Meg L. Herrmann is a research assistant and PhD candidate at the University of Queensland, Australia. She is also the Events and Communications Officer for The Centre for Digital Cultures and Societies at UQ. Meg’s research is interdisciplinary in nature and aims to bring together perspectives from digital media studies, aesthetics, and philosophy of art. In her dissertation, “The Platformization of Film and Television Aesthetics,” Meg explores the how the complex interplay between media platforms (including both social media and streaming platforms) and the film and television industry is influencing how contemporary film and television looks and sounds.

Her previous work exploring the interaction between aesthetic and moral value in art has been published in Film and Philosophy (“Inverted Moderate Moralism: An Explication and Defence”). She has also contributed to Jonathan Gray and Daphne Gershon’s forthcoming edited collection: “Reading Media: Textual Analysis and Its Horizons” as well as Matthew Cipa’s forthcoming edited collection: “Starting Over: Amnesia and Personal Identity in Film and Television.”

Thesis Title
The Platformisation of Film and Television Aesthetics

Research Description
Meg’s research will argue that platformisation has brought about new economic and infrastructural conditions that are influencing the way film and television programs are produced and what these texts look and sound like. Part of Meg’s project will involve looking at how streaming platforms draw on user data, social media data, and algorithms to make creative decisions around the original content they are producing.

Meg’s project will also considers the role of generative AI platforms in the production process of films and television shows. In the project, Meg will attempt to describe and classify the stylistic systems and elements that seem to be emerging in contemporary films and television shows as a result of the new production conditions brought about by platformisation. In the project, Meg refers to these emerging stylistic systems and elements as “platform aesthetics.” The final part of the project attempts to connect with some of the current debates in philosophy of art by exploring how automation and platformisation not only influences how we produce art, but also complicates long standing appreciation practices.

Supervisor
Assoc Professor Nic Carah