Illusions of Control: Aesthetics, Nostalgia, and Meme Culture w/ Grafton Tanner

Show Summary:

How can nostalgia inspire memes that motivate and mobilize communities?

Last week, Jamie and Josh discussed how the term “meme culture” is in jeopardy of being co-opted by extremists. This week, they welcome back Grafton Tanner to take a deeper dive into the topic.

What is vaporwave, and what characteristics of its aesthetic that afford itself to be used by these communities? How do aesthetics and fandoms intertwine? How can corporations grapple with feelings of nostalgia in intensely devoted fandoms?

About Grafton Tanner:
Grafton Tanner is the author of The Hours Have Lost Their Clock: The Politics of Nostalgia (Repeater Books, 2021), The Circle of the Snake: Nostalgia and Utopia in the Age of Big Tech (Zer0 Books, 2020), and Babbling Corpse: Vaporwave and the Commodification of Ghosts (Zer0 Books, 2016). His work focuses on nostalgia, technology, and the rhetoric of neoliberalism, and his writing has appeared in such venues as NPR, The Nation, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and Real Life. He also hosts Delusioneering, an audio series about the myths of capitalism, and he writes and performs music with his band Superpuppet. He’s currently writing a book on the re-emergence of exorcism in the late twentieth century.

Follow Grafton Tanner:
Twitter | Website

Show Notes and Resources:
Babbling Corpse - Vaporwave and the Commodification of Ghosts - Grafton Tanner
Muzak
Synthwave
DawnFM
Chord Progression of Boys of Summer
Persistent Storytelling - Kathleen Kennedy
Outrun
TradCath
Fauxtomation - Astra Taylor
Ghost Work - May L. Gray
San Junipero
The Hours Have Lost Their Clock - Grafton Tanner
Masters of the Userverse - Grafton Tanner, Real Life

Credits
Hosted by Dr. Jamie Cohen and Josh Chapdelaine
Audio edited and mixed by Josh Chapdelaine
Digital Void Podcast is a production of Digital Void, LLC.