| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Nicovideo is a popular video-sharing site in Japan that incorporates several aspects of social media into its design. Key among these is the projection of user-made comments into the video display by having text scroll across the screen like an animated subtitle-track. The movement of comments across the screen and the 'pseudo-synchronicity' created by the way they are projected produces a feeling of 'live' viewing via a sense of virtual time shared between users. In this article I argue that the feeling of movement and time on the site directs users toward a certain kind of vision that, when considered alongside the modes of counter-transparent communication taken up by its user base through things like orthographic 'mistypes', is part of a shift between denotational and pictorial forms of text production that troubles the distinction between reading and other modes of vision. The article conceptualizes what kind of vision Nicovideo's interface suggests and its relationship to a distinct kind of polyphonic, anonymous communication that intersects with ideas of animation and performance. It is particularly through the intensity of textual representation that I will pursue these questions.
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