Title: Reality’s Imitations: Navigating Memory, Digital Nostalgia, and Dystopian Futures
Author: Vanessa Dobrzanska
Publication Year/Date: May 2024
Document Version: Fine Art Hons dissertation
License: CC-BY-NC-ND
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20933/100001303
Take down policy:
If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.
Navigating Memory, Digital Nostalgia, and Dystopian Futures
Abstract
This dissertation investigates the changing relationship between humanity, memory, nostalgia, and technology in the context of time across different historical periods. It shows how human consciousness has been influenced by the societal changes brought about by advancements in technology, shifting our sense of reality. The central issue discussed is the progressive dissociation between individuals and present reality due to technology’s influence over the human psyche. Tracing the progression of civilisations through time, the dissertation highlights the increasingly negative impact of technology and nostalgic consumerist strategies, which can create a diminished awareness of the present. This invites us to consider possible dystopian futures. Chronologically, the dissertation highlights technology’s imitations of reality through human sentience from the Victorian era, through the 20th century, postmodernism up to the present post-digital day and a fabricated future. Historical and cultural analysis alongside the exploration of relevant thinkers such Jean Baudrillard, Svetlana Boym and Neil Postman, as well as artists including Joseph Cornell, Lynnete Yiadom-Boakye and Zdzisław Beksiński, are all employed to further our understanding of how prone we are to influential change and re-programming of attitudes. The findings of this dissertation disclose a historical trajectory of humans becoming gradually more disconnected from time and, eventually, reality. By traversing through several time periods, the research underscores distinct instances of technology’s influence and critiques the progress of memory, both sincere and exploited, adding to the evolution of dissociation. The implications of this research suggest that digitalised existence has profound repercussions for how we understand the past, present, and future. Seeing the future through a dystopian lens invites us to evaluate the vitality of prioritising a harmonious relationship with reality over one so dependent on technology.
Introduction
“I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me” (Dickens, 1858, p.92). Society’s ability to maintain an understanding of memory and time may be deteriorating as we acknowledge vital periods that continue to influence our sense of reality. Navigating consciousness, specifically the grasp of personal thought and judgement, is crucial in forming our sense of self and autonomy. Managing the complexity of existence contributes to societal progress in a rapidly changing world. Vital to the progression through life is nostalgia, which is “a happiness-related emotion, yet, at the same time, it is thought to invoke sadness because of the realization that some desirable aspects of the past are out of reach” (Wildschut et al., 2006, p.977). We may undergo nostalgic reflection of life as we stem towards new experiences, allowing us to exercise thoughts and emotions to discern our values.
In a fast-changing world, independent thinking is crucial in maintaining our intellectual progress. The Victorian era was characterised by its strictly righteous beliefs and rigid societal structures inspired by introspection. In this dissertation, the Victorian era is portrayed establishing egocentricity – fostering a self-consciousness that surpasses the norms of the present. Charles Dickens explored the power of memory for self-awareness through Ebenezer Scrooge’s character (Dickens, 1858). Ironically, memory reminded Scrooge of the importance of heartfelt communal moments, whilst isolation separated him from humanity. Regardless of the division the Victorian era imposed on civilisation, memory enabled Scrooge to reconnect with those surrounding him (Dickens, 1858).
Chapter 1 links Scrooge’s story with postmodern philosopher Jacques Derrida’s concept of ‘hauntology’. Both Dickens’ novella and Derrida’s development of hauntology provide an insight into supernatural phenomena – constructed by the mind – as pathways that memory can be accessed through. Hauntology is associated with the study of what “haunts” the present, which could be the aftermath of unfulfilled pasts or alternative futures, resulting in the persistent appearance of the past in the present (Derrida, 1994). Derrida describes the present as always being something we subconsciously share with the past.
When tracing the journey from the refined ethics of the early Victorian era to the path of postmodernism, the materialistic expression of artist Joseph Cornell takes the spotlight. Cornell was an American artist born in 1903, just two years after Queen Victoria’s death in 1901, making the Victorian period a fragment of the past that reappears in the artefacts of his assemblages. Cornell’s artwork is followed by Jean Baudrillard’s ideas on representations that become parted from reality and shape a world of signs and symbols without an underlying truth (Baudrillard, 1994).
Chapter 2 pulls us into the digital age, showing the very nature of our consciousness being transformed by the realm of technology. Harmonising with our past seems to become more challenging with the present pursuit for digitalisation. With Svetlana Boym’s ideas, we observe technology’s damaging effects on our awareness of self and time. Once a longing for “the time of our childhood, the slower rhythms of our dreams”, nostalgia embodies a new form of digitalisation whilst leaving its authenticity at stake (Boym, 2007, p.8). Contrary to social media’s initial design of unifying humanity, it develops into an invention of curated personas, and the chase for validation. The digital world’s capacity to alter and even destroy what once was a sentimental and genuine yearning, turning it into a commercialised and manipulated feeling, should inspire concern. An attempt to measure the genuineness of art in a digital environment rises to the surface through the paintings of Lynnete Yiadom-Boakye. With the unfolding of the dissertation, we become steadily more doubtful of our trajectory towards the future.
Chapter 3 assesses the possible aftermath in the future resulting from the uncontrollable evolution of technology. Neil Postman’s critiques of a post-digital era are used to evoke a world in which technology forms into a presiding cultural force – impacting not only our way of living but also how we go about perceiving life (Postman, 1992). Subsequently, Olafur Eliasson’s environmental installations, Zdzisław Beksiński’s fearfully dystopian paintings and William Utermohlen’s self-portraits make us question if we can be conscious beings in dystopian futures – and perhaps if already, in the present, we are not?
Chapter 1: Hauntology’s Echoes of the Past: The Intersection of Memory and Postmodernism
The Victorian era's far-reaching impact creates a lens through which postmodern discussions on memory and history are deconstructed, using Jacques Derrida’s concept of ‘hauntology’. The Victorian era, occurring between the 19th and early 20th century, demonstrates a historical time whose influence continues to build present ideas. The Victorian era is often associated with its transformation of culture, technology, and economic structures that formed society norms. This time gave birth to visual documentation through photography, which, together with materialistic cultural artefacts and literature have become part of the successive generations’ memory.
