Socio-Temporal Paradoxes between Screens and Spans: Average Duration of Moving Visual Works, Technical Limitations, and Social Demands from Outdoor Theatre to TikTok

Citation

(2023) Socio-Temporal Paradoxes between Screens and Spans: Average Duration of Moving Visual Works, Technical Limitations, and Social Demands from Outdoor Theatre to TikTok. AMPS PROCEEDINGS SERIES, 32. AMPS: Representing Pasts – Visioning Futures, 01.12.2024. Bristol University Press.

Abstract
This paper aims at a sociotechnical exploration of a temporal paradox associated with the reverse amount of decreasing average duration of moving visual cultural items (from TV series to TikTok videos) and the increasing duration of consuming such items (informally referred to as binging). I find current attempts at explaining this observation limited on the basis of their disciplinary origins, and therefore will aim at critically synthesise approaches and make a case about an evolutionary taxonomy of such media with decreased average duration as a key feature paired to social demands and technical limitations foregrounding the duration. I specifically wish to emphasise the deep sociotechnicality of this observation in an attempt disengage with mainstream techno-deterministic explanations reducing shortened attentions spans to information influx.