could your work be mistaken for Vaporwave? That language is: Ironic and flat; the classical references are the tell
  - _If it fails:_ Not necessarily wrong, but you are closer to Vaporwave 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 label is a retrospective coinage, systematised by Evan Collins of the Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute in 2016 from a 2014 collection. Nobody working in the period called it this. _(Graded by our research brief · No source attached · Evidence: Graded by our research brief · No source attached)_

**Not covered at all:** Density: Not specified by the source. 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: `y2k` · status `draft` · research `partly_researched`
- Full structured record: https://aesthetary.com/data/y2k.json
- Human-readable record: https://aesthetary.com/a/y2k.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._