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Palgrave Macmillan

The Aesthetics and Politics of the Online Self

A Savage Journey into the Heart of Digital Cultures

  • Book
  • © 2021

Overview

  • Explores the varieties of individual and collective online existence

  • Examines the aesthetic forms and questions that platform capitalism raises in relation to subjectivity

  • Focuses on possible strategies of liberation and resistance to the algorithmic logic imposed by online platforms

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Table of contents (22 chapters)

  1. Entr’acte 1

  2. The Politics of Algorithimic Representation

  3. Entr’acte 2

  4. Entr’acte 3

Keywords

About this book

This volume investigates our dissonant and exuberant existences online. As social media users we know we’re under surveillance, yet we continue to click, like, love and share ourselves online as if nothing was. So, how do we overcome the current online identity regime? Can we overthrow the rule of Narcissus and destroy the planetary middle class subject? In this catalogue of strategies, the reader will find stories on hacker groups, gaming platforms in the occupied territories, art objects, selfies, augmented reality, Gen Z autoethnographies, love and life. The authors of this anthology believe we cannot simply put vanity aside and a rational analysis of platform capitalism is not going to convince the youngs on TikTok nor liberate us from Zuckerbergian indentured servitude. Do we really need to wade through the subjective mud and ‘learn more’ about online aesthetics? The answer is yes.

Writing by Wendy Chun, Franco Berardi “BIFO”, Julia Preisker, Katherine Behar, Rebecca Stein, Fabio Cristiano, Emilio Distretti, Natalie Bookchin, Ana Peraica, Mitra Azar, Donatella Della Ratta, Gabriella Coleman, Marco Deseriis, Alberto Micali, Daniel de Zeeuw, Giovanni Boccia Artieri, Jodi Dean.

Editors and Affiliations

  • John Cabot University, Rome, Italy

    Donatella Della Ratta, Peter Sarram

  • Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Geert Lovink

  • Roma Tre University, Rome, Italy

    Teresa Numerico

About the editors

Donatella Della Ratta is Associate Professor of Communications and Media Studies at John Cabot University, Italy. She specializes in digital media and networked technologies with a focus on the Arab world. 

Geert Lovink is Director of the Institute of Network Cultures at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands, and author of Sad by Design (2019).

Teresa Numerico is Associate Professor of Philosophy of Science at Roma Tre University, Italy. Her research interests lie at the intersection between philosophy, ethics and politics of technology with a focus on artificial intelligence. 

Peter Sarram is Associate Professor of Communications and Media Studies at John Cabot University, Italy. His work revolves around questions of popular culture, social identities and technology.



Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The Aesthetics and Politics of the Online Self

  • Book Subtitle: A Savage Journey into the Heart of Digital Cultures

  • Editors: Donatella Della Ratta, Geert Lovink, Teresa Numerico, Peter Sarram

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65497-9

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-65496-2Published: 30 December 2021

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-65499-3Published: 31 December 2022

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-65497-9Published: 01 January 2022

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXI, 379

  • Number of Illustrations: 13 b/w illustrations, 45 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Digital/New Media, Social Media, Culture and Technology

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