Gender performances as a response to accelerationism:self-destructive masculinity in the post-internet music of Death Grips

Abstract. This master’s thesis is an examination of the experimental hip hop band Death Grips and specifically the masculine persona that their music portrays. The theoretical framework is comprised of examination of the genre of post-internet music and comparison to its other artists, the theory of accelerationism and also studies of internet subculture discourses. As many post-internet artists also express accelerationist themes in their music and their artistic representation links heavily to internet subcultures, these form a crucial part in understanding the subject at hand. In comparison with other post-internet artists, Death Grips can be seen to portray a significantly more fatalistic view of the accelerationist future. It is marked by downward trajectories in dire economic realities, inherent white supremacy in society and in the ways that technology will increasingly be used to control humans. The prevalent instances of toxic behavior are then symptoms of a masculine identity in crisis due to the inevitability of this accelerationist progression and an attempt to survive by violent exertion. Also noteworthy is how the interactions between Death Grips and their 4chan audience continuously co-construct the development and resultant implications of the band’s works. In this, the band not only exhibits a notable example of processual post-internet approach to creating art but also by engaging in 4chan’s transgressive meme culture, they strengthen the platform’s societal relevance that has been noted for directly influencing accelerationist developments in contemporary mainstream politics.Tiivistelmä. Tämä pro gradu tutkii kokeellista hiphopbändiä Death Gripsiä, ja erityisesti heidän musiikissaan esittämää maskuliinista persoonaa. Teoreettinen viitekehys koostuu post-internet musiikkigenrestä ja vertailusta muihin kyseisen genren artisteihin, akselerationismin teoeriasta ja internetdiskurssien tutkimuksista. Koska monet post-internet artistit myös esittävät akselerationistisia teemoja musiikissaan ja heidän artistinen representaatio linkittyy vahvasti internetin alakulttuureihin, nämä osat muodostavat oleellisen osan aiheen tutkimisesta. Verratessa toisiin post-internet artisteihin, Death Gripsin voi nähdä esittävän merkittävästi fatalistisempaa kuvaa akselerationistisesta tulevaisuudesta. Tämä käsittää huonontuvan kehityksen taloudellisissa realiteeteissa, yhteiskunnan ylläpitämässä valkoisessa ylivallassa ja tavoissa, joilla teknologia tulee kontrolloimaan ihmisiä. Toksinen käytös on täten oireilua maskuliinisen identiteetin kriisistä väistämättömän akselerationistisen kehityksen edessä ja pyrkimys selviytyä väkivaltaisin ponnistuksin. Huomionarvoista on myös, kuinka Death Gripsin ja heidän 4chan-yleisönsä väliset interaktiot konstruoivat bändin kehitystä ja heidän töidensä implikaatioita jatkuvassa vuorovaikutussuhteessa. Death Grips osoittaa tällä sekä esimerkkiä post-internetille ominaisesta prosessuaalisesta lähestymisestä taiteeseen, mutta osallistumalla 4chanin transgressiiviseen meemikulttuuriin he myös vahvistavat kyseisen keskustelualustan yhteiskunnallista relevanssia, jonka on nähty suoraan vaikuttavan akselerationistisiin muutoksiin nykyajan valtavirtapolitiikassa

“The World Can’t Tell You How You Are”: The Actors’ Studio, Inside the Actors Studio, and the Performance of Being

This thesis explores the shifting styles of self-presentation that are bound up with the Actors’ Studio’s promotional history. It argues that the self-presentational style inscribed by the promotional and pedagogical discourses of Method acting c. 1955 can be located within distinctly modem modes of capitalist production (cf. Ernest Sternberg’s Romantic and Modernist styles of self-presentation). It then explores ways in which a similar style of self-presentation seems to be perpetuated on the contemporary television show Inside the Actors Studio. After considering the additional inclusion of various “anti-Method” performance styles on ITAS, however, this thesis concludes that, although the discursive contours of Method self-presentation may seem to be intact, the program’s evocation of Romantic authenticity is wholly allegorical - a pastiche performed according to the logic of promotional culture