In Derrida’s book Spectres of Marx, hauntology embodies a ghost of the past, present and absent, persistently haunting the living and influencing the unfolding of time (Derrida, 1994). Derrida was born in French Algeria in 1930 and his philosophical ideas harmonised with the literature of the century before. The Victorian era witnessed sermonising novels of Charles Dickens who was an English novelist and societal commentator. His novella, A Christmas Carol, published in 1858, inspires our understanding of Victorian era’s literature being a dynamic force shaping contemporary cultural memory, as well as the prolonged recollection of a now classic text that has since been adapted into numerous movies, plays and other media. The first movie version of Dickens’ novella was titled Scrooge and although being the oldest one, released in 1901, it is considered the most accurate
depiction of Dickens’ work. (Kat, n.d). Dickens critiques Victorian era’s materialistic mindset through Scrooge’s character, whose obsession with wealth has a dehumanising effect. Dickens does not hesitate to introduce Scrooge as a greedy and immoral man through: "Oh! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous, old sinner!" (Dickens, 1858, p.2). Scrooge's lack of responsiveness to human compassion is made evident since "No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him” (Dickens, 1858, p.3). Victorian era glorified financial success as a reflection of societal worth, therefore, to concentrate on his obsessive accumulation of wealth Scrooge isolated himself and lost touch with humanity. Dickens reminds us that life happens in everyday interactions, which enable heartfelt unification that goes beyond industrially imposed, materialistic luxury. As part of Scrooge’s character development, the Ghost of Christmas Past shows him Mr. Fezziwig, his benevolent former employer, hosting a Christmas party for his employees. Dickens emphasises that the joy of life cannot be bought and, instead, can be found for free in sharing an empathetic experience with others, “The happiness he gave was quite as great as if it cost a fortune” (Dickens, 1858, p.38). Naturally letting the past hauntingly overtake his mind and transform his attitude allows him to embrace connection to the people around him.
Contrarily, attaching himself to capitalistic materialism and following his upper-class role in Victorian era’s society devalued his sense of humanity.
Whilst materialism drastically damaged Scrooge’s character in his pursuit of wealth, it is worth acknowledging that memory is what reassembled his morality. The coexistence of memory and materialism, where materialism strengthens memory and vice versa, is explored through Joseph Cornell’s work. Cornell was famous for his “shadow boxes” (see Figure 1) which have the “characteristic of ghostliness, the haunting of the visible by the invisible” (Conley, 2017, p.263). The long-gone Victorian era is noticeable through Cornell’s boxes due to his incorporation of Victorian imagery including elements such as vintage illustrations, texts, photographs, maps, and toys to provide memory with a physical form, allowing it to be felt by subsequent generations. Cornell began making his first boxes by collecting materials from small, and presumably often unnoticed stores in Manhattan. (Artnet, n.d.). Fascinatingly, despite being in the heart of the world’s entertainment and economic prosperity, New York, Cornell seemed to have found true pleasure in acknowledging smaller stores of Manhattan. Just as Scrooge’s time travelling inspired his awareness of the life available outside of wealth, Cornell prioritises the less common and alternative to affluence lifestyle by focusing on antiques and time documentation. Cornell’s art shows contemporary interpretations of the Victorian era’s everyday lifestyle; each box inspires curiosity and fascination of the historical make up of life. Allowing memory and materialism to control each other is what makes this possible.
Cornell’s boxes resonate with Dickens’ literature where text integrates with visual art in order to expand how past and present centuries can be communicated. Exactly how Dickens decides for ghosts to enlighten Scrooge with past narratives, Cornell uses his artistic boxes to show “a parallel worldview of things as ghostly companions capable of capturing and bringing to the surface hidden thoughts and feelings” (Conley, 2017, p.263). Cornell’s hauntological approach to materialism is evident in the context of memory preservation. Objects are greater than just materialistic possessions for Cornell who emphasises them as “ghostly companions” and substitutes for verbal transmission of memory to help articulate the artist’s true reality of the intensely personal encounter with present living and thinking (Conley, 2017). This perspective broadens our comprehension of materialistically holding on to memory as we are shown that an object is not just a shallow pursuit of possessions but a vessel through which accessing the psychic levels of personal and societal memory becomes reachable. The craving to materialistically preserve the past in the present:
“represents an effort to stabilise images that are in fact immaterial and unstable; to endow the insubstantial and transitory signs by which life histories are registered with an aura of materiality and permanence” (Chopra-Gant, 2016, p.121).
As Joseph Cornell's memorable boxes embrace materialism in their own eccentric way with each box composed of original objects, we must shift our focus to a broader canvas painted with the subtle strokes of postmodernism. Postmodernism is a psychological and cultural development that began in the late 1960s, bringing significant controversy as its rejection of modernist narratives claimed to have had a complete grasp of human experience. Postmodernism acknowledges the variety of outlooks. In his book Simulacra and Simulation, Jean Baudrillard, the sociologist, and philosopher, explores how
hyperreal simulations can be formed by the media’s representations of events, creating an indifference between simulation and reality (Baudrillard, 1994). Baudrillard presents us with the idea of ‘simulacra’ where imitations of things are created without an original source, and, in this way, ‘simulations’ gradually surpass the reality that is being copied. The severance between the past and present becomes controversial, where both periods become entangled into one. Contemporary persona is echoed and composed of the “slender thread of memory”, which is not always directly perceptible and creates a reliance on subliminal influence (Berger, 1973, p.124). Connection between past and present experiences is fragile as the present moment builds on the history of the past and when our memories are not provided with a physical realm (such as Cornell’s boxes), we can become confused with reality. Entrapping memory in objects such as the ones found in Cornell’s work stabilises society with a distinct understanding of an artefact’s age and origin and, in this way, reduces our fear of confusing the present with the past.
Andy Warhol was an American visual artist and film director born in 1928, whose career spanned the late modernist and early postmodernist periods, making him vital in the transition to postmodernism. Similarly, to Baudrillard’s concept of ‘simulation’, Warhol challenged the traditional belief of what is considered original art by creating many copies of his work using silk screen printing. Warhol “defied the conventional boundaries between fine art and mass culture, elevating ordinary subjects” such as Campbell’s Soup cans and Coca-Cola bottles “to the realm of high art” (King, n.d.). Repetition of
everyday objects in Warhol’s art can evoke feelings of déjà vu, accompanied by the impression that the event has already happened in the past, even when the features of the prior encounter are unknown in our memory (Cleary & Claxton, 2018). Since media representations carefully form narratives and images for society’s consumption, media’s influence on our understanding of life is regulated by its dominance. Baudrillard explores the loss of control that is central to the postmodern world when he considers that “The real is produced from miniaturized cells, matrices, and memory banks, models of control – and it can be reproduced an indefinite number of times from these” (Baudrillard, 1994, p.2). As postmodernism unravels, recollection of the present is no longer controlled by ordinary people with the world shifting towards media-controlled memory. As postmodernism continues to force a far-reaching unification between technology and lifestyle, encouraging confused memory, this new world conveys “that postmodernity is characterized by ‘nostalgia for the present’”, as a desire for progression and stability in the centre of perpetual change. (Chopra-Gant, 2016, p. 121).
