flâneur

Three more things - by Rob Horning - Internal exile

robhorning.substack.com · 2,121 words · saved by 1 readers

Should I become a video essayist? Is that the best way to “reach Gen Z” and get my hands on some creator-economy riches? Since all the text of the future will apparently be machine-generated lorem ipsum filling up any open platform, won’t video be the only way to convince someone a thinking human being is behind what I am trying to communicate? Hadn’t I better adapt to the return of oral culture in the post-textual era? When I see the phrase “video essay” I tend to think of essay films (F for Fake, Los Angeles Plays Itself, etc.) and Adam Curtis documentaries, but in practice, video essays on YouTube seem modeled after 60 Minutes segments, or are like TED talks delivered into a phone camera, or offer running commentary on other media in a Mystery Science Theater–like style. This Refinery 29 article touts the “intertextuality” of video essays and the density of their pop culture references and argues that this makes them more suitable to a '“generation that was raised primarily online,”

Should I become a video essayist? Is that the best way to “reach Gen Z” and get my hands on some creator-economy riches? Since all the text of the future will apparently be machine-generated lorem ipsum filling up any open platform, won’t video be the only way to convince someone a thinking human being is behind what I am trying to communicate? Hadn’t I better adapt to the return of oral culture in the post-textual era? When I see the phrase “video essay” I tend to think of essay films (F for Fake, Los Angeles Plays Itself, etc.) and Adam Curtis documentaries, but in practice, video essays…

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