\u27Check the Rhyme\u27: A Study of Brand References in Music Videos

In this study we will explore impact exposure to brands references in music videos may have on the development of consumers’ brand knowledge. We assert that an understanding of this relationship is a function of both executional elements of the message and the intervening effects of select individual-difference factors. This dissertation applies social cognitive theories, the cultivation hypothesis, attribution theory and the elaboration likelihood model to develop the set of hypotheses. This dissertation seeks to provide initial evidence regarding the key factors brand managers and music executives must be aware of when implementing music video brand placements. A conceptual model of music video brand placement is presented and evaluated utilizing qualitative and quantitative techniques. The qualitative methodology employs real music fans as informants and music videos as stimuli in developing an understanding of the relationship consumers have with music as well as their reactions to music videos. The quantitative methodology uses an original music video as the stimulus, real music fans as respondents and a real-time on-line survey to measure the relationship among the variables. Study findings support the ability of music videos to impact extra-musical consumption and provide early evidence regarding factors important to understanding consumers’ responses to music video brand placements

Spectral Memories of Icelandic Culture: Memory, Identity and the Haunted Imagination in Contemporary Art and Literature

The thesis examines what I term spectral memories in Icelandic culture and focuses on the interplay between memory, identity and the haunted imagination in contemporary literary texts and visual works of art. I employ the term “spectral” to define memories that have for various reasons been forgotten, silenced and repressed in the cultural psyche, but have returned to the public realm by means of contemporary art and literature. Spectrality theory, and the seminal work of Jacques Derrida, Spectres de Marx, serve as a point of departure for the project, my initial aim being to relate the spectre to ideas of memory and theories on cultural memory studies. I argue that the spectral return offers the potential of a transformative dynamic exchange between memory and recipient, and an opportunity to critically reflect on the past in order to work towards a better future. The spectre becomes a metaphor for the blind spots of memory: on the one hand for memories that return from the past to disturb mainstream notions and homogenous ideas on identity, and on the other for how certain periods have produced spectral cultural responses. The first part of the thesis explores how the archive becomes a storage space for spectral memories, whereas the second part examines spectral cultural memories following the financial crash and crisis in Iceland in 2008. In both parts, I look at narratives and images that prove to be haunted by repressed memories, which impacts how the present-day identity is conceived, illustrating the intricate connections between memory, identity and the haunted imagination.Í ritgerðinni rannsaka ég vofulegar minningar í íslenskri menningu og skoða flókið samspil minnis, sjálfsmyndar og reimleika í samtímabókmenntatextum og myndlistarverkum. Ég beiti hugtakinu „vofulegar“ til að skilgreina minningar sem af ólíkum ástæðum hafa gleymst, verið þaggaðar eða niðurbældar í sameiginlegri menningarvitund þjóðarinnar, en hafa opinberast aftur fyrir tilstilli samtímabókmennta og myndlistar. Vofufræði (e. spectrality theory), og verk franska heimspekingsins Jacques Derrida, Vofur Marx, eru upphafspunktur rannsóknarinnar, með það að leiðarljósi að tengja vofuna við hugmyndir um minni og kenningar í menningarlegum minnisfræðum (e. cultural memory studies). Ég færi rök fyrir því að endurkoma vofunnar hvetji til gagnrýnna minnisviðtaka, þar sem viðtakandi, sem staðsettur er í samtímanum, tekur við minningum fortíðar, greinir þær og skilur með gagnrýnum hætti, og með það að leiðarljósi að leggja grunninn að sanngjarnari eða réttmætari framtíð. Vofan verður að myndlíkingu fyrir blinda bletti minnis og minningar sem ekki eru sýnilegir á opinberum vettvangi en eru samt sem áður til staðar. Rannsóknin tekur annars vegar fyrir gleymdar minningar fortíðar, sem dregnar eru fram í dagsljósið og trufla ríkjandi, einsleitar og staðnaðar hugmyndir um sameiginlega sjálfsmynd í samtímanum, og hins vegar sögulegt tímabil og atburði sem getið hafa af sér vofulegar minningar. Í fyrri hluta ritgerðarinnar rannsaka ég hvernig arkífið eða skjalasafnið (e. archive) verður að geymslustað vofulegra minninga, en fjöldamargar opinberar stofnanir geyma minningar sem ekki eru alla jafna til sýnis á opinberum vettvangi og fjalla til að mynda um nýlendusögu Íslendinga, óeirðir og mótmæli. Þegar þær eru dregnar fram í dagsljósið, gefa þessar minningar annars konar mynd af sameiginlegri sjálfsmynd þjóðarinnar en þá sem iðulega birtist opinberlega. Þegar litið er til einkalífs og til fjölskylduminnis, og minninga sem ólíkar kynslóðir deila, má sjá hvernig ákveðnir staðir heimilisins, eins og kjallari eða háaloft, verða að geymslustað vofulegra minninga, og geyma hluti og skjöl sem ekki eru til sýnis eða umræðu í daglegu lífi fjölskyldunnar. Í seinni hluta ritgerðarinnar beini ég sjónum að efnhagshruninu árið 2008 og hvernig það leiddi af sér vofulegar minningar; bókmenntatexta og myndlistarverk sem fjalla um reimleika með einum eða öðrum hætti. Draugahúsið í glæpasögu Yrsu Sigurðardóttur, Ég man þig; melankólía og sorg fjölskyldunnar í Hvítfeld eftir Kristínu Eiríksdóttur; teikningar Guðjóns Ketilssonar af hálfbyggðum húsum í efnahagskreppunni, og ljósmyndir Ingvars Högna Ragnarssonar af vofulegum stöðum í borgarlandslaginu á tímum fjármálahruns, gefa færi á að rannsaka þennan sögulega tíma út frá hugmyndum um draugagang og bælingu. En hver er ásóttur og af hverjum? Í báðum hlutum ritgerðarinnar greini ég frásagnir og myndir sem reynast ásóttar af niðurbældum minningum sem hafa áhrif á hvernig sjálfsmynd er mótuð í samtímanum, og sýnir fram á þau þéttu en flóknu tengsl sem liggja á milli minnis, sjálfsmyndar og reimleika