With the contemporary world peculiarly losing its sense of the present, we may consider that the world itself is becoming a simulation controlled by the media. We recognise that “The early 1970s are now seen as exemplary of the unfulfilled potential hauntology wishes to revive. This is not a nostalgia for the past but one directed towards the lost futures it encapsulates” (Prowse, 2020, para.7). In this way, the lost desire to improve the future must now navigate hauntology giving rise to a persistent depression over the things we wished had happened but did not. However, we must acknowledge the value of the unforeseeable for memory to play an active role in the present moment.
“To be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world – and, at the same time, that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are” (Berman, 1982, p.15).
The famous Rosie the Riveter poster from World War II, The National World War II Museum, Kansas City
In the postmodern world, the present is constantly sacrificed for one that we believe to be better. The duality of the optimism for life-altering progress and the threat of what comes with it, such as modernity’s destruction of all we are familiar with, sets a complex relationship between memory, progress, and the risks that postmodernism delivers. This was apparent following the trauma of the Second World War which prompted a revaluation of traditional, cultural, and societal values. For example, because “men were drafted into the war, women replaced them on factory floors…it became socially acceptable for young women to be working instead of seeking to start families” for the very first time (Rust, 2021, para.6). The visibility of women’s capabilities during war inspired movements advocating for equal opportunities and dismantling institutionalized gender inequalities. Consequently, throughout the years of “1940 and 1945, the female labor force expanded by 50 percent” (Rust, 2021, para.6). This has contributed to shaping the status of women today and inspired us with new possibilities outside of what is deemed an admissible social standard. Together with postmodernity, the women’s liberation movement began in the late 1960s, expanding feminist consciousness by emphasising that this was a liberation for both genders. (Burkett, 2023).
Mark Fisher, born in 1968, was an English writer specifically known for his exploration of the present being haunted by the “lost futures” of the postmodern world. In his book Ghosts of My Life, Fisher explains that the ongoing deconstruction of meaning imposed by memory results in “a fanaticism of productivism in which nothing much is actually produced, an economy made out of hot air and bland delirium” (Fisher, 2014, p.168). Technological advancements of the postmodern world complicate our relationship with memory as there is no balance for it, artificially making all aspects of memory permanent, even though it is crucial to human nature to have the freedom to forget. Fisher uncovers the major problem of digital memory as “Baudrillard observes somewhere that computers don’t really remember because they lack the ability to forget” (Fisher, 2014, p.75). This makes us contemplate the direction humanity is heading towards as uncertainty is brought to the surface of our own capacity to remember in a digital world that is beginning to not let us forget. Postmodernism’s determination to change all that is known to humankind and by intertwining with Fisher’s ideas, computer-like memory replacing natural human memory, which operates through a selective process of forgetting and remembering, no longer seems improbable.
The digital age, also known as the information age, began in the early 1980s. Internet introduction allowed mass exchanging of knowledge and information, which impacted our relationship with nostalgia. The digital age associates with increasing prevalence of digital innovations in everyday life, inclusive of entertainment, education, communication, and e-commerce. In the presence of such developments, it is worth acknowledging the digital age as an evolving time that has by no means reached its final destination on the journey of shaping a post-digital society. A post-digital society
refers to an era where technology is completely integrated into human life, making the distinction between physical and digital worlds unnoticeable, and allowing a ‘singularity’ of humans and machines as they gradually merge into one (Mosco, 2017).
Nostalgia is recognised as a yearning for the past (Wildschut et al., 2006). However, nostalgia adopts a brand-new form as it merges with technology. This can be explored through the work on two critics who span the pre-digital, and digital ages: Jean Starobinski and Svetlana Boym.
Swiss literary critic Jean Starobinski (1920 – 2019), made a significant contribution to the study of nostalgia. Starobinski researched the bygone days and culture of nostalgia, alongside his interest in nostalgia’s progression throughout civilisations. He argues “emotions whose history we wish to retrace are accessible to us only from the time when they find expression, verbally or by other means” (Starobinski, 1966, p. 81). Starobinski trusts emotions are clear once linguistically expressed – “An emotion can attach itself to a word (especially to a word in fashion), but this does not occur without rather important consequences” (Starobinski, 1966, p. 81). Since 1966, he linked emotions to driving fashion consumerism. Noting that nostalgia ties discomfort with the preset, he noticed how it moves society towards excessive material indulgence to recreate the nostalgic time or place. Even though we find ourselves in a technologically stimulated age, we are prompted to investigate the appropriate relationship between nostalgia and life, without having to sacrifice an authentic and present lifestyle for a temporary feel of nostalgia.
In The Future of Nostalgia, Svetlana Boym, a cultural theorist, and artist born in 1959, notices nostalgia’s challenges in a digitally subjugated time as it can result in our ideas of the past, present and future being ‘programmed’ (Boym, 2002). Boym’s division between restorative and reflective nostalgia has broadened our knowledge of the feeling. Boym understood nostalgia’s multifaceted nature and was aware of the complexity and effort of trying to grasp it. In Nostalgia and its discontents, Boym describes nostalgia unlimited to longing for a place or time in the past – but also regarding the sensitivity of returning to a place we never left (Boym, 2007). Boym sees reflective nostalgia as a critical observation of bygone days and a desire to engage with them without attempting to recreate or restore them. Restorative nostalgia differs from this as it strives to rejuvenate an idealised past to allow us to experience the unreal. Restorative nostalgia, focusing on a simplified past, links to the digital world’s detachment from genuineness. Her work implies that we can engage with memory authentically, avoiding romanticised online identities and deceitful digitised memories.
