Last night, SEED CLUB members came together at Protein Studios to discuss and swap nostalgic snacks. There were Pez dispensers, Angel Delight, Ferrero Rochers, Cherry Coke's, Mini Cheddar's and even Bananinha Paraibuna from Brazil – a sweet, sentimental spread that stirred memories as much as taste buds. Think corner shop classics meet global sweet-tooth psychogeography.

Jade sharing her love for cheesy snacks

It was the appetiser (without the vol-au-vents) for DIRTY WORD #5 - where we explore the strange, sticky feeling that nostalgia evokes and used to sell everything from politics to perfume - so we asked our contributors what nostalgia means to them — and why it feels like it’s (still) everywhere:

  • “We’re living in a remix and reference culture, where looking back is not just common but almost instinctive” – Aeneas Panayiotou
  • “As a Gen Xer, and a jaded one at that, I sometimes think that the whole nostalgia thing has less to do with sentimental memory or emotional yearning and is really about our remorse and eulogy for all that has been lost” – Noelle Weaver 
  • “The problem with calling everything ‘nostalgia’ when it is really ‘nostalgia marketing’ explains the cultural fatigue around it. People aren’t sick of nostalgia, they’re exhausted by capitalism and resentful that their memories are being sold back to them” – Nicole Tremaglio