Abstract Book of the 7th International Conference on Future of Social Sciences and Humanities
Year: 2025
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Content Creation and Performance in Metamodern Society
David Frederick van der Merwe
ABSTRACT:
During late modernity, Walter Benjamin observed a marked difference in test performances versus final performances, giving special regard to film and the cinema versus the stage as the site of said performance’s exhibition and consumption. The attention he gives film is justifiable and valid given its position as the best example of media convergence of Benjamin’s era. In contemporary terms, however, film has been supplanted by content as the prime example of convergence at work within metamodern society, and the digital domain (in the form of the mobile internet) as the substituted site for the cinema. By examining how the polymediated self is performed within social media content, this paper will establish the practice of content creation as a cultural artefact that demonstrates an exhibition value comparable with that of performance art.
Keywords: metamodernity, digital media, media convergence, performance, content creation