Ludmila Lupinacci
Biographic Data
| ID | 1484963 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ludmila Lupinacci |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ludmila |
| FAMILY NAME | Lupinacci |
| SIGNATURE | LUPINACCI L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Leeds |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4371-6768 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 30 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Degenerative AI: AI slop, brainrot, and the gimmick of generative culture
In this short piece, we theorise pervasive products and practices associated with generative artificial intelligence – particularly those often described as ‘slop’ and ‘brainrot’ – as a genre or style of digital content often produced with automated technologies and as ways of being and feeling that are linked with their consumption. In so doing, we explore their ambivalent relationship with the notions of deficiency and excess. By applying the t…
Wellness creep into music streaming platforms: From pure chill to aural slop
This article addresses and unpacks the phenomenon of wellness creep – the increasing pervasiveness of ‘wellness culture’ in digital media and society – examining its proliferation into music streaming platforms. This conception of well-being as an individual responsibility that can be managed through consumption now dominates different sectors, becoming particularly prominent in contemporary digital platforms and social media environments. Throug…
Chill vibes: Wellness creep into music streaming platforms
This paper examines the increasing ‘wellness creep’ into the curation and recommendation of music by digital platforms. Through the platform walkthrough and critical interface analysis of Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music, it considers how industry discourse, user interfaces, and playlist products increasingly push pseudoscientific ideas of health and self-care as tools for the pursuit of an aspirational good life through music consumption. …
Making personalization ✨delightful✨: Staging power for data indulgence on Spotify
This paper offers a critical technography of ‘audio-first’ digital platform Spotify, scrutinizing the ways in which the company’s institutional discourse and promotional materials frame the practices of datafication and personalization. Engaging with the growing literature on platform studies, critical algorithm studies, and everyday data cultures, I argue that the case of Spotify represents a paradigmatic example of a broader discursive shift in…
Wrap your head around it: Algorithmic self-making and performances of taste on Spotify Wrapped
This paper examines how Spotify Wrapped is perceived and understood by Brazilian users, exploring the algorithmic imaginaries (Bucher, 2017). that surround its appropriation in everyday life and how the datafication and the dashboarding of music consumption are incorporated into performances of taste (Airoldi, 2021; Prey, 2018). Focusing on Wrapped as an annual ‘algorithmic event' (Annabell & Rasmussen, 2024) we contextualise it as part of ongoin…
Mixed Feelings: The Platformisation of Moods and Vibes
Over the past few years, digital platforms from different sectors have started tailoring their content to both respond to and create certain moods, vibes, or ‘ambiences’. In so doing, they become ‘atmospheric architectures’ (Bohme 2020), entering the industry of emotional regulation. I posit that a critical-phenomenological framework is a productive epistemological, theoretical, and methodological resource for scrutinising this shift precisely at…
Revitalising the Concept of the Everyday in Internet Research
In an academic milieu in which a lot of critical attention is dedicated to the data-grabbing, algorithmically biased, and asymmetrical power of massive techno-corporations, this panel explores how a focus on situated ordinary practices can provide us with a more complex, nuanced, and even at times contradictory account of what happens when pervasive digital technologies are experienced in everyday life. It does so via a combination of empirical r…
Wrap Your Head Around It: Brazilian Users’ Algorithmic Imaginaries of Spotify Wrapped
‘Spotify Wrapped’ is a promotional initiative offered by the music platform consisting of a summary of each user’s yearly listening habits. Although Spotify is generally classified as a streaming service, initiatives such as Wrapped have a clear component of sociability (Hagen & Lüders 2017) – in this case, not only because they are based on the harvesting of users’ behavioural data but also because they are created to be shared on platforms such…
Reclaiming ‘The Experience’: Social Media, the ‘Metaverse’, and Extractive Imaginaries of Experiential Enhancement
The ‘experience’ – and how social media guide, frame, appropriate, and exploit it – is the topic of this paper. In this theoretical-methodological intervention, I start from a close reading and a digital technography of Mark Zuckerberg’s presentation of the idea of the ‘Metaverse’ (in which the term ‘experience’ is repeated more than 60 times) to argue that a critical-phenomenological disposition is urgent for unpacking the struggle for ‘the expe…
‘Not Like Other Social Networks’? Bereal and the Remediation of Liveness in the Platform Environment
‘Social media’ represent a dynamic technological environment, in which emerging platforms make use of comparisons to existing apps to construct their own reputation. This is the case of BeReal – a platform that allows users to share pictures once a day, and only when triggered by a notification. In this paper, I combine digital technography and the platform walkthrough method to examine how BeReal deploys antagonistic discourse towards dominant m…
Phenomenal algorhythms: The sensorial orchestration of “real-time” in the social media manifold
