HIVI - a history of online virality
People / organizations involved:
University of Luxembourg
Locations:
Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
Entitled “A history of online virality” (HIVI), this project (2021-2024), which is led Valérie Schafer at the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH) / University of Luxembourg and supported by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (C20/SC/14758148), aims to reveal, historicise and communicate about this intangible experience and the heritage of viral content. HIVI will develop a historical framework that informs the analytics of virality and rumours and improves our understanding of current phenomena, some of which are strongly related to past digital cultures. Building on the legacy of past Web cultures as a means of shedding light on current trends, it will explore the history of virality by combining a general narrative with case studies dedicated to precise viral phenomena and their dissemination through time and space, in order to better contextualise them. Drawing on a broad corpus of born-digital heritage, which is maintained online and in Web archiving institutions, HIVI also provides an opportunity to test and deepen digital methods and to refine digital hermeneutics.
Duration: 01.01.0021 - 31.12.2024