Aspects of the mass

At many moments of our lives, we all form part of masses of individuals: when we buy a mass-produced item, attend a big sports final, read a bestseller, give a Like, and so on. These masses attract those who seek to lose themselves in the anonymity of the big city or aspire to create a new personality, a new “me” as part of a new collective. Given today’s discredit of the concept of “mass”, big companies and political parties use euphemisms that continue to flatter their potential clients: the majority, the most, the many, community... Here, Rosi Braidotti talks about this corporate humanism, designed to attract the largest possible mass—that is, all of humanity—to a brand. If possible, even the masses of the as yet unborn. The author of The Posthuman (2013) analyses eloquent examples of the techniques used to uphold this deceptive discourse, prevalent in advertising, of a reconciled, unconflicted humanity. 

Today, with the most advanced apparatus of power in history, the condition of mass has changed a great deal. The millions of solitary, observed and quantified users in front of the screen are no longer the same as the mass gathered in a stadium or in the streets, now almost a mere backdrop to the mass of spectators connected to all kinds of devices. The faithful follower of an influencer is not the same as the old fan of a film star or a song. The new powers count and study us, but are they listening to us? 

 

Screenplay and creation:Andrés Hispano and Félix Pérez-Hita. 
Editing: Fèlix Pérez-Hita. 
Production: Víctor Diago. 
Language: Spanish, English. 
Subtitles: Spanish. 

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26 April 2019