Tasteland Ep. 75: The Cosmos Girl ft. Dena Yago
Jan 7, 2026
Dena Yago, an innovative artist and co-founder of trend-forecasting group K-HOLE, shares her insights on cultural shifts and visual curation. She discusses the fascinating rise of the 'Cosmos girl' aesthetic and how public domain imagery maintains its context. Dena elaborates on the enduring importance of books in the digital age and contrasts irony with the newer trend of sincere cringe. She also reveals surprising user behaviors on Cosmos, leading to fresh avenues in creative visual discovery.
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Episode notes
Seeing Waiting For Godot With Keanu Reeves
- Dena Yago spent Christmas seeing Waiting for Godot starring Keanu Reeves with her mom and husband.
- She described the experience as excellent without spoiling the play.
Normcore Didn't Make Them Millionaires
- Dena recalls K-HOLE's Normcore moment and dispels the myth that coining trends made them rich.
- She describes trend naming as managerial and often unrewarding work.
Context Restores Image Authorship
- Cosmos adds provenance and context to images using AI-powered captions to prevent decontextualization.
- Dena Yago argues this creates verified artist profiles and preserves authorship across reposts.
