Intermedial "trace" of antiquity in the modern streaming services interface (Aurora Aksnes case)

Platitsyn Aleksandr Vladimirovich Master's degree; Department of Journalism, Media Communications and Advertising; Griboyedov Moscow University 66A Zeleny Prospekt str., office 311, Moscow, 111396, Russia alexanderplatitsyn@gmail.com Other publications by this author

The digital society is characterized by increased dynamics of the social context. Modern man has unlimited access to all kinds of information flows of varying degrees of importance and, importantly, reliability. Naturally, the level of social anxiety increases, anxiety about the elusive present and poorly predicted future. These conditions turn the focus of attention of new cultural communities towards the aesthetic exploration of the world; if you like, network escapism. What information society researchers call a "visual turn" provokes a change in the perceptual properties of individual social groups — active users of network platforms. When traditional institutions are experiencing a systemic crisis, small groups without agreed boundaries and with a fairly low entry threshold come to the fore.

Of particular importance in the context of subculture philosophy is the concept of estesis (other -Greek: αἴσθησις), a term covering the area of a priori self—awareness of small social groups. According to Maffesoli, esthesis includes a sense of emotional belonging as the basis of a group identity that unites followers of a subculture through similar unconscious reactions. Esthesis is also understood as the process of aestheticizing the phenomena of life by the participants of the autonomous community ^[1]. The actualization of esthesis in our time occurs due to the release of multisensory effects on the individual, which also activates the aesthetic sense. The intensification of personal experiences and impressions is associated with the reproduction of the so-called "atmosphere", which in the context of new media means "spatial mood carrier" ^[2]. It is not difficult to detect specific manifestations of the "atmosphere". For example, at the end of the year, music services create individual playlists for their users, called "musical aura".

In this article, we will consider a clear example of the intermediate connection between ancient aesthetics and modern communication platforms. It is important to note that the special case of the "musical aura" demonstrates only one of the possible means of representing the experience in new media. Along with it, there is a syncretic Canvas video format developed by the Spotify streaming service. It allows you to loop 8-second clips to display a specific music recording in the interface. The tool is designed for artists who post music releases on the platform, which allows them to extensively expand the aesthetic spectrum. In other words, the platform gives them the opportunity to use more advanced mechanics to improve their public positioning strategy and strengthen their emotional connection. "Add a new Canvas whenever something inspires you," the developers suggest ^[3]. The video is also complemented by the characteristic effects of flickering, imitation of old film or ripples to visualize a rhythmic pattern.

The appeal to antiquity in the context of intermediality is not accidental. For the first time, its prototype appears in rhetoric, where the concept of ekphrasis (other Greek: ἔκ-φρᾰσις) describes the means of expression of one media through another. Most often, we are talking about the transfer of the external characteristics of an object of visual art to verbal creativity, about the expression of plastic by means of language. Jumailo, discussing the facets of intermediality in modern academic discourse, writes the following: "... intermediality as a phenomenon of interaction between various arts, channels of information transmission, aesthetic impressions and emotional experience has been understood since antiquity. <..Already Quintilian and Longinus emphasized the importance of visual images in creating special emotions and a sense of the sublime" ^[4].

One of the classic examples of ecphrasis is considered to be "Ode to a Greek Vase" by John Keats, where the English poet resorts to describing images made by an ancient master. This case is interesting to us not so much because of its conventionality, but primarily in connection with the specifics of the Kitsev ecphrasis. The characterization of ancient drawings is accompanied in the text by a series of rhetorical questions:

What are you talking about in a circle?
Are there mortal silhouettes or gods?
Tempean Valley or Arcadian Meadow?
Where does this furious ecstasy come from?
What kind of chase, virgin fright?
Flutes and tympanums a distant call?