TransCoding – From `Highbrow Art' to Participatory Culture

Between 2014 and 2017, the artistic research project "TransCoding – From 'Highbrow Art' to Participatory Culture" encouraged creative participation in multimedia art via social media. Based on the artworks that emerged from the project, Barbara Lüneburg investigates authorship, authority, motivational factors, and aesthetics in participatory art created with the help of web 2.0 technology. The interdisciplinary approach includes perspectives from sociology, cultural and media studies, and offers an exclusive view and analysis from the inside through the method of artistic research. In addition, the study documents selected community projects and the creation processes of the artworks Slices of Life and Read me

TransCoding - From 'Highbrow Art' to Participatory Culture: Social Media - Art - Research

Between 2014 and 2017, the artistic research project "TransCoding - From 'Highbrow Art' to Participatory Culture" encouraged creative participation in multimedia art via social media. Based on the artworks that emerged from the project, Barbara Lüneburg investigates authorship, authority, motivational factors, and aesthetics in participatory art created with the help of web 2.0 technology. The interdisciplinary approach includes perspectives from sociology, cultural and media studies, and offers an exclusive view and analysis from the inside through the method of artistic research. In addition, the study documents selected community projects and the creation processes of the artworks Slices of Life and Read me

The Songs of Our Past

Advancements in technology have resulted in unique changes in the way people interact with music today: Small, portable devices allow listening to it everywhere and provide access to thousands or, via streaming, even millions of songs. In addition, all played tracks can be logged with an accuracy down to the second. So far, these music listening histories are mostly used for music recommendation and hidden from their actual creators. But people may also benefit from this data more directly: as memory extensions that allow retrieving the name of a title, for rediscovering old favorites and reflecting about their lives. Additionally, listening histories can be representations of the implicit relationships between musical items. In this thesis, I discuss the contents of these listening histories and present software tools that give their owners the chance to work with them. As a first approach to understanding the patterns contained in listening histories I give an overview of the relevant literature from musicology, human-computer-interaction and music information retrieval. This literature review identifies the context as a main influence for listening: from the musical and temporal to the demographical and social. I then discuss music listening histories as digital memory extensions and a part of lifelogging data. Based on this notion, I present what an ideal listening history would look like and how close the real-world implementations come. I also derive a design space, centered around time, items and listeners, for this specific type of data and shortcomings of the real-world data regarding the previously identified contextual factors. The main part of this dissertation describes the design, implementation and evaluation of visualizations for listening histories. The first set of visualizations presents listening histories in the context of lifelogging, to allow analysing one’s behavior and reminiscing. These casual information visualizations vary in complexity and purpose. The second set is more concerned with the musical context and the idea that listening histories also represent relationships between musical items. I present approaches for improving music recommendation through interaction and integrating listening histories in regular media players. The main contributions of this thesis to HCI and information visualization are: First, a deeper understanding of relevant aspects and important patterns that make a person’s listening special and unique. Second, visualization prototypes and a design space of listening history visualizations that show approaches how to work with temporal personal data in a lifelogging context. Third, ways to improve recommender systems and existing software through the notion of seeing relationships between musical items in listening histories. Finally, as a meta-contribution, the casual approach of all visualizations also helps in providing non-experts with access to their own data, a future challenge for researchers and practitioners alike

