Voice, Liam Joseph (2022) Animal spirits: an ecology of digital culture. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Leeds.

It is available from the White Rose eTheses Online repository HERE

Abstract:

In this theoretical thesis, I aim to help us to ‘think differently’ about digital discourse. I examine and reconceptualise the metaphors used when talking about the digital using an approach informed by posthumanism, animal studies, and the philosophies of Friedrich Nietzsche and Gilles Deleuze. I disrupt three aspects of digital culture: (1) the digital media unit of the meme, (2) the digital media process of consumption, and (3) the digital media event. To do this, I create conceptual figures, which I have named animal spirits. The first animal spirit is the Pokémon Ditto whom I apply, via a case study of the Distracted Boyfriend meme, to reconceptualise the concept of the meme. The second animal spirit is the cephalopod. Specifically, I think through cephalopod digestion in order to reconceptualise processes of algorithmic filtering exemplified in conceptualisations of digital media consumption, with particular attention paid to the filter bubble model (Pariser, 2011a). Finally, I use a mini ecology of animal spirits including wolves, hyenas, and the Borametz, which is the legendary zoophyte and a lamb-plant hybrid, to reconceptualise participation in a digital media event. Through a case study of Donald Trump’s use of Twitter, I propose a move away from the concept of participation towards the concept of predation.