(translated by G. Kruzhkov) ^{[5, pp. 28-30]}

The presented fragment demonstrates the significant distance between ecphrasis and realistic writing. After all, Keats, besides never mentioning the word "vase" in the text of the ode, uses the visible reality of ancient vase painting as a catalyst for lyrical emotions. The reader assumes the image of the vase a second time, in accordance with the range of feelings set in the verse. The author's assumption, the adjustable deviation from the plastic of the object of perception, leads researchers to think about the secondary nature of the source. According to E. A. Koroleva, "... the detailed description of the vase is replaced by an alternative image created by the poet's imagination and contributing to the discovery of what is not revealed. The poet associates the antique vase with the transience of time and the eternity of art" ^[6]. It is important for us to emphasize here that the interpretation of the art form is variable, and this variability seems to us to be an essential feature of ecphrasis, clearly visible in new media. In addition, since it is impossible to read the object of interpretation (source) with literal accuracy, the realist reader will inevitably encounter retardation when coming into contact with ecphrasis; in turn, the author's reading, on the contrary, activates emotional motivation and discovers new ways of mutual association. The element of private experience simplifies the mechanics of socialization, the formation of small "interest groups" on the basis of aesthetic community (estesis).

The digital media paradigm not only extends the phenomenon of intermediality itself to new information media, but also contributes to the assertion of its multidimensionality. An artistic text-ecphrasis "quotes" a source, acquires independent value due to its interpretation; while digital media incorporates the source, turning it into another, autonomous aesthetic dimension, functioning in a symbiosis of such "withdrawn" sources. Based on the practice of verbal creativity, we assume that just as ancient aesthetics awakens the lyrical experience of John Keats, it is also capable of provoking psychological reactions from small audiences. Since audiovisual perception seems to us to be the basis of the current network aesthetics, a pop artist takes the place of a writer, and classical forms of poetic creativity on paper are replaced by a "running line" of lyric videos.

A good example of this kind is the musical work of the Norwegian singer Aurora Aksnes (AURORA). The stage name of the artist refers to the Roman goddess of the dawn, which corresponds to the ancient Greek Eos. The performer's public strategy includes a pronounced emphasis on the mythological aspect of her texts, which is reflected in the visual design. For example, such compositions as Artemis can be found in her repertoire. The composition is dedicated to the author's interpretation of the image of Artemis. The idea of the goddess of hunting is revealed by the same means as in the ode by John Keats. There is no attempt to reconstruct the image of Artemis, preserving its canonical shell. The artist only conveys a subjective sense of the divine essence. It is noteworthy that she also uses a series of rhetorical questions:

The analysis of the visual tools used provides us with no less interesting artifacts of the public strategy. AURORA uses Canvas video technology to accompany its releases on the Spotify streaming platform. In the fall of 2021, she announced a new 8-second video played in the interface when listening to the songs Cure For Me and Runaway (note that the video sequence is not completely independent — it is taken from the clip for the song Giving In To The Love published at the same time). The Canvas in question is an artistic imitation of ancient Greek sculpture: actresses in decorative robes resembling a short chiton depict an ancient scene (see Fig. 1).

It is important to pay attention to the background and color scheme of the video. The figures, highlighted in the color of burnt orange, contrast with the dark background. This decision is not accidental — it is this balance of colors that we find on various objects of plastic arts of antiquity. Here, the color scheme complements the effect of imitation, because with its help, the director of the clip includes colorimetric data into the perception grid, and also simulates the technique of red-figure vase painting in a three-dimensional game space. At this stage of reasoning, let's assume that one of the possible sources of the imitated image is the cilic "Two Hetaerae" (c. 490-480 BC) ^[8], attributed to the vase painter Apollodorus and stored in the National Archaeological Museum of Tarquinia, Italy (see Fig. 2).

Fig. 1. Screenshot of the AURORA Canvas video (2021)	Figure 2. "Two Hetaerae" (c. 490-480 BC)

So, the phenomenon of intermediality is genetically linked to the ancient tradition of transferring one artful form to another and goes back to the methodology of ecphrasis. Within the framework of the example we have mentioned, the Canvas video appears as an intermediate message aimed at intensifying associative rows and recreating a certain semantic field around the artist. This digital form interacts with the object of interpretation (the source) on four levels: 1) color play (indirectly, through the simulation of the color scale, the ratio of colors in space, the achievement of certain shades by color correction); 2) figurative series (referring to a speculative source through modeling an abstract ancient plot by the efforts of the film crew and cast); 3) intertextual reference (the ancient plot is complemented by an internal scheme: "source → clip → Canvas"); 4) graphics (the image inside the Canvas "winks" at the viewer, then disappearing, then reappearing, producing a visual effect of deja vu).