Deaf on stage: The cultural impact of performing Signed Songs

Signed Song – the aesthetic production or adaptation of lyrics and rhythm into signed languages – is an emerging artistic product within Deaf communities. This thesis is an international study, exploring Signed Songs in Portuguese Sign Language (Língua Gestual Portuguesa - LGP) and British Sign Language (BSL), particularly those created1 and performed by Deaf adults. This work constitutes interdisciplinary research drawing from Deaf Studies, Translation Studies and Performance Studies, theoretically framing Signed Song as a Deaf cultural product, as a translation product and a performing art. Research focuses on how Signed Songs are perceived by audience members and what they learn about the languages and cultures of Deaf people, but also investigates the views of Signed Song practitioners. Specific goals are to trace Signed Songs throughout history in Portugal and in the UK, and to gather the insights from audience members and artists. At a broader level, this thesis contributes to a more generalised conception of Deaf communities as minority cultures, and to preserving Deaf cultural heritage. Research design encompasses a multidisciplinary literature review, archival work, and fieldwork with artists and audiences from both countries, composed of a qualitative study exploring the views of Portuguese and British audiences via online and in situ questionnaires, and the views of artists via in-depth interviews. This thesis provides an understanding of the roles of Signed Song performances in the two localised Deaf communities, as well as in the Portuguese and British hearing communities, as a cultural product of Deaf minorities but also as an artform with an intercultural outreach. Conclusions show that Signed Songs are creative forms of translation which convey Deaf cultural resistance, defy traditions in Deaf communities and general conceptions of music, and draw attention to Deaf intersectionality. The Portuguese and British practices display differences which mirror the local situation of each Deaf community and national context, namely regarding the existing Deaf accessibility conditions to artistic settings and general mainstream services. This research proposes a definition of a good-quality Signed Song, built from the perspective of Portuguese and British Deaf audiences but also inclusive of hearing people who do not know sign language

Paradoxical Performances of Subjectivities, Spaces and Art Gallery Postcards

This thesis examines the relationship between art gallery postcards, subjectivities and domestic spaces. Feminist post-structuralist debates on memory, subjectivity and domestic spaces provide the theoretical framework for this research into taken-for-granted objects of the everyday. Empirical data came from interviewing nine women who buy, use and keep postcards and two New Zealand Art Gallery store managers. Some of the participants were interviewed more than once, while others extended their views by e-mail. Auto-ethnographic narrative is used to explore further the symbolic significance of an individual's postcard consumption. This research focuses attention on the production of gendered subjectivities and domestic spaces through an aesthetic artefact. There are three points to my analysis. Firstly, I argue paradoxically the under-noticed seemingly trivial gallery postcard becomes a memory holder and therefore a significant artefact of symbolic value. Memories are potent, elusive fragments that become attached to a sound, smell, touch or sight. Catching sight of a postcard can trigger a chain of memory associations, which in turn constructs a sense of self through the remembering. Secondly, I contend that subjectivity is understood as fluid and multiple, evolving out of experience and interpretation. Memories formed from experience and connections made with people, place and things become associated with gallery postcards and serve as a catalyst for personal narratives which in turn can operate as tools for constructing subjectivities. Finally I suggest that domestic spaces are a product of relations that can be understood as existing within and beyond the home. Stretched domestic space can be produced by the display of gallery postcards in office spaces. The exploration of the art gallery postcard adds to the knowledges of everyday objects and their role and significance in constructing gendered subjectivities and spaces

