Transmission in Motion

Seminar Podcast

Seminar Podcast #6: “Refreshing the Present (with Rebecca Coleman)”*

In this Transmission in Motion podcast, research master student Daniël Everts (Utrecht University) talks with Dr. Rebecca Coleman (Goldsmiths University of London) about her exploration of the act of refreshing on and scrolling through social media. Using Coleman’s article “Refresh: On the Temporalities of Digital Media ‘Re’s” (2020) as a starting point, they consider how the present can be both endlessly ongoing as well as stuck, understanding experiences on social media such as Instagram as ‘structures of feeling’, a term taken from the work of Raymond Williams. They also briefly consider the work of Bernard Stiegler and his claim that the contemporary digitally networked media environment can be characterized by the potential of individuals to distinguish themselves from others via the production of self-made content. The podcast ends with a short reflection on Coleman’s sociological approach to questions of human experience of modern technology.

 

Dr. Rebecca Coleman’s research crosses sociology, media and cultural studies, and feminist theory, and she has particular interests in temporality (presents and futures); bodies, affect and new materialisms; mediated culture and images; and inventive methodologies. Her current research explores everyday temporal experiences of digitally mediated culture and the significance of a present or ‘now’ temporality to these experiences. Coleman is currently working on a monograph that puts into dialogue Raymond Williams’ and more recent work on affect to develop an argument about ‘infra-structures of feeling’, digital mediation and ‘the temporal present’. If you want to get in touch, you can reach her at this email address: rebecca.coleman@gold.ac.uk

Daniël Everts is a Master of Arts in the field of film and television studies. He is currently enrolled in the Media, Art & Performance Studies research master’s program at Utrecht University, where he is writing his thesis about Instagram as a mnemotechnology, a term coined by French philosopher of technology Bernard Stiegler. In particular, he focuses on the way Instagram exteriorizes and stores memories in the form of videos and photographs and subsequently incorporates them into an endless flow that continuously extends in the future. Everts’ other interests lie in the critical examination of discriminatory practices and bias in Western society across interdisciplinary boundaries, as well as in the (less-critical) production of music and video. You can reach Everts at the following email address: d.everts@uu.nl

*This podcast was a complementary assignment of the Transmission in Motion Seminar 2020-2021.