Page 26 - Vinkler, Jonatan, Ana Beguš and Marcello Potocco. Eds. 2019. Ideology in the 20th Century: Studies of literary and social discourses and practices. Koper: University of Primorska Press
P. 26
Ideology in the 20th Century: studies of literary and social discourses and practices
one of the repetitiveness of mantras, increasingly popular today due to
their instant soothing effects. Music critic Adam Trainer describes va-
porwave as background music for advertisements or announcements on a
television or computer screen or answering machine.
The ideological indistinctiveness of the genre could be explained by
the basic accelerationist thesis that the process of capitalist growth and
development must be accelerated in order to reach the point of political
and social upheaval. But vaporwave is better understood when interpret-
ed as a reflection of the changed technological ecosystem rather than an
expression of a particular political or ideological perspective in terms of
traditional subcultures. In an environment of rapid information update,
the epistemological position of a political or ideological standpoint char-
acteristic of press culture becomes obsolete. In this sense, vaporwave ex-
26 emplifies the post-political and post-ideological nature of modern times.
Its evasiveness, unclear genre boundaries, constant hybridization, disin-
terested irony and unidentified authorship make it an exemplary expres-
sion of the new fluid identity generated by the internet, typical of the
digital natives. It illustrates the characteristics of the new technological
environment and the psychological implosion caused by electronic tech-
nologies; the ‘inner trip’ as illustrated by one of the users’ comments:
I hope this is the afterlife. No meaning, no substance, no consciousness, no
humanity, no reincarnation, no existence, no suffering, just an endless loop
of lost voice and an endless ray of color that stretches into the sky forever
(Pereira 2019).
In terms of the Toronto School of communication theory, it repre-
sents a return to the principle of mimesis, characteristic of oral cultures.
Because it is impossible to specialize (or remain specialized) a regards the
electric data, as continuous global information updating prevents a fixed
position, individual robotism develops as a survival strategy in the face
of constant information overload. It is a process of returning to myth,
and thus the failure to complete the Enlightenment project, as argued by
Adorno and Horkheimer. Electronic culture is a decentralized culture
with no “solid goals, objectives, or private identity” in which man does
not control nature but “metamorphosizes himself into abstract informa-
tion for the convenience of others” (McLuhan and Powers 1989, 98). In
political terms, it is a process of retribalisation: at high speed data trans-
fer (i.e. in a constantly updating environment), the individual becomes so
closely connected with other people that he or she completely loses his or
her private identity, and compensates for this loss by adopting corporate
one of the repetitiveness of mantras, increasingly popular today due to
their instant soothing effects. Music critic Adam Trainer describes va-
porwave as background music for advertisements or announcements on a
television or computer screen or answering machine.
The ideological indistinctiveness of the genre could be explained by
the basic accelerationist thesis that the process of capitalist growth and
development must be accelerated in order to reach the point of political
and social upheaval. But vaporwave is better understood when interpret-
ed as a reflection of the changed technological ecosystem rather than an
expression of a particular political or ideological perspective in terms of
traditional subcultures. In an environment of rapid information update,
the epistemological position of a political or ideological standpoint char-
acteristic of press culture becomes obsolete. In this sense, vaporwave ex-
26 emplifies the post-political and post-ideological nature of modern times.
Its evasiveness, unclear genre boundaries, constant hybridization, disin-
terested irony and unidentified authorship make it an exemplary expres-
sion of the new fluid identity generated by the internet, typical of the
digital natives. It illustrates the characteristics of the new technological
environment and the psychological implosion caused by electronic tech-
nologies; the ‘inner trip’ as illustrated by one of the users’ comments:
I hope this is the afterlife. No meaning, no substance, no consciousness, no
humanity, no reincarnation, no existence, no suffering, just an endless loop
of lost voice and an endless ray of color that stretches into the sky forever
(Pereira 2019).
In terms of the Toronto School of communication theory, it repre-
sents a return to the principle of mimesis, characteristic of oral cultures.
Because it is impossible to specialize (or remain specialized) a regards the
electric data, as continuous global information updating prevents a fixed
position, individual robotism develops as a survival strategy in the face
of constant information overload. It is a process of returning to myth,
and thus the failure to complete the Enlightenment project, as argued by
Adorno and Horkheimer. Electronic culture is a decentralized culture
with no “solid goals, objectives, or private identity” in which man does
not control nature but “metamorphosizes himself into abstract informa-
tion for the convenience of others” (McLuhan and Powers 1989, 98). In
political terms, it is a process of retribalisation: at high speed data trans-
fer (i.e. in a constantly updating environment), the individual becomes so
closely connected with other people that he or she completely loses his or
her private identity, and compensates for this loss by adopting corporate
