[ecrea] CFP: The Aesthetics of Online Videos

The Aesthetics of Online Videos (Special Issue of Film Criticism)

Scholarship on online videos often focuses on digitalization, user 
interfaces, and/or the phenomenon of peer-to-peer sharing. While such 
issues (and related matters of cultural globalization, the 
amateur/professional divide, and alternative forms of distribution) are 
certainly relevant to studying online videos, these approaches tend to 
foreground social impacts over aesthetic analysis.  This special issue 
of Film Criticism seeks essays that turn attention to formal and 
stylistic aspects that have been downplayed in the analysis of online 
videos. Examining online videos as cultural artifacts worthy of 
aesthetic analysis and interpretation, this issue invites contributions 
from a range of methodological and theoretical approaches. As a whole, 
the issue seeks work that engages online videos as aesthetic objects, 
considering visual and sound style, without losing sight of the 
electronic, digital, and online context of this form.

Potential topics may include (but certainly are not limited to):

* Animal videos (e.g., viral videos, unedited/streaming nature 
documentaries)

* Ubiquitous “social videos” (e.g., on Vine, Facebook, Buzzfeed, 
Metacafe, Vimeo)

* Online video poetics (historical development in form, style, 
production practice)

* Online video genres (documentary, drama, sports, news, music, etc.)

* Web original series, webisodes, online video channels

* Aesthetics of online video conferencing, TED talks, interviews

* Political, advocacy, and other forms of persuasive videos

* Political mash-ups

* Online video activism

* Online promotional culture (e.g., trailers, promos, “bonus” videos, 
choose your ending ads, branded videos, sponsored videos, product or 
service demos)

* ‘Haul,’ ‘unboxing’ and other shopping videos

* Web original series, webisodes and online video channels

* Online music videos (as well as parodies, remixes, amateur ‘covers’ etc)

* Amateur and fan videos (mash-ups, spoilers, covers, etc.)

* Recycling (online clips and highlights from film and television)

* Video blogs (vlogs), lifecasting, YouTube celebrity videos/sites

* Shock and/or Stunt videos (parkour, pet tricks, etc.)

* Videos of video gameplay

* How-to videos

* Virtual Tours

* Experimental/avant-garde videos

* Gifs



Send 500 word proposals along with a brief 100 word author bio to 
Stephen Groening at (groening /at/ uw.edu) <mailto:(groening /at/ uw.edu)> by November 
15 2014






Stephen Groening
Assistant Professor, Cinema and Media Studies
Department of Comparative Literature
University of Washington

(groening /at/ uw.edu) <mailto:(groening /at/ uw.edu)>