Фигура из пустоты: селебрити как феномен цифровой повседневности

Логос. 2016. № 6. С. 161–189.

Колпинец Е. В.

This article describes the phenomenon of the celebrity, its emergence and development in cultural and historical context. The first part of the article provides a brief historical account of the beginning of modernity, when the cultural phenomenon of persons famous for something other than their military achievements, their inheritance, or their artistic talents first emerges. This part of the article addresses the heyday of cinema and television, i.e. the period between the start of the 19th century and the latter half of the 20th century. The second part of the article is dedicated to celebrities as objects of contemporary cultural and social research. As a discipline, celebrity studies is a relatively new sphere in US and UK universities, but an increasing number of researchers are taking up the study of celebrities each year. This is due to the fact that celebrities often embody a non-articulated public mood, and also because modern celebrity culture is based on the capitalization of names and thus perfectly illustrates many key processes taking in the cultural industry today. The article concludes by examining the phenomenon of internet celebrities, who used the representation of everyday practices in order to gain the attention of their audiences. This is a comparatively new phenomenon that has not been fully examined by academics. This phenomenon occurs when there is a reduction of design, expressed in the demonstration of sincerity and simplicity, resulting in a new sort of self-design. The audience’s demand for simplicity and naive sincerity generates two new trends that will prevail in the culture of celebrities in the coming years. On the one hand, stars will bet on the expansion of demonstrations of everyday life practices. On the other hand, new applications and platforms will emerge that are specifically designed to preserve privacy and the ability to participate in one-way data transmission without interactive connections with fans.

Keywords: антропология медиа, culture studies, celebrity, селебрити, соцсети, media culture