Social media platforms, such as Instagram, embedded into everyday life devalues pure experiences to an “insights” platform which “allows users to view analytics measuring the performance of their content, and better understand their audience” (Moursi, 2023, para.1). The development of a fake creation of self, solely for digital gratification, relates to Baudillard’s concept of the “simulation”. It is common for contemporary Instagram users to measure the importance of their life against what attracts ‘likes’ from other users. This artificial arrangement of ‘posts’ constructs a false reality, altering
the authenticity of nostalgia. In 2021, the Pew Research Centre found that “73% of 18- to 29-year-old Instagram users say they visit the site every day” (Auxier & Anderson, 2021). This statistic demonstrates the post-digital world creates artificial nostalgia. Instagram’s cofounder, Kevin Systrom, revealed that during the app’s beginning, the union “of filters and social distribution” was “‘the magical combination’ that helped the app take off” (Jarvey, 2016, para.1). Created in 2010, Instagram began using polaroid-like filters, a technology from the 1940s-50s, despite opportunities for far more advanced photography. Nostalgia can obstruct technological innovation, resulting in a loop of reclaiming older technologies. Our perception of reality and memory becomes distorted due to nostalgic filters manipulating photos with a vintage and even dream-like form. Users may unknowingly expect for reality to conform to these altered visual standards.
In the year of Instagram’s initiation, Nicholas Carr’s book The Shallows was released to show the internet is gradually modifying our cognitive processes, directing us towards surface-level awareness (Carr, 2010). Social media’s effect of imagination and admiration is unfortunate as we cannot help feeling magnetised to the idealised false reality. The digital archive acts as a valuable possession due to the pricelessness of memories, but the validity of the photos and, thus, memories, is not promised due to the cybernated reality we are under. Our attempt to possess authority over nostalgia in the post-digital age becomes more unreachable as it involves accepting that unchanged history is what shapes an authentic reality. Therefore, in the case of nostalgia being used to reduce our historical recollection, it becomes a revolt against the pre-digital view of time; nostalgia may be a resistance to time (Hook, 2012, p. 225). The digital world prompts us to reexperience past times digitally, challenging the linear logic of time. Desire for nostalgic comfort arises from the uncertainty of our present age, seeking direction for the future. Societal disassociation to nostalgia inspires questions such as “How can we be present yet also absent? …How can we have so much control yet lose so much freedom?” (Baym, 2015, p.3).
Cultural heritage and downgrading of personal memory falsely convince us that we have something missing within ourselves as gradually the deceitful lie of a digitalised life becomes all we know. Dissatisfied with the present, we subliminally turn to nostalgia as a metaphorical bandage. As digital assistance reduces our ability to remember, the originality of memories declines, complicating the interplay of technology with emotional independence. (Ryzova, 2014). Navigating between online and offline identities causes bewilderment of the past, present and future. The digital world acts as a blank canvas where nostalgia can be conveyed and a tool for apprehending the complex connections to nostalgia. Making sense of the contradictions exposed through technology disconnects us from nostalgic memory. Neil Gaiman’s fantasy novel, American Gods, tells the story of a world where gods and mythical entities exist solely because of people’s belief in them – it is humanity’s attention and worshiping of these creatures that gives them power (Gaiman, 2001). Gaiman narrates the “old gods” as struggling to keep their relevance in a post-digital world, whilst superior “new gods” personify contemporary ideas of technology and media (Gaiman, 2001). We unconsciously become the catalyst for empowering a technologically dominated world due to our compelling and persistent use of
technology. It is necessary for us to keep our critical thinking about the judgement of our experiences away from false digital realities where we “believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not” (Gaiman, 2001, p.334).
Lynnete Yiadom-Boakye is an example of believing in the uncertain just like in Gaiman’s novel. This is due to the uncertainty of the subjects in her artwork. Yiadom-Boakye, an oil painter born in 1977, creates large-scale paintings of people who do not actually exist as she often does not use references and paints from memory. Immoderate media consumption may lead us towards isolation as a deliberate response to a societal proclivity towards artificiality in the post-digital world. In an interview for the Tate gallery to accompany her recent exhibition, Yiadom-Boakye reveals:
“I never wanted it to be pinned down to a particular time, I think the timelessness is important. There is a universality to that. Sometimes… things suggest a particular time... I don’t want to be concerned with that because I think what I’m talking about transcends time. It’s everlasting, there is no end to this era” (Yiadom-Boakye, 2021).
Although Yiadom-Boakye’s paintings demonstrate her nostalgic feelings for past encounters, both the subjects in her paintings and her connection to them transcend the rules of time. Documentation of the people from her past is unique since each face she paints is a by-product of all the different imagery in her memory. Inclusive of many online images of strangers that she comes across on a
regular basis, may distance the characters from authentic memory, becoming impressions of everything that the artist is exposed to in the contemporary post-digital realm. The painted faces are no longer reliable, they are subconscious creations emerging from technological narration that interrupt genuineness.
British novelist and screenwriter, Kazuo Ishiguro, explored the concept of the “unreliable narrator” in his novel The Remains of the Day narrated through the protagonist called Stevens. Throughout the novel, Stevens’ perspective is formed by his biases and restrictions. However, just as the unknown figures in Yiadom-Boakye’s paintings, the unreliability of Stevens as a narrator adds depth to the story and encourages questioning the information being presented. Deliberate distortion or lie may reveal more about the person or situation than the straightforward truth. By trying to highlight events in a glamorised manner, we may unintentionally expose underlying complexities (Ishiguro, 2009). This aligns with Fisher’s reminder that “The past cannot be forgotten, the present cannot be remembered”, because the artistic expression of the post-digital world often blurs the boundaries of reality and illusion (Fisher, 2014, p.104). It is intriguing how similar the subjects in Yiadom-Boakye paintings are, as though she holds on to specific characteristics and transfers them to differently aged and gendered people. Though there is sentimentality found in this technique of remembering, the overload of information caused by post-digitalisation is responsible for the lack of discerning reality.
Considering prominence of nostalgia in the post-digital world makes us see it as a tool for a superior force, such as capitalism, rather than one benefiting us:
“it was capital that first fed on the destructuration of… every human objective, that shattered every ideal distinction between true and false… in order to establish a radical law of equivalence and exchange” (Baudrillard, 1994, p.22).
Nostalgia can be an emotional device corporations use to allure consumers in the post-digital world by appealing to their pre-digital memories. Using emotional intelligence diverts consumers’ focus towards companies’ selling points. This attraction technique transcends materialism and sleeves into our desire for simpler times, “this relationship is becoming even more imbricated” (Strachan, 2019, p.146). Nostalgia’s means to impact a consumer’s judgement of a product or service is what makes it powerful. Loyola University Chicago conducted an examination of whether ads that concentrate on nostalgia fulfil selling objectives. The study found implementing nostalgic feelings to advertising has a productive effect on our judgement of a business. Participants in the research were likely to value the brand after seeing such ads. Yet, the use of nostalgia in advertising remains controversial as “when you learn about a target audience, you’re trying to get inside their heads” (Study, 2013). Though it is manipulative, nostalgia-bound ads provide a remembrance to bygone days and link the brand with pleasant imagery (Nguyen, 2017).
