Kiss Me Thru The Screen <3: The digital mediation of love today
Paul Schmidt, Macarena Magaña Villar

“But I can’t right now so baby kiss me through the phone.” sings Soulja Boy in his iconic 2008 pop-bop song to express his deep desire to maintain the manifestation of love despite not being physically with his “future wifey”.

Soulja Boy’s way of loving, of sending signals of love through a mediated device was coeval to the age of ily<3gf4e and status updates from ‘In A Relationship with X’ to ‘It’s complicated with XX’. With the rise of datingapps, swipe left swipe right, send me a rose; the era has successors while the screen time is rising.We talk about the platforms of love—on which dating is mediated on phones—and they are (commercially)structured. Tracing how the coexisting loneliness epidemic and hyperconnected world exists at the sametime. The way it is bound to the culture of ‘Immediacy’ in literature and art, and its commodification, and howqueerness is appropriated by the profit-driven order to capitalize on diversity.

During the seminar we will be looking at contemporary theory and art, as well as YouTube love letters, TikTok ASMR Girlfriends, Instagram #couplegoals, you and me <3, as well as cute Discord moments…and discuss: What does all this digital technology does to the state of LOVE today? Can symbols and mediation of LOVE online bring ways of physical desire and assembly?

Please bring an example of online love; any format is welcomed from personal stories, notes app, diaries, or memes, links and screenshots and more.

Macarena Magaña Villar is a researcher, at times writer, mostly a cultural worker and social media manager, and optimistically a mediator. Most of her work originates from the long hours she spent in front of the family computer growing up, which made her particularly drawn to the internet subcultures, digital and non-digital folklore, self-conceptualization, and collective grieving that can emerge online. Her practice is fluid and in-situ, replying to each specific topic.

Paul Schmidt grew up on the internet. With degrees from the University of Applied Arts Vienna, and Goldsmiths, University of London, he’s on to the next one at the Critical Studies Department of Sandberg Instituut. As a researcher, he presented at conferences and symposia about Shadow Libraries, and topics at the intersection of Political Economy and Digital Culture.