New spirituality, atheism, and authenticity in Finnish underground rap

In this dissertation, I study the discourses of new spirituality, atheism, and authenticity in Finnish underground rap in the twenty-first century. The study maps the worldviews and audiovisual aesthetics of four Finnish artists, Ameeba, Khid, Julma Henri, and RPK (the latter two forming the duo Euro Crack), while exploring larger issues such as contemporary Western religious trends and the relationship between artists, their audience, and the music industry. The study’s data consist of field research (ten interviews, observation at concerts and in social media 2013–2017), and sonic and audiovisual material (recordings, three music videos). Theoretically, the study draws from religious studies theories on Western alternative spirituality and atheism, popular musicology, hip hop studies, and theories on musical authenticity. Methodologically, the study relies on ethnographic data collection, discourse analysis, and close reading. The study indicates that while the four Finnish rappers emphasize the individuality of their worldviews, their views reflect a mixture of ideas and traditions present in contemporary Western religious landscape, including non-dualistic Eastern religions, New Age environmentalism, and scientific atheism. The artists also outline an aesthetic for their music and underground rap more generally as defying rap music, pop music, and music industry norms, as independent music making, and as drawing from alternative electronic genres and deeper philosophical content. The artists construct authenticity by claiming that their music reflects their personal worldviews and aesthetic preferences. Further, the study increases understanding about the interrelationship of rap and postmodern worldviews and advances research on the connections between popular music and religion.Uushenkisyys, ateismi ja autenttisuus suomalaisessa underground-rapissa Väitöskirjassani tutkin 2010-luvun suomenkielistä underground-rap-musiikkia ja siinä ilmeneviä autenttisuuden, uushenkisyyden ja ateismin diskursseja. Tutkimuksen kohteena on neljä suomalaista rap-artistia (Ameeba, Khid, Julma Henri, sekä RPK, joka Julma Henrin kanssa muodostaa Euro Crack -duon), ja heidän ilmaisussaan rakentuvat maailmankatsomukset ja audiovisuaalinen estetiikka. Tutkimuksessa tarkastellaan myös laajempia kysymyksiä liittyen länsimaiseen uskontokehitykseen sekä artistien suhteeseen yleisöön ja musiikkialaan. Tutkimuksen aineisto koostuu kenttätutkimuksesta (10 haastattelua, havainnointi konserteissa ja sosiaalisessa mediassa 2013–2017) sekä äänellisestä ja audiovisuaalisesta materiaalista (äänitteet, kolme musiikkivideota). Tutkimuksen teoreettinen viitekehys hyödyntää uskontotieteen teorioita koskien länsimaista uushenkisyyttä ja ateismia, populaarimusiikintutkimusta, hiphop-tutkimusta, sekä teorioita autenttisuudesta. Menetelmällisesti tutkimus nojaa etnografisiin aineistonkeruumetodeihin sekä diskurssianalyysiin ja lähilukuun. Tutkimus osoittaa, että vaikka artistien maailmankatsomukset painottavat yksilöllisyyttä, ne heijastavat myös laajempia nykyhetken länsimaisessa uskontokentässä toisiinsa sekoittuvia ideoita ja traditioita. Näihin kuuluvat erityisesti non-dualistiset itämaiset uskonnot, New Age -vaikutteinen ympäristötietoisuus, sekä tiedeuskoon nojaava ateismi. Artistit myös rakentavat omaa sekä underground rap-musiikkia koskevan estetiikan ihannetta rap- ja pop-musiikin sekä musiikkialan normeja vastustavana, itsenäisenä, sekä elektronisista genreistä ammentavana