This book discusses tendencies in popular audiovisual expression since the 1990s that resemble those found in historical surrealism. A variety of current theories are applied to emerging audiovisual practices, including independent cinema, live performances of popular music, cinematic opera, and internet practices such as syncing and audiovisual mash-ups. Neosurrealism in this context is considered more a cluster of loosely related practices than a single determining “code”. In addition to the hermeneutic lens of surrealism, case studies are interpreted with reference to factors such as digita ... More

This book discusses tendencies in popular audiovisual expression since the 1990s that resemble those found in historical surrealism. A variety of current theories are applied to emerging audiovisual practices, including independent cinema, live performances of popular music, cinematic opera, and internet practices such as syncing and audiovisual mash-ups. Neosurrealism in this context is considered more a cluster of loosely related practices than a single determining “code”. In addition to the hermeneutic lens of surrealism, case studies are interpreted with reference to factors such as digital culture, affect theory, changing ideas about cultural identity (including gender), and the proliferation and hybridity of forms and practices in the information age. Chapters address background and theories on historical surrealism, neosurrealist tendencies in recent films, metamusicals, strategies of synchronization in cinematic opera and internet syncing practices, the idea of the virtual band in the digital age, and discursive formations of the digital acoustic. Musicians discussed include Gorillaz, Philip Glass, KT Tunstall and Sigur Rós. Directors and films include Richard Linklater’s Waking Life, Michel Gondry’s Be Kind Rewind, Sally Potter’s Yes, and Tsai Ming-Liang’s The Wayward Cloud. A prominent theme in the book is the role of cultural memory in shaping our understanding of creative practices in an age in which the recycling of cultural artifacts is becoming increasingly prevalent. The ghosts of previous eras, it is argued, resonate in many of the expressive forms we routinely think of as ȁCcontemporary”.