视频文化中的玩乐性考古:从小屏现实到短视频平台

A Media Archaeology of Playfulness in Video Culture:From Small-screen Realities to Short-video Platforms

现有针对短视频玩乐性的研究习惯性地忽视了历史,或预设了新-旧媒介的二元逻辑,且缺少对屏幕尺寸、移动性、交互界面等物质性要素的考察。本文采用媒介考古学的研究路径,将短视频平台置于手机电影、Flash动画、恶搞短片等三种小屏现实亚型共同构成的再媒介化网络之中,试图考察玩乐性(作为可供性)在屏幕文化生产实践中的复现。研究发现,平台的硬件与软件设计通过修补私人化便携、影像—交互界面、驱动性音乐、混编、戏仿等文化形式,再媒介化了小屏现实中轻盈的玩乐性;但其背后依托的内容流通模式与早期中国互联网时期的礼物经济模式已相去甚远,已经日趋商业化、剧本化与治理化。这种对短视频另类历史的重访,有助于观照平台的史前史,并重思新、旧媒介之间的连续与断裂问题。

The present studies on the playfulness of short videos either overlook their historical context,or presuppose a binary perspective of new media versus old media.Additionally,the material elements of videos like screen size,mobility and interface also get little consideration in these researches.This article adopts a media archaeology approach to situate today's short-video platform in a remediation network,encompassing other three subtypes of small-screen realities——cellflix,Flash animations and egao movies.It attempts to examine the recurrence of playfulness,as a kind of affordance,in the production activities of screen cutlure.The research finds that the digital platform achieves the remediation the playfulness in small-screen realities,through its design of hardware software that remediates cultural forms such as personal portability,image-interaction interface,driving music,remix and parody.However,it is important to note the underlying content distribution model of platforms significantly diverges from the gift economy model prevalent during the early stages of the Chinese Internet.Instead,the former shifts towards commercialization,scripting and governmentation.The paper's revisit of short video's alternative history contribute to a deeper understanding of digital platforms'prehistories,and help to rethink the issues of continuity and rupture between new media and old media.