Performed Intimacy and Animal Emotional Labour in Social Media

Principle Investigator：Tobias Linne

Cute and funny animal videos are a staple in contemporary digital media cultures, generating both attention and billions of views, while also creating economic value. In this project mediated performances of interspecies relations between humans and other animals are analyzed as expressions of animal emotional labour and affective capitalism. The project asks questions about the social and cultural significance of the public display of personal affects and emotions of animals in social media, as well as what the mediated emotion sharing means for the animals that are part of it.