O sublime no APP : fantasias de mídia e imaginário tribal do vine - uma abordagem arqueológica e etnográfica

Abstract

This thesis aims to identify possible imaginary constructions of a technological sublime evoked by online platforms, by examining the case of the video app and social platform Vine - launched in 2013 and terminated in 2017. We begin by building an historical background, contrasting the media landscape within which the app was launched with the current one, characterized by platformization and the datafication of online social interactions, as argued by José Van Dijck. To support these claims, we build a theoretical framework that includes Michel Maffesoli’s neo-tribalism and contemporary imaginaire, as well as debates around the notion of virtual community, departing from Howard Rheingold e Sherry Turkle’s viewpoint in the 1990s to Brazilian researchers André Lemos and Raquel Recuero’s perspective in the 2000s, as well as the recent contribution by French media historian Patrice Flichy. The media archeology approach - especially Eric Kluitenberg’s idea of imaginary media - is used as a connecting link for the inquiries and arguments here proposed, funded mainly on the notion of technological sublime, by Leo Marx and David Nye, and media fantasies, explored by Carolyn Marvin. To identify fantasies built around the app during the different phases of its life cycle - especially during its “postmortem” phase -, we draw upon a four-month ethnographic investigation on Byte - as well as our own experience on Vine. The empirical endeavor is then complemented by in depth interviews with ex-viners. We conclude by suggesting that both the fascination caused by Vine as well as the tribal imaginary shared by its users would have been intensified by its own extinction. Even when migrating to other online territories, these viners seem to cultivate a lasting attachment to their viner identity and to their enduring expectations of returning once again to the sublime experienced/imagined in the platform.