This project focussed on the way in which images were used on Instagram to connect to the Oerol festival 2017 in the sense of ‘presencing’ (cf Meese et al., 2015). The case study is part of a PhD project that focuses on liveness in the mediatised experience of cultural events/festivals. Liveness is understood as being connected through media to events that matter to us as they unfold (cf. Vianello, 1985; Couldry, 2004; Auslander, 2012). Oerol is an ideal case to study how liveness is constituted during a cultural event.Oerol is an annual festival for theatre, dance, street theatre, art and music that takes place during ten days in June on the island of Terschelling. Since performances are created or adapted specially for the unique natural locations where they are carried out (beaches, woods, dikes, barns, streets, etc) this case provides an interesting surrounding to explore the relation between presence and liveness. The festival attracts about 50.000 visitors each year.
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Short abstract:This paper brings a media theoretical perspective on mediatized wars. It argues that the affordances and use cultures of popular social media platforms turn wars into live media events, involving both people who are living under war and those joining in from a distance.Long abstract:This paper brings a media theoretical perspective on mediatized wars. It argues that the affordances and use cultures of popular social media platforms turn wars into live media events in which liveness – a sense of “being now here together” (Hammelburg, 2021) – involves both people who are living under war and those joining in from a distance.This involvement is of a very different kind than what we know from earlier wars that were mediated through radio and television; the logics of platformed media have permeated and transformed everyday life (Altheide, 2018; Deuze, 2012; Hepp, 2019). Many people living under war share their personal experiences and thoughts through TikTok and Instagram, involving followers worldwide as witnesses at a distance. Further, these war followers are not only involved as witnesses, very often they also add their own social media content to the “event-sphere” (Volkmer and Deffner, 2010) of the war, and by doing so they write themselves into it.Drawing from media theory on liveness and empirical material – photos and videos – from TikTok and Instagram concerning the wars in Ukraine and Russia, and Israel and Gaza, this paper shows how wars as live events are constructed. In its analyses of different modes of involvement in these live war event-spheres, it addresses the issue of positionality.
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This article demonstrates ‘the stemfie’ to be an interesting current example of the enactment of liveness within media practices. The photo taken of oneself while (or just after) voting and consequently shared with others via online social networks, connects us to an event that is important to us as it unfolds, enacting the two core features of liveness: immediacy and affinity.
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Psychosocial problems related to social isolation are a growing issue for wellbeing and health and have become a significant societal problem. This is especially relevant for children and adults with chronic illnesses and disabilities, and those spending extended periods in hospitals or permanently living in assisted living facilities. A lack of social relationships, social connectivity, and the inability to travel freely leads to feelings of isolation and loneliness. Loneliness interventions often use mediated environments to improve the feeling of connectedness. It has been proven that the utilization of haptic technologies enhances realism and the sense of presence in both virtual environments and telepresence in physical places by allowing the user to experience interaction through the sense of touch. However, the technology application is mostly limited to the experiences of serious games in professional environments and for-entertainment-gaming. This project aims to explore how haptic technologies can support the storytelling of semi-scripted experiences in VR to improve participants’ sense of presence and, therefore, the feeling of connectedness. By designing and prototyping the experience, the project aims to obtain insights and offer a better understanding of designing haptic-technology-supported storytelling and its potential to improve connectedness and become a useful tool in isolation interventions. The project will be conducted through the process of participants’ co-creation.
