🐌 The Degrowth of Social Media: a short film by KC Legacion

THE DEGROWTH OF SOCIAL MEDIA
a short film by KC Legacion

Based on their master’s research, KC Legacion has produced a short film that reimagines social media in ways that support socioecological transformations. The film offers a conceptual model of social media informed by degrowth: a framework that (1) critiques societies driven by the need for infinite economic growth and (2) cultivates alternative ways of life centered around values like care, autonomy, and sufficiency. Motivated by the calls to make research more accessible through the synthesis of art and scholarship and drawing upon their years of experience as an actor and videographer, KC’s project contains two storylines: one live action and one animated. In the first narrative, KC introduces their model of a convivial social media ecosystem in a Twitch livestream during the present day; in the second, a pensive narrator recounts a hypothetical story of rebuilding in the Greater Houston Area using convivial social media after several disasters unfold in the year 2027. KC worked with local artist Alex Sickel on the animation.

30-minute screening followed by a Q&A. Masks are encouraged.

KC Legacion is a contributor at Degrowth.info.

Support for “The Degrowth of Social Media” has been provided by The Sachs Program for Arts Innovation, the Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Center for Experimental Ethnography.