One of the most interesting subcultures originating from the internet is vaporwave. It undermines the commodification of nostalgia in an age of global capitalism, infiltrating popular culture like a virus, replacing nostalgia with an alternative view of the now.
For the Journal of Humanity, published by Nieuwe Vide in Haarlem, I wrote an article about the countercultural elements of vaporwave. In the article I also touch upon the history of counterculture, and the idea that thinking in countercultures is a historical frame that isn’t able to give meaning to the emergence of contemporary subcultures.
Read the article here: ‘The Slow Cancelation of the Future: Vaporwave as Antipraxis‘.
There is also a Dutch translation that is twice as long and also deals with the brief history of 80s nostalgia in the 2000s.
You can read it here: ‘Vaporwave als tegencultuur‘.
[22|05|2019]