The Dreamed Life of Archives: From the "Lostwave" Phenomenon to Rosebuds
Online communities delve into the most mysterious archives: when the forgotten becomes sacred, networks regain a certain panache.
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Digital archives are one of the great collective challenges to come. The remix culture allows both a reinterpretation of accessible cultural productions into a new whole; but also raises questions of historicity, authenticity of the produced content. A problem that will worsen with the developments of artificial intelligence.
In the midst of billions of contents available more or less legally, a strangeness has appeared: online communities desperately searching for "lostwaves". In short: music whose origin, author, or context of its upload has been lost.
From a German radio to Reddit
In 1984, a teenager based in West Germany recorded an unknown song broadcasted by Norddeutscher Rundfunk radio. According to the subreddit dedicated to "The Mysterious Song," different actions gradually build the myth around the song. First the digitization of the audio cassette, then the publication on various platforms in the 2000s of the file. The story begins to reach different audiences, from Usenet forums to passionate music subcultures.
In 2019, a Brazilian (Gabriel Da Silva Vieira) published on YouTube a part of the file with a catchy name: THE MOST MYSTERIOUS SONG ON THE INTERNET.
The hunt explodes online; journalists publish articles, internet users analyze the song in depth, develop hypotheses, delve into the most precise details: the type of keyboard, frequencies, the singer's accent, become bases for work, for investigation.
The need for myth: the more beautiful the quest
What this story tells us is the phenomenal need we have for certain roughnesses, certain disruptions in our connected experiences. A part of incongruity, of abnormality; the possibility of having a role to play in this hunt; the desire to draw a nice ending from it no doubt.
It also explains the power of details left aside at a given moment that can become rich in meaning decades later.
Fashion brands are often at the forefront of upcoming passions. We knew the nostalgia of an era - yet not experienced - important for the youngest. It's no wonder that Chanel has been unveiling a black and white film with Brad Pitt and Penelope Cruz playing with the codes of Claude Lelouch's film "A Man and a Woman," released in...1966.
During the Paris Fashion Week, it wasn't so much the collections that ignited social media but the signals, the disruptions that could take place there. The brand The Row (founded by the Olsen sisters) encouraged its guests not to take any pictures of the fashion show and thus sent another little missile against our excess of time spent online (but not too much, we still have to sell fabric!). At Marine Serre, a fake Kate Moss (whose real name is Denise Ohnona) made a buzz by tapping into current debates on deepfakes or other dupes.
Rather than simply reacting to an era, Jun Takahashi, the creator of the brand Undercover, decided to invite Wim Wenders to read a poem written by him: "Watching A Working Woman." A monotonous thread during the show that highlights the beauty of the daily life of a single mother. It's impossible to find online the transcription of this poem that everyone talked about (so I did...). This triggered many discussions on Threads or private messages, proving once again the power of a gem, of a rare production.
A true rosebud, dear to Pierre Assouline, "this little nothing that betrays us by revealing ourselves to others (...) It doesn't matter if it's just a detail, as long as it's a true detail."
Implicitly, whether it's a lostwave or Wim Wenders' poem, we feel the desire to find meaning through small pieces of life. It's worth reflecting on the content we publish online: they are the next testimonies, the next treasures, that future curators or digital archaeologists will find. What is rare always has greater value.
Platform of the week: Lost Media Wiki
Lost Media Wiki is a platform launched in 2012 that lists lost or hard-to-find media (audio/videos/animations, etc.).
Amazing links
Prof. Geoffrey Hinton delivers a lesson on a current topic: will digital intelligence replace biological intelligence?
Subcultures are now discussed in the boardrooms of companies. To read on MediaCat
The difference between a "TikTok trend" and a real subculture? A physical, tangible space. An analysis to read from the New York Times.
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