If our sociality is intertwined with the logics of social media, then the examination of the temporalities that are immanent in these technologies contributes to the understanding of our very conditions of existence. And even if algorithmic sorting is increasingly employed to deliver what is “relevant” at the “right-time,” the notion of “real-time” still permeates these platforms’ operations. Through a critical phenomenological approach, I examin…
Absentmindedly scrolling through nothing’: Liveness and compulsory continuous connectedness in social media
Social media fuel a sense of unsettledness to encourage uninterrupted connectivity and generate quantifiable engagement. This article is concerned with the habitual, naturalized character acquired by these platforms and with how this is paradoxically constructed by prompting a permanent state of anticipation. The aim here is to explore, with a phenomenological sensibility, the experiences that emerge in settings of continuous connectedness from t…
Da minha sala pra sua: Teorizando O Fenômeno Das Lives Em Mídias Sociais
Nos últimos anos, as mais populares plataformas de mídias sociais incorporaram a possibilidade de seus usuários criarem, compartilharem e assistirem vídeos ao vivo. Nas chamadas lives, músicos, políticos, influenciadores e pessoas comuns fazem transmissões com variados níveis de improviso e flutuantes esforços de produção, frequentemente a partir do espaço íntimo de seus ambientes domésticos. Este artigo objetiva posicionar criticamente a emergên…
Liveness and Deadness in Social Media: On the Perceived Lack of Life of the Infinite Stream
Social media fuel a sense of constant updating to encourage uninterrupted connectivity and generate quantifiable engagement. This paper is concerned with the habitual character acquired by these platforms, and with how this is paradoxically constructed by prompting a permanent state of anticipation. The aim is to explore, with a phenomenological sensibility, the experiences that emerge in settings of continuous connectedness from the perspective …
Conversações fluidas na cibercultura
Este artigo visa estudar como o amplo leque de serviços de comunicação online participa da criação e manutenção de relações interpessoais na contemporaneidade. O trabalho investiga como entrelaçamento entre os usos de diferentes plataformas digitais vem transformando as práticas de sociabilidade e as conversações no contexto da cibercultura, a partir da articulação de perspectivas teóricas e empíricas sobre tais temas. Atenção especial é conferid…
Absentmindedly scrolling through nothing’: Liveness and compulsory continuous connectedness in social media
Social media fuel a sense of unsettledness to encourage uninterrupted connectivity and generate quantifiable engagement. This article is concerned with the habitual, naturalized character acquired by these platforms and with how this is paradoxically constructed by prompting a permanent state of anticipation. The aim here is to explore, with a phenomenological sensibility, the experiences that emerge in settings of continuous connectedness from t…
Phenomenal algorhythms: The sensorial orchestration of “real-time” in the social media manifold
If our sociality is intertwined with the logics of social media, then the examination of the temporalities that are immanent in these technologies contributes to the understanding of our very conditions of existence. And even if algorithmic sorting is increasingly employed to deliver what is “relevant” at the “right-time,” the notion of “real-time” still permeates these platforms’ operations. Through a critical phenomenological approach, I examin…
Conversações fluidas na cibercultura
Este artigo visa estudar como o amplo leque de serviços de comunicação online participa da criação e manutenção de relações interpessoais na contemporaneidade. O trabalho investiga como entrelaçamento entre os usos de diferentes plataformas digitais vem transformando as práticas de sociabilidade e as conversações no contexto da cibercultura, a partir da articulação de perspectivas teóricas e empíricas sobre tais temas. Atenção especial é conferid…
Conversações fluidas na cibercultura
Este artigo visa estudar como o amplo leque de serviços de comunicação online participa da criação e manutenção de relações interpessoais na contemporaneidade. O trabalho investiga como entrelaçamento entre os usos de diferentes plataformas digitais vem transformando as práticas de sociabilidade e as conversações no contexto da cibercultura, a partir da articulação de perspectivas teóricas e empíricas sobre tais temas. Atenção especial é conferid…
Liveness and Deadness in Social Media: On the Perceived Lack of Life of the Infinite Stream
Social media fuel a sense of constant updating to encourage uninterrupted connectivity and generate quantifiable engagement. This paper is concerned with the habitual character acquired by these platforms, and with how this is paradoxically constructed by prompting a permanent state of anticipation. The aim is to explore, with a phenomenological sensibility, the experiences that emerge in settings of continuous connectedness from the perspective …
Absentmindedly scrolling through nothing’: Liveness and compulsory continuous connectedness in social media
Social media fuel a sense of unsettledness to encourage uninterrupted connectivity and generate quantifiable engagement. This article is concerned with the habitual, naturalized character acquired by these platforms and with how this is paradoxically constructed by prompting a permanent state of anticipation. The aim here is to explore, with a phenomenological sensibility, the experiences that emerge in settings of continuous connectedness from t…
Da minha sala pra sua: Teorizando O Fenômeno Das Lives Em Mídias Sociais
Nos últimos anos, as mais populares plataformas de mídias sociais incorporaram a possibilidade de seus usuários criarem, compartilharem e assistirem vídeos ao vivo. Nas chamadas lives, músicos, políticos, influenciadores e pessoas comuns fazem transmissões com variados níveis de improviso e flutuantes esforços de produção, frequentemente a partir do espaço íntimo de seus ambientes domésticos. Este artigo objetiva posicionar criticamente a emergên…
Phenomenal algorhythms: The sensorial orchestration of “real-time” in the social media manifold
