PhD defence: Martin Friis Nielsen

In the last decade, social media platforms have expanded and proliferated, bringing with them a range of new digital activities and functions, including to ‘like’, ‘share’, ‘filter’, and ‘scroll’ through images, videos, and text. This throws us into a (social) media-saturated environment in which every physical object points to a potential virtual twin and where human sensations, thoughts, activities, and experiences are all potential images to be shared, data to be circulated, or text to be tweeted. This dissertation builds on the proposition that the technological organization of memory and experiences on such platforms requires a theoretical and conceptual attention to what it is that is being produced and consumed on and through these platforms - and ultimately, the dissertation argues, a reconceptualization of consumption. The dissertation presents such a reconceptualization through a reading of Jean Baudrillard’s theory of consumption, Bernard Stiegler’s philosophy of technology, memory, and time, and an analysis of various features of the Instagram platform, arguing that what is the object of consumption is the very way in which such platforms technologically organize experiences.
 
Primary Supervisor:
Professor Robin Holt
Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy
Copenhagen Business School
 
Secondary Supervisors:
Professor Timon Beyes
Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy
Copenhagen Business School
 
Head of Department Benedikte Brincker
Department of Sociology
University of Copenhagen
 
Assessment Committee:
Associate Professor Sine Nørholm Just (Chair)
Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy
Copenhagen Business School

Associate Professor Joshua Neves
Department of Fine Arts
Concordia University

Professor Geert Lovink
Institute of Network Cultures, Director
Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences
 
Thesis:
The thesis will be available from http://research.cbs.dk
 
Online:
It will be possible to attend the defence via an online connection at the link below.
*Please note in connection with the online defence that the microphone and camera of all spectators must be turned off!