Video Vortex Hangout

International Correspondents Interpret Video Spheres

Though English is the most common language of international communication, in the Russian Internet, behind the Chinese firewall and in African countries active social (video) networks are constructed with completely unique subcultures. Through YouTube channels, blogs and other social media, personal and often erratic insight is possible. But what is negotiated on the micro level, how is video use in the web changing and what new phenomena stand out?

Before Video Vortex #9: Re:assemblies of Video takes place in Lüneburg, international correspondents began in autumn 2012 to comment on and post videos in Athens, Beijing, Istanbul, Seoul, Lagos and Berlin, among other places. In the conference context, these contributions resurface as reference material to create a closer connection between (theoretical) discourse and digital practice—as known formats and media intermix into new hybrids.

During transmediale, we switch to three “studios” and with the help of video samples, jump over the “language bubble” with our correspondents. Ma Ran introduces video parodies in the Chinese Internet, Matthew Andeiza from Nigeria questions stereotypical representations of Africa, the Korean Sungyoun Kim looks at videos that become part of a global culture and thus lose significance, and Boaz Levin investigates the movement of media toward immediacy.