If our sociality is intertwined with the logics of social media, then the examination of the temporalities that are immanent in these technologies contributes to the understanding of our very conditions of existence. And even if algorithmic sorting is increasingly employed to deliver what is “relevant” at the “right-time,” the notion of “real-time” still permeates these platforms’ operations. Through a critical phenomenological approach, I examin…
Reclaiming ‘The Experience’: Social Media, the ‘Metaverse’, and Extractive Imaginaries of Experiential Enhancement
The ‘experience’ – and how social media guide, frame, appropriate, and exploit it – is the topic of this paper. In this theoretical-methodological intervention, I start from a close reading and a digital technography of Mark Zuckerberg’s presentation of the idea of the ‘Metaverse’ (in which the term ‘experience’ is repeated more than 60 times) to argue that a critical-phenomenological disposition is urgent for unpacking the struggle for ‘the expe…
‘Not Like Other Social Networks’? Bereal and the Remediation of Liveness in the Platform Environment
‘Social media’ represent a dynamic technological environment, in which emerging platforms make use of comparisons to existing apps to construct their own reputation. This is the case of BeReal – a platform that allows users to share pictures once a day, and only when triggered by a notification. In this paper, I combine digital technography and the platform walkthrough method to examine how BeReal deploys antagonistic discourse towards dominant m…
Mixed Feelings: The Platformisation of Moods and Vibes
Over the past few years, digital platforms from different sectors have started tailoring their content to both respond to and create certain moods, vibes, or ‘ambiences’. In so doing, they become ‘atmospheric architectures’ (Bohme 2020), entering the industry of emotional regulation. I posit that a critical-phenomenological framework is a productive epistemological, theoretical, and methodological resource for scrutinising this shift precisely at…
Revitalising the Concept of the Everyday in Internet Research
In an academic milieu in which a lot of critical attention is dedicated to the data-grabbing, algorithmically biased, and asymmetrical power of massive techno-corporations, this panel explores how a focus on situated ordinary practices can provide us with a more complex, nuanced, and even at times contradictory account of what happens when pervasive digital technologies are experienced in everyday life. It does so via a combination of empirical r…
Wrap Your Head Around It: Brazilian Users’ Algorithmic Imaginaries of Spotify Wrapped
‘Spotify Wrapped’ is a promotional initiative offered by the music platform consisting of a summary of each user’s yearly listening habits. Although Spotify is generally classified as a streaming service, initiatives such as Wrapped have a clear component of sociability (Hagen & Lüders 2017) – in this case, not only because they are based on the harvesting of users’ behavioural data but also because they are created to be shared on platforms such…
Degenerative AI: AI slop, brainrot, and the gimmick of generative culture
In this short piece, we theorise pervasive products and practices associated with generative artificial intelligence – particularly those often described as ‘slop’ and ‘brainrot’ – as a genre or style of digital content often produced with automated technologies and as ways of being and feeling that are linked with their consumption. In so doing, we explore their ambivalent relationship with the notions of deficiency and excess. By applying the t…
Wellness creep into music streaming platforms: From pure chill to aural slop
This article addresses and unpacks the phenomenon of wellness creep – the increasing pervasiveness of ‘wellness culture’ in digital media and society – examining its proliferation into music streaming platforms. This conception of well-being as an individual responsibility that can be managed through consumption now dominates different sectors, becoming particularly prominent in contemporary digital platforms and social media environments. Throug…
Chill vibes: Wellness creep into music streaming platforms
This paper examines the increasing ‘wellness creep’ into the curation and recommendation of music by digital platforms. Through the platform walkthrough and critical interface analysis of Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music, it considers how industry discourse, user interfaces, and playlist products increasingly push pseudoscientific ideas of health and self-care as tools for the pursuit of an aspirational good life through music consumption. …
Making personalization ✨delightful✨: Staging power for data indulgence on Spotify
This paper offers a critical technography of ‘audio-first’ digital platform Spotify, scrutinizing the ways in which the company’s institutional discourse and promotional materials frame the practices of datafication and personalization. Engaging with the growing literature on platform studies, critical algorithm studies, and everyday data cultures, I argue that the case of Spotify represents a paradigmatic example of a broader discursive shift in…
Wrap your head around it: Algorithmic self-making and performances of taste on Spotify Wrapped
This paper examines how Spotify Wrapped is perceived and understood by Brazilian users, exploring the algorithmic imaginaries (Bucher, 2017). that surround its appropriation in everyday life and how the datafication and the dashboarding of music consumption are incorporated into performances of taste (Airoldi, 2021; Prey, 2018). Focusing on Wrapped as an annual ‘algorithmic event' (Annabell & Rasmussen, 2024) we contextualise it as part of ongoin…
Computer Science (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Innovative Human-Technology Interaction (5 works) · Aesthetics (4 works) · Art (4 works) · Digital Media and Philosophy (4 works) · Epistemology (4 works) · Feeling (4 works) · Psychology (4 works) · Social media (4 works)