Figure 5. n.d. ‘Share A Coke Campaign Post-Analysis’. Marketing Mag.
Nostalgia distracts consumers from the product’s practicality or service, and, instead, centres on a heartfelt buying experience. For example, demand in the modern world for vintage products inspires nostalgic feelings in customers. Nostalgia marketing enables historical narratives to be celebrated with societal notions – a discovery for the marketing world that fixates on relating products to customers’ yearning for a fantastical past (Thibault, 2016). This convinces the target audience that what is presented to them is a portion of their history. Exposure to such marketing is a temporary high – we are unaware to alert ourselves of the deception, but, unable to remain in the nostalgic state. In 2011, Coca Cola initiated a marketing campaign called “Share A Coke” which featured individual names on packaging for a more personalised relationship with customers. The campaign prompted the public to share their purchases with friends and family by looking for items with their names on them. The copies of each name on various packaging echo Warhol's artistic prints of Coca Cola bottles, releasing déjà vu through their repetitiveness. It is likely that during the campaign the brand was being associated with memories and experiences more than the drink itself. The campaign managed to achieve an impressive result:
“First launched in Australia in the summer of 2012, the ambitious digital media campaign drove sales of over 250 million Coke products in a country of 23 million people.”. (Qeola, 2020, para.2).
The result of nostalgic marketing can be seen through ideas discussed in Boym’s book Kosmos: a portrait of the Russian space age as it provides consumers with an idea of belonging – which provisionally heals feelings of deprivation and displacement (Boym, 2001). The post-digital age overwhelms societal attitudes with information and choices. Brands take advantage of this by communicating to their target audiences that they emphasise with their nostalgia. The past continues to be of interest, even in a time where digital technology dominates, distracting us from the present. This contradictory dynamic of digital control results in “a strange balance of sharing, withholding and distorting information” (Baym, 2010, p.108).
Unintended consequences of post-digital advancements mean that “technologies create new definitions of old terms, and that this process takes place without our being fully conscious of it” (Postman, 1992, p.8). Neil Postman (1931 – 2003), was an American author and educator famous for his book Technopoly which explores the uncontrollably rapid technological innovations damaging culture. Previous generations were manifesting this into the future without realising the possible compromises at stake. Postman emphasises Technopoly as a condition where culture submissively accompanies technology:
“Technopoly is a state of culture. It is also a state of mind. It consists in the deification of technology, which means that the culture seeks its authorization in technology, finds its satisfactions in technology, and takes its orders from technology” (Postman, p.71, 1992).
There is a risk of human dependency on technology due to its changing influence over values and norms – which progressively may reduce our critical thinking. In a Technopoly, culture, specifically how we view and interact with the contemporary world, is majorly influenced by technology. Derrida’s book Psyche: Inventions of the Other, shows us that, in theory, we do have a future, however, it seems as though this future has already been programmed and forecasted to an alarming extent (Derrida, 2007). Traditional cultural ethics are forced to prioritise technological development over customary human principles. Technological communication destroys the genuineness of our interpersonal connections (Postman, 1992). However, as the new world becomes more digitalised, we, as a society, are unable to return to the pre-digital state of humanity, leaving us to anticipate the future as a fearful alternative of past’s undeveloped state of the world.
Figure 6. Olafur Eliasson. 2003. The Weather Project. Monofrequency lights, projection foil, haze machines, mirror foil, aluminium, and scaffolding.
26.7 x 22.3 x 155.4m. Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London.
Olafur Eliasson, born in 1967, is an artist famously recognised for his large-scale installations that encapsulate the coexistence of art, technology, and nature. Eliasson’s 2003 commission for the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern, The Weather Project, provided viewers with the illusion of the sun’s presence. The installation’s use of light and mirrors inspired thoughts technology forming our sensory experiences. This artificial environment acts as a reminder that technology can alter our sense of reality. Through the fake sun and climatic effects, the installation emulates our instinct to possess dominance and manipulation over nature using technological assets. This chimes with Postman’s concerns for a culture that searches for authorisation, fulfilment, and instruction from technology. The Weather Project was installed in a large-scale open plan space, encouraging the public to interact with each other’s reflections on the mirrored ceiling. The “persons in the Turbine Hall were seen as small black silhouettes and they were all put against an orange light field… people were minuscule in scale, they were a part of this extraordinary spectacle” (Public Delivery, 2023). Viewers were prompted to reflect on technology’s part in moulding their memories of what is natural – considering technologically orchestrated art as just another tool to further programme our minds.
Eliasson was transparent about the behind the scenes of The Weather Project, he said: “By walking to the far left of the hall, visitors could see how the sun was constructed” (Eliasson, O, 2023). Viewers were able to discover the project’s hidden truths as ones that seem natural to the human eye and manage to connect the public together – even as a construct of a technology-reliant society.
Eliasson’s honest approach aligns with Postman’s critique of a culture that is extremely subservient to technology as our comprehension of reality becomes malleable. The transparency of the installation’s construction reflects humanity’s loss of individualistic thought as even in settings where it seems evident to conclude something to be unnatural, in this case the sun, Eliasson chose to not underestimate the extent of technology’s deceitful influence on our beliefs. T.S. Eliot was a British poet and essayist who wrote an anthology of poems called Four Quartets where he delves into themes of the human experience, time, and memory. In one of the quartets, The Dry Salvages, Eliot mentions: "Footfalls echo in the memory / Down the passage which we did not take" (Eliot, T.S., lines 11-12, 1943). Consequences of humanity heading towards technologically orchestrated thinking makes us realise that future decisions may no longer be ours. Already, we find ourselves in destinations following journeys taken unconsciously through technology.
Whilst Eliasson’s installation provides us with a futuristic insight into atmospheric changes in a technologically driven world, polish artist Zdzisław Beksiński (1929 – 2005) portrays the future in a more frightening and explicit way. Beksiński’s surreal paintings of horrifyingly distorted subjects and unearthly apocalyptic surroundings encourage us to contemplate how although reality does exist, we are only exposed to the illusion of it because we translate it into a graspable language (Beksiński, 1998). Existentialist imagery in Beksiński’s paintings show us our subconsciously altered form of what we convince ourselves to be real. Evolution is at risk when present thinking becomes too preoccupied
with the future’s uncertainty. Beksiński’s surpassing of temporal constraints through unworldly and timeless paintings help us to visualise Fisher’s idea that “the synthetic textures are relieved from the pressure of signifying the Future…they evoke a timeless Now where the urgencies of the present have been suspended” (Fisher, p.140, 2014). The “synthetic textures'' may be seen as dehumanising assets that tie with the worrisome anticipation of an even more technologically managed and emotionally unavailable future.
