Digital star cultures – Transmedia narratives of individuals on the web

How are cultural patterns exchanged between varying communication contexts? The subproject 'Digital Star Cultures – Transmedia Narratives of Individuals on the Web’ takes a close look at forms of individual self-presentation that SNPS (Social Network Platforms) has made available to large user groups.

The newly devised strategies and methods of 'self-presentation for everyone' also adopt elements of familiar star aesthetics, which – having been the reserve of a privileged few thus far – are now becoming democratically available and being recontextualised. Thus, as media signs are being reframed, new cultural patters are emerging that are not only influenced by contemporary factors but also show traces of historical strategies of presentation.
Using digitalised star postcards from the 1930s, the study combines semiotic methods and methods of digital image processing and examines how these postcards correlate with contemporary forms of self-presentation, including selfies.