This document discusses the concept of "lightness" in culture as proposed by Paola Voci from the University of Otago. It defines lightness as cultural practices that escape the boundaries of legitimate cultures. It contrasts lightness with legitimate cultures, which have weight and influence due to endorsement from established institutions. The document addresses how digital and mobile technologies have enabled the spread of light, ephemeral cultural works created by amateurs. It argues that these light mobile cultures impact fields like art, society, and knowledge production in ways that challenge traditional views of where knowledge and meaning are located.

1. In support of lightness:
the mobile and transient cultures
Paola Voci, University of Otago
Colloque Mobile Education Médiation
5-6 December 2013

2. Premise: (where do I come from?)
- a personal passion/intellectual obsession for
“things” (the idea of China and that of cinema being among the
main “things” I focus on) that move and escape boundaries
– which led me to the conceptualization of lightness
as both a concept and a practice that explains and
historicizes (visual) cultural practices that escape the
boundaries of legitimate cultures.

3. 1. defining lightness and legitimate cultures
2. from the digital to the mobile (a conceptual
move)
3. soft power vs light power
4. in support of lightness

4. 1. Defining … legitimate cultures
Legitimate cultures have a cultural
weight, a measurable impacting quality.
To be recognized as having any social
(here including political and economic),
cultural and historical relevance, any
legitimate cultural product needs to gain
recognition from an accepted
endorsement-giving entity.

5. legitimate cultures

6. legitimate cultures

7. legitimate cultures

8. legitimate cultures

9. legitimate cultures

10. legitimate cultures

11. legitimate cultures

12. 1.
defining … lightness
Lightness: a concept that attempts to
describe and critically understand the
creative impulse outside (but intersecting)
legitimate cultures.
At the content and formal levels, lightness
refers to an expressive and cognitive
cultural practice that reclaims a personal
dimension over the collective, and
personalizes globally defined cultural
spaces.

14. lightness: the animateur
Within
the
conceptualiza/on
of
lightness:
a
preliminary
explora/on
of
the
amateur
as
an:
-­‐
animateur
[the
videomaker
that
wants
to
animate
("give
life”)
to
reality]
as
a
key
to
see/understand
what
escapes
the
a?en/on/valida/on
of
legi/mate
cultures.
-­‐
expressive,
pleasure
seeking
[exhibi/onist],
provoca/ve/innova/ve

20. Auteur/amatuer
i.Mirror, (Second Life documentary)
dir. Cao Fei 曹斐, 2007

21. Animateur
Shang Weiwei 尚微微 , dir. Han Bo 韩博,
(Part One of the SARS Quartet), 2004

22. 2. from the digital to the mobile
- moving (moving) images beyond of
their institutional boundaries
- moving viewers (spectators/
consumers/users) beyond of their
institutional boundaries
- from the professional to the mobile/
transient amateur
A non-technological look at mobility
-­‐ a
crucial
development
in
the
posthuman:
mobile
condi/on.
- portable
(rather
than
mobile)
devices.

23. the
digi/al
Now that we have … digital cameras
Jia Zhangke“ 贾樟柯, “Youle VCD he shuma shexiangji yihou. ... shexiangji yihou 有了
VCD和数码摄像机以后( [Now That We Have VCDs and Digital Cameras]” in Zhang
Xianmin and Zhang Yaxuan, Yige ren de yingxiang, Beijing: Zhongguo Qingnian
Chubanshe, 2003, pp. 309-311.

24. accidental
journalism…
amateur/auteur
microcinema
the
mobile

25. 2. from the digital to the mobile
digital mobile/ online / small screens
portable
-
-
-
-
Made by and for small screens
Viewed by transient audiences
Circulated (mostly) freely ONLINE
Impermanent (quickly appearing
and disappearing)
- Individually (privately) made and
viewed but collectively (publicly)
shared

26. 2. from the digital to the mobile
auteur/author/spectator/producer/
maker/consumer/user…
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Amateur
Auteur
Shared creativity (ownership)
Genre crossing
Post-medium (multimedia)
Open work
Tentative term: animateur

27. from the digital to the mobile

28. 3.
soG
power
“Giving weight” to the digital/mobile
cultures
- Endorsed/legitimized/regulated
- Still circulated ONLINE (but not
quite “free”)
- Money-making (mostly advertising)
- Political propaganda

29. 3. soft power
the
rise
of
microcinema
(the
professional
strikes
back…)
state-­‐endorsed
microcinema
(poli/cal
propaganda)
"Walker,"
dir.
Tsai
Mingliang
produced
by
Youku
for
its
"Beau/ful
2012”
campaign,
2012
the
“fake
amateur”
(i.e.,
领导人是
怎样炼成的
[How
are
leaders
selected?]
h?p://v.youku.com/v_show/
id_XNjIxNjAyNzM2.html)

30. "MOBILE
SIFF”
(a
mobile
movies
category
that
Shanghai
Interna/onal
Film
Fes/val
has
launched
since
2011)

31. Light
power
• mobile
cultures’
light
power
is
part
of
a
broader
resistance
against
regula/on
and
ins/tu/onaliza/on
of
culture
and
instead
promotes
its
unregulated,
spontaneous,
and
in
fact
chao/c
de-­‐centraliza/on

32. 3. … light power

33. 3. … light power

34. lightness
legitimate cultures
"网瘾战争,"
War
of
Internet
Addic/on,
screened
at
the
30th
Hawaii
Interna/onal
Film
Fes/val
in
2011

35. 4. in support of lightness
Light mobile (itinerant) cultures
(i.e. outside the institutions of
legitimate cultures) impact on
practices and conceptualizations
of:
- Art (film theories…)
- Society
- Politics
- Knowledge

36. 4. in support of lightness
Knowledge – sapere/sapore
Two
arguably
s/ll
rela/vely
unchallenged
points
of
view
:
1. knowledge
is
necessarily
linked
to
serious,
solid,
legi/mate
cultural
ins/tu/ons
2. light
(vola/le,
chao/c,
and
unendorsed)
cultural
prac/ces
are
–if
not
meaningless
–
pleasurable
distrac/ons.

37. 4. in support of lightness
Knowledge
is
not
a
ma?er
we
can
leave
to
chance
and
certainly
not
to
be
sought
on
the
surface.
(True
or
False?)
Yet,
in
Taoism
(and,
many
may
argue,
in
phenomenology)
the
impermanence
of
the
surface
has
also
been
reclaimed
as
being
carrier
of
knowledge.

38. 4. in support of lightness
• But
is
not
an
event
in
fact
more
significant
and
noteworthy
the
greater
the
number
of
fortui/es
necessary
to
bring
it
about?
Chance
and
chance
alone
has
a
message
for
us”
(Kundera
1984:
48).
•
• la
superficie
è
il
luogo
della
stupidità
solo
per
chi
crede
nella
profondità
come
luogo
del
senso
(Baricco,
2010)
h?p://mag.wired.it/rivista/storie/i-­‐nuovi-­‐
barbari.html?page=1#content