“As a result of the distressing worries of a future that we are unable to know brings forward thoughts of some kind of dystopian future where we’re advanced in every way except in our humanity” (Howard, 2017).
The majority of Beksiński’s paintings are reflections of his dreams – “I have frequently wondered if the majority of mankind ever pause to reflect upon the occasionally titanic significance of dreams, and of the obscure world to which they belong” (Van Dessel, 2017). Beksiński uses painting as a way of allowing himself to capture a sense of reality, something that transcends the boundaries of photography, even though this reality “feels painfully insufficient in expression” (Van Dessel, 2017). The fear we feel contemporarily through Beksiński’s paintings does not come close to the depth of what the future may be. Derrida’s ideas from his book Of Grammatology can be envisioned through Beksiński’s art, specifically when we consider that:
“The future can only be anticipated in the form of an absolute danger… and can only be proclaimed, presented, as a sort of monstrosity” (Derrida, p.5, 1994).
Though dreams pave the way for understanding the fearful, however, probable future, it is worth acknowledging the belief that recurring dreams are manifesting into our life (Mpalyenkana-Murray, 2020). Overwhelming thoughts of the future may multiply through our dreams until eventually appearing in our physical world, such as through the paintings of Beksiński.
Figure 8. William Utermohlen. 2015. Interview: ‘Words fail us: dementia and the arts’.
Nicci Gerrard. ‘Details from William Utermohlen’s self-portraits, the first, made in 1967, the rest from 1996 the year following his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, to 2000, charting his decline.’.
William Utermohlen (1933 – 2007), is known for his series of self-portraits which he completed across the last few years of his life whilst battling with Alzheimer’s disease. Existentialist anxiety and uncertainty of the future can be seen in both Beksiński’s surreal imagery and Utermohlen’s progressively decaying artistic mind and ability. Unavoidable ageing processes, Alzheimer’s disease, makes us fear aging – becoming unresponsive to memory and the world. A deeper layer of Utermohlen’s self-portraits is noticeable when we consider the possibility that “the painter draws himself as if he were seeing himself in the mirror” (Blanke, 2007, p.17), yet what we see is nearing abstraction.
The massive changes in his artwork (see Figure 8) are parallel with the post-digital age’s emphasis on swiftly sharable digital content – discouraging more time-consuming artwork. Self-portraiture not only can document the change of how the artist sees themselves but also how they feel about themselves. Contemporary means of memory preservation and nostalgic inspiration becomes questionable at the end as although Utermohlen was exposed to the post-digital world prior passing, no technological advancements were able to sustain his memory – the progression of neurodegenerative diseases is inescapable. Utermohlen’s art shows he spent the last years of his life focusing on his self-image, perhaps attempting to remain in touch with reality in an environment that is preoccupied with aligning their life with the future (Icke, 1996). Rapid digital innovation of the changing world may have made Utermohlen feel claustrophobic in a post-digital world that is supposedly meant to broaden our possibilities but is futile in the case of severe mental confusion.
Figure 9. Inria, 2012. ‘Posture recognition («stop and go» and «sit down» activities) using the video camera at the CMRR.’
The French National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology has been expanding technological dependence to care for Alzheimer patients by digitally observing their behaviour in a house setting (Inria, 2020). To investigate the footage of the elderly person (see Figure 9), the institute “developed a new software platform that not only enables analysis of video data, but will also eventually pair these video data with audio data and recordings made by other types of sensors (physiological, for example), such as actimeters'' (Inria, 2020, para. 3). As technology advances towards analysing personal parts of patients’ activities, our excessive reliance on technology may result in a depersonalisation of care due to the loss of human contact and empathy. Ethical complications arise from using technology to monitor vulnerable people’s activities through cameras, with it being likely that they remain confused and isolated in their surroundings. Privacy concerns arrive when we remind ourselves that these are elders with Alzheimer’s who are being watched and may not always be aware of it. Consequently, we seem to be left with a future as Derrida predicted “that remains harassed forever by a relapse within the inauthentic” (Derrida, 2007, p.16).
Figure 10. Kaitlin Thomas. 2018. Black Mirror (Netflix) - image from episode.
We are hurtling towards the loss of humanity due to the prioritisation of technology over allowing life to naturally happen. This is a future depicted in Charlie Brooker’s dystopian television series Black Mirror. In the episode called ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ people survive in an artificial and highly monitored environment, with the slightest resemblance of nature being accessed through digital screens. The characters complete repetitive pedalling on stationary bikes and take on the role of energy generators, whilst being deprived of their humanity altogether. For these dystopian subjects, the future does not differ from the present as everyday they are destined to the same routine of eternal cycling in exchange for a sort of currency, alongside the consuming of media being a normality and preference in the dystopian future over human interaction. Brooker depicts a dystopian future where control exists through the power of entertainment as characters are forced to accept the escapist and mindless digital content and are charged upon refusing to watch the media around them.
Bing, the main protagonist, revealed “What, I have a dream? The peak of our dreams is a new app for our Dopple, it doesn't exist! It’s not even there! We buy shit that’s not even there. Show us something real and free and beautiful” (Brooker, 2011, 0:54:06). Throughout centuries society was, and continues to be, increasingly determined for technological advancement. Brooker shows that the dystopian future awaiting us may be our greatest fear. Dystopian society results in humans seeing the simple behaviours of pre-digital existence as unobtainable freedom and luxury. The episode explicitly anticipates a future without nature, as Bing describes: “it’s augmented, packaged, and pumped through 10,000 preassigned filters till it’s nothing more than a meaningless series of lights, while we ride day in day out, going where?” (Brooker, 2011, 0:54:28). This links to the previously mentioned nostalgic Instagram filters being used in the present day that can eliminate meaning from photos. Brooker has made it evident to us that a society entrapped in a digitalised and inescapable loop,
addicted to mindless entertainment, completely erases any course of direction in human existence, making the future self-destructive.
