Synesthetic conspiratorial affect
Welcome to the weekly IMS seminar with Andreas Önnerfors from Fojo !
About the seminar:
Synesthetic Conspiratorial Affect
In this chapter, I propose that multi-modal conspiratorial ideation can be defined as conspiratorial affect, the cross-modal, atmospherically sustained feeling tone (e g dread, anger, disgust, ecstatic revelation) produced when trans-media elements co-activate elements of sound, vision and semiotic prompts (keywords/symbols) that stick to culturally loaded signs and circulate across multiple platforms. In my analysis, I will apply a framework for interpretation deduced from this definition on multiple layers: (1) the sonic layer of conspiratorial affect: sound and music as modes to communicate emotions of conspiracy, (2) the visual layer of conspiratorial affect: imagery, color, sequences as well as emblematic symbols expressing the tropes of conspiratorial imagination, (3) the semiotic layer of conspiratorial affect: lexical sets, archetypal antagonistic representation and scripts (prefigured narratives such as apocalypse and revelation) capturing central concepts of the conspiratorial vocabulary and (4) atmospheric synthesis: the combined affective atmosphere that dominates in cultural expressions of conspiracy ideation (such as Wardenclyffe’s album work and its different medial manifestations).
Bio: Andreas Önnerfors is researcher and project manager at Fojo Media Institute, LNU, Kalmar. He is associate professor in intellectual history and has over the past decade extensively researched conspiracy theories and radicalization.
To attend the seminar online, please email ims@lnu.se