As we have already noticed, the aesthetic potential of ecphrasis is revealed in a more accurate approximation due to the lyrical feeling that is conveyed to the reader (viewer) by means of the author's reading of the source. This pattern partially applies to the above case of AURORA. The comparison of Canvas video and antique cilic does not allow us to talk about optical identity: the heroines of the video are dressed, one of them puts her foot on the knee of the other. We do not find these elements in the potential reference. Also in the music video, the actress holds a fetus in her hand, while a hetaera on a kilic carries a medical vessel. It is especially interesting that the scene in the music video also differs from the one in Canvas — different girls hold the fruit in them, which allows us to talk about possible acting improvisation. The image on the kilic is part of a three-act artistic plot about various forms of toilet procedures. Despite the fact that the erotic subtext of the drawing is allowed in the museum description, another version seems more convincing. From the point of view of J.P. Decoder, the images should be interpreted as episodes of a "more humane method" of intimate depilation. The researcher points out that both methods reflected on the dishes are nothing more than a visual illustration of the phrase "beauty requires sacrifice" ^[9].

It can be concluded that the frame of the speculative in the music video narrows down to a position typical of ancient drawings, expressing readiness for mutual assistance, and leaves no room for a version of literal copying, or even direct acquaintance with the source. Here, the historical setting and the color game conceptualize a figurative statement about mutual support and humanity. In this sense, the fragment of the text Giving In To The Love, which AURORA performs at the moment the girls appear in the frame, is indicative.:

Our generalizing conclusion is that a correct reading of the author's idea is possible only in the context of its correlation with the reminiscence of ancient Greek aesthetics. In our case, we are not talking about conscious borrowing, but about an implicit quote aimed primarily at a graphic similarity taken from the emotional experience of the artist. The prototype is also saturated with its own perception — the performer completes the archetypal image by referring to the current information context, which is a classic example of metamodern cultural practice ^[11]. According to O. S. Bezruchko, "the boundaries of reminiscence are often very abstract, speculative. After all, in fact, we are talking about the source of the author's inspiration. Consciously or not, we draw inspiration from the visual images that surround us, or seen in the past" ^[12].

Initially, the clip was published against the background of a worldwide pandemic, which forms its semantic field as, on the one hand, a tragic statement of the outside world, on the other — a lyrical call to man. "I think we are more isolated from each other than ever; a huge number of people are lonely," explains the artist. She notes that her "spiritualistic" creative method does not allow her to answer all the questions. "However, it is something that enhances everything that I am and the world around me. It helps me to feel empathy, or even something deeper than empathy - a deep need to hear the outside world," she concludes ^[13]. The leitmotif of suffering and, as a result, consolation is the cornerstone of the formation of small social groups, the construction of aesthetic identity in the context of global upheavals. Intermediality provides an original set of tools for representing these shocks and recreating the illusory "walls" of the digital subculture. The special case analyzed by us in the text of this article also allows us to trace the inertia of subcultural identity. AURORA songs are often found in thematic playlists dedicated to the dark academia subculture ^{[14, 15]}. The potential of ancient Greek aesthetics in her writings resonates with the preferences of followers of a subculture largely based on the heroics and forms of ancient art. Thus, the intermedia practice releases the unconscious reactions of the audience, thereby recreating new associative connections within the boundaries of network esthesis.

Of particular interest for further scientific research within the subject area is the study of the narrative structure of the performer's texts, the search for new intertextual links with ancient myths. In addition, we see promising areas of study as modern forms of ecphrasis, methods of public positioning of artists in other music services, as well as other special cases of intermedia practices.