The historical journey through reality’s imitations, led by the development of technology and its influence over memory and nostalgia, has illuminated complex patterns in our consciousness. Technology’s dominance on commercialism and manipulated nostalgia has progressively distanced humans away from the accuracy of reality. The post-digital age creates decline in trust and energises the manipulation of societal belief. This era challenges the concept of an equitable reality and normalises deception, discouraging critical thinking and media literacy for a more enlightened and irrepressible humanity. The start of the dissertation serves as the failed potential of diverting future generations onto the right path of memory preservation. According to the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, we can move forward and make decisions in the present by interpreting our past without having to sacrifice one or the other (Kierkegaard & Mooney, 2009). Since the contemporary world is deprived of maintaining a genuine relationship with nostalgia as a means of guidance through reality, the concept of our future becomes obstructed with dystopia as we uncover the terrifying potential of the constantly transformative landscape of our lives.
The findings highlight the significance of comprehending the intricate relationship between technological advancements, cultural shifts, and sense of time. Effacing the contrast between fantasy and reality, invites an abnormal and digital influence that brings us out of touch with the real state of time. This relates to Sigmund Freud’s perspective on how uneasy we feel when the familiar becomes unfamiliar – particularly in the digital age where the unnatural impact of the digital world may disorder our psychological equilibrium and confuse our sense of reality. (Freud, 2003). This study contributes to the field by presenting a chronological narrative that contextualises our current attitude of reality in the post-digital era. Emphasis has been put on the inconspicuous parts of reality that have been constructed through technology as damaging factors to self-awareness humanity’s evolution.
While this dissertation provides valuable insights, it is essential to acknowledge its limitations. The historical investigation is necessarily selective, directing our focus on key periods and extracting their prominence in the context of the work of relevant scholars and artists. The study prioritises cultural, literary, and artistic analysis, leaving space for other interdisciplinary investigations. Future research endeavours could seek a more precise exploration into the cultural context by pursuing empirical study to delve deeper into specific influences of technology on consciousness. Also, to inspect alternative methodologies that enrich our awareness of this complicated relationship. Exploring the nuanced gestures of nostalgia and its digital manifestations may also expand our knowledge on the developing patterns of perception. This dissertation provides a narrative of societies’ attempts to navigate the currents of time, to find themselves adrift in the tide of technological evolution the more they approach utter digitalisation.
The future is an inescapable invention that is no longer decided by us in this contemporary world as we have provided technology with complete jurisdiction over humanity’s fate. The future: “An invention that refused to be dictated, ordered, programmed, by these conventions would be out of place, out of phase, out of order, impertinent, transgressive” (Derrida, 2007, p.21). The connotations that this journey leaves us with exceeds historical pages, encouraging us to reflect on our present sense of collective alertness as we approach the uncertain future. The dystopian landscape painted by the dissertation furthers us away from reality and replaces it with a facade designed through pixels and algorithms.
It is essential, however, for us to recognise the realms of dystopian futures not as conclusions but as potent wake-up calls. As we stand at the crossroads of technological advances, the rallying cry is distinct: to be alert designers of our own digital fates. In this way we can allow the vision of dystopian futures to serve as the catalyst for momentous change, forging a path towards a future where humanity and development can exist cooperatively.
References
Artnet, n.d. ‘Joseph Cornell’ Available at: https://www.artnet.com/artists/joseph-cornell/ Accessed on: 25 December 2023
Auxier, B. and Anderson, M. 2021. ‘Social Media Use in 2021’. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. Available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/04/07/social-media-use-in2021/#fn-27044-1 Accessed on: 15 October 2023
Baudrillard, J. 1994. Simulacra and Simulation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press
Baym, N. K. 2010. Personal Connections in the Digital Age. Malden, MA: Polity Press.
Baym, N. K. 2015. Personal Connections in the Digital Age. (2nd Edition). Germany: Polity Press.
Beksiński, Z. 1998. The Fantastic Art of Beksinski. Beverly Hills, CA: Morpheus International
Beksiński, Z. n.d. Untitled, The Historical Museum, Sanok, Poland. Available at: https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/the-dystopian-surrealism-of-zdzislaw-beksinski/ Accessed on: 27 November 2023
Berger, P. 1973. Invitation to Sociology: A humanistic approach. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin
Berman, J. 1982. All That Is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity. Simon & Schuster
Blanke, O. 2007. I and Me: Self-Portraiture in Brain Damage, Neurological Disorders in Famous Artists - Part 2, pp.14-29. J. Bogousslavsky, M.G. Hennerici
Boym, S., 2001. Kosmos: a portrait of the Russian space age. Princeton Architectural Press
Boym, S. 2007. Nostalgia and its discontents. The Hedgehog Review, 9(2), 7-19
Boym, S. 2002. The Future of Nostalgia. New York. Basic Books
Brooker, C. 2011, ‘Fifteen Million Merits’ from Black Mirror, series.1, episode. 2. Available at: Netflix
Accessed on: 29 November 2023
Brown, E. 2017. ‘Bryce Dallas Howard’. Interview Magazine. Available at: https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/bryce-dallas-howard. Accessed on: 28 November 2023
Burkett, E. 2023. ‘Women’s Rights Movement: Political and Social Movement'. Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/event/womens-movement Accessed on: 25 December 2023
Carr, N. 2010 The Shallows: How the Internet is Changing the Way We Think, Read and Remember. United Kingdom: Atlantic Books.
Chopra-Gant, M. 2016. ‘Pictures or It Didn’t Happen: Photo-nostalgia, iPhoneography and the Representation of Everyday Life’, pp. 121-133. Research Gate. Available at: (PDF) Pictures or It Didn’t Happen: Photo-nostalgia, iPhoneography and the Representation of Everyday Life (researchgate.net) Accessed on: 8 January 2024
Cleary, A. M. & Claxton, A. B. 2018. ‘Déjà Vu: An Illusion of Prediction’ in Psychological Science, 29(4), pp. 635-644. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797617743018
Accessed on: 17 November 2023
Conley, K. 2017. ‘Collecting Ghostly Things: André Breton and Joseph Cornell’ in Modernism/ Modernity. W&M Scholar Works. 24(2), pp. 263-282. Available at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1257&context=aspubs Accessed on: 15 November 2023
Cornell, J. 1936. Untitled (Soap Bubble Set) Photo: Allen Phillips. Available at: https://www.thoughtco.com/joseph-cornell-4685957
Accessed on: 29 October 2023
Derrida, J. 1994. Of Grammatology. India: Motilal Banarsidass
Derrida, J. 2007. Psyche: Inventions of the Other: Volume 1. Stanford University Press
Derrida, J. 1994. Spectres of Marx: The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning, and the New International. United Kingdom. Routledge
Dickens, C. 1858. A Christmas Carol. Bradbury and Evans
Eliasson, O. 2023. The Weather Project. (Artist’s website). Available at: https://olafureliasson.net/ Accessed on: 21 November 2023
Schulze, M. 2017. ‘Olafur Eliasson’s Weather Project- Everything you should know’. Available at: https://publicdelivery.org/olafur-eliasson-the-weather-project/ Accessed on: 21 November 2023
Eliot, T.S. 1943. ‘Four Quartets 1: Burnt Norton’, stanza 1, lines 11-12.
