RMeS & ASCA event – Tuning In: A symposium on Vibes
When: 25 April 2025, 15.00 hrs
Where: University of Amsterdam – VOX-POP. Binnengasthuisstraat 9, Amsterdam
ECTS: 1 EC
Instructors: Dr. Idil Galip (UvA media studies), Dr. Daniël de Zeeuw (UvA media studies)
For: RMA students, PhD candidates and staff from media and cultural studies and media art who are a member of RMeS any another Dutch Graduate Research School (onderzoekschool)
Registration: VIA THIS LINK
Event Overview
Vibes are everywhere on social media; together with “moods” and “energies”, vibes offer a new way of navigating platforms based on personalized-yet-shared ‘aesthetic feelings’ meticulously curated for affective stickiness by machine learning algorithms whose vectors are equally intangible-yet-catchy. We have arguably entered the age of mood-regulating media. As such vibes speak to the “affective” and “sonic” turns in media and cultural studies that offer new conceptual and methodological inroads to the non-conscious and non-representational dimensions of online sociality, culture and politics. During this symposium we will explore these connections and how as researchers we can vibe-with new ambient media forms like ASMR, Femcel Pinterest moodboards, and Spotify mood playlists. This is the second symposium organized by the Terminally Online initiative with (r)MA students from media studies.
Event Timeline
15:00-15:15 Introduction
15:15 – 16:00 Keynote “The Vibes are Immaculate: Towards a critical phenomenology of vibes” by Dr. Ludmila Lupinacci, Lecturer in Digital Media, School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds.
16:00-16:15: Break: Vibes Exhibition
16:15-17:45 Student Presentations
- Eden Tweedie: “’Everything-core’: How the contemporary cross-media landscape shapes identity-building and identity-branding practices
- Luc Huijgens: “Feed Me & See More!”
- Ray Dolitsay: “Computer Lust, Toxic Pollen, and Still Landscapes of Desktops”
- Richard-Josephine Weichert: “Rationing the Vibe, Aur(e)alising a soundscape: Close Listening to ‘This Heat’ (2006)”
- Gabriel Oliveira Pereira: “VibeSearch (Or: How I learned to vibe with code and vector embeddings)”
17:45-18:00 Break: Vibes Exhibition
18:00-18:45 Closing Panel
Keynote Speaker
Dr Ludmila Lupinacci (she/her) is a lecturer in digital media at the University of Leeds (UK). She holds a PhD in Media and Communications from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE, 2022). Her work on topics such as liveness, algorithmic temporality, and mindless scrolling has been published in leading journals such as New Media & Society and Media, Culture & Society. Her research interests include critical approaches to social media in everyday life and phenomenology of mediation, and she is currently studying the platformisation of cultural feelings such as moods and ‘vibes’.
About us
Terminally Online (TO) is an organization run by new media + digital culture MA and RMA students from the University of Amsterdam. We connect students with researchers and practitioners from the local media scene by organizing talks, reading groups, exhibitions, performances, and promoting work by students and alums. Reach out to us (terminallyonline.uva@gmail.com) if you have any questions!
Assignment
1 EC for students/PhDs for preparation: two required articles to read beforehand and asking a question after the keynote in the plenary or panel.