Fisher, M. 2014. Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures. Zero Books
Freud, S. 2003. The Uncanny. Penguin Classics; Later Edition
Gaiman, N. 2001. American Gods. London. Headline Feature
Gerrard, N. 2015. Interview: ‘Words fail us: dementia and the arts’. The Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/jul/19/dementia-and-the-arts-fiction-films-drama-poetrypainting Accessed on: 29 November 2023
Hook, D. 2012. ‘Screened history: Nostalgia as defensive formation’ in Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 18(3), p. 225.
Icke, D. 1996. I am me I am free: The Robots' Guide to Freedom Bridge of Love.
Inria, 2020. ‘Using digital technology to combat Alzheimer’s’. Changed version. Available at: https://www.inria.fr/en/using-digital-technology-combat-alzheimers Accessed on: 29 November 2023
Ishiguro, K. 2009. The Remains of the Day United Kingdom: Faber & Faber.
Jarvey, N. 2016. ‘How Instagram’s Filters Got Their Names’. The Hollywood Reporter. Available at: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/instagram-filters-history-names-explained910720/ Accessed on: 28 December 2023
Kat. n.d. ‘11 Very Different Versions of A Christmas Carol’ Cinema Live. Available at: https://www.cinemalive.com/blog/11-different-christmascarols#:~:text=Entitled%20simply%20'Scrooge'%20and%20starring,the%20Dickens%20classic%20to %20date. Accessed on: 25 December 2023
Kierkegaard, S., Mooney, E. F. 2009. Repetition and Philosophical Crumbs United Kingdom: OUP Oxford.
King, E. n.d. ‘Andy Warhol: The Original Influencer Artist’. My Art Broker. Available at: https://www.myartbroker.com/artist-andy-warhol/articles/andy-warhol-original-influencer-artist Accessed on: 1 November 2023
Marketing Mag. 2012. ‘Share A Coke Campaign Post-Analysis’. Available at: https://www.marketingmag.com.au/news/share-a-coke-campaign-post-analysis/
Accessed on: 29 December 2023
Mosco, V. 2017. Becoming Digital: Toward a Post-Internet Society. Emerald Publishing The Limited.
Moursi, A. 2023. ‘Instagram Insights: What Do They Mean?’ Hopper HQ. Blog. Available at: https://www.hopperhq.com/blog/instagram-insights-meaning/ Accessed on: 16 November 2023
Mpalyenkana-Murray, J. 2020. The Sanity Warrior: Becoming the Authority of Your Experiences Amazon Digital Services LLC - KDP Print US.
Nguyen, P. T. 2017. ‘Nostalgia for the present: Digital nostalgia and mediated authenticity on Instagram’ in Faculty of Humanities, Department of Media Studies. Stockholm University
Postman, Neil. 1992. Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology. Vintage Books
Prowse, J. 2020. ‘Hauntology: Ghosts of Futures Past’ in Horrified Magazine. Available at: https://www.horrifiedmagazine.co.uk/other/hauntology-ghosts-of-futures-past/ Accessed on: 3 November 2023
Public Delivery. ‘Olafur Eliasson’s Weather Project – Everything you should know’. Available at: https://publicdelivery.org/olafur-eliasson-the-weather-project/ Accessed on: 21 November 2023
Qeola. 2020. ‘Why The “Share A Coke” Campaign Was So Successful’. Medium. Available at: https://qeola-ennovatelab.medium.com/why-the-share-a-coke-campaign-was-so-successfula0734c8bcb76 Accessed on: 29 December 2023
Rust, O. 2021. ‘Benefits & Rights: World War II’s Sociocultural Impact’. The Collector. Available at: https://www.thecollector.com/world-war-ii-sociocultural-impact-civil-rights/ Accessed on: 25 December
Ryzova, L. 2014. ‘Nostalgia for the Modern: Archive Fever in Egypt in the age of Post-Photography’ in Photographic Archives and the Idea of Nation, pp. 301-318
Strachan, R. 2019. ‘Post-Digital Music Video and Genre: Indie Rock, Nostalgia, Digitization, and Technological Materiality’ in The Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music Video Analysis, pp. 143-162
Study, E. 2013. ‘Finding Culture and Creativity in Advertising’. School of Communication: Loyola University Chicago. Available at: https://www.luc.edu/soc/stories/2013/archive/cultureandcreativityinadvertising.shtml Accessed on: 23 October 2023
Thibault, M. 2016. Post-Digital Games: The Influence of Nostalgia in Indie Games' Graphic Regimes Gamevironments
Thomas, K. 2018. ‘Sci-Fi's Wildest Innovations’. Black Mirror (Netflix). TV Guide. Available at: https://www.tvguide.com/galleries/scifi-tv-wildest-innovations/ Accessed on: 30 November 2023
Van Dessel, T. 2017. ‘How Zdzisław Beksiński shows us more than mere reality’. Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/@exploringdarkwoods/how-zdzis%C5%82aw-beksi%C5%84ski-shows-usmore-than-mere-reality-379ef596a560 Accessed on: 29 November 2023
Warhol, A. 1964. ‘Campbell’s Soup Can (1964) by Andy Warhol’. Artchive. Available at: https://www.artchive.com/artwork/campbells-soup-can-andy-warhol-1964/ Accessed on: 1 November 2023
Wildschut et al., 2006. ‘Nostalgia: Content, triggers, functions’. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(5), pp. 975–993
Yiadom-Boakye, L. 2010. Hard Wet Epic. ‘The Quiet Radicalism of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s Tate Britain Show’ by Yussuf. A. Available at: https://www.frieze.com/review/lynette-yiadom-boakye-fly-inleague-with-the-night-2021-review Accessed on: 5 November 2023
Yiadom-Boakye, L. 2021. ‘Lynette Yiadom-Boakye at Tate Britain: Fly in League with the Night’. YouTube, uploaded by Tate. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ee5gGkW7nk&t=5s Accessed on: 5 November 2023