Celebration of the Hyperreal Nostalgia: Categorization and Analysis of Visual Vaporwave Artefacts

Summary Vaporwave grabs the attention of internet voyager with harsh collages glued together in a technically primitive manner. It’s a cultural phenomenon which both originated and is active solely on the internet. In the context of general internet culture Vaporwave is exclusive in its aesthetics due to the domination of violet and pink colors, technically primitive quality of texts, fetishization of 8th and 9th decade mainstream commodities and acute nostalgic undertones. Vaporwave has been mostly explored as a music genre or sociological phenomenon, while its visual aspect has mostly remained unattended. This article seeks to analyze the conceptual aspects embodied within Vaporwave visuals, to briefly compare them with music, and to unpack the mechanism of nostalgia as an affective entry point to the movement. The interpretation is mainly lead by Jean Baudrillard’s theory of hyperreality, and interpretational principles of hermeneutics. Five Tumblr blogs were analyzed. Hermeneutic inquiry into the texts yielded seven distinct symbol categories differentiated by the affect they generate: nostalgic commodities, idyllic classics, melancholic landscapes, harsh distortions, gentle geometry, depressive texts, and ecstatic brands. Each of these categories here are elaborated in detail finally summarizing the multilayered symbolism of the movement. It can be described as nostalgically challenging visual conventions through harsh technical quality and opposing codes of behavior through open expressions of depression and melancholy, thus exposing the doubts of individual imprisoned in postmodern society. ’80s and ’90s here become hyperreal fantasy lands of the past where a nostalgic individual can find refuge. In comparison to music, the visual aspect of Vaporwave highlights the technology as central artefacts of nostalgia, introduces new ways to analyze late capitalist consumer culture, and brings an intimate dialogue with hyperreality to the front. The article suggests that Vaporwave is a post-ironic art movement which both celebrates and criticizes capitalism, finally remaining vague whether there are ways to escape the system, and whether these ways should even be looked for.

VALIDATED STUDY OF THE EXISTENCE OF SHORT CYCLES FOR CHAOTIC SYSTEMS USING SYMBOLIC DYNAMICS AND INTERVAL TOOLS

We show that, for a certain class of systems, the problem of establishing the existence of periodic orbits can be successfully studied by a symbolic dynamics approach combined with interval methods. Symbolic dynamics is used to find approximate positions of periodic points, and the existence of periodic orbits in a neighborhood of these approximations is proved using an interval operator. As an example, the Lorenz system is studied; a theoretical argument is used to prove that each periodic orbit has a distinct symbol sequence. All periodic orbits with the period p ≤ 16 of the Poincaré map associated with the Lorenz system are found. Estimates of the topological entropy of the Poincaré map and the flow, based on the number and flow-times of short periodic orbits, are calculated. Finally, we establish the existence of several long periodic orbits with specific symbol sequences.

The comma-free codes with words of length two

A code not requiring a distinct symbol to separate words is called comma-free. Two codes are isomorphic if one can be obtained from the other by a permutation of the underlying alphabet. Since subcodes of comma-free codes are comma-free, we investigate only maximal comma-free codes. All isomorphism classes of maximal comma-free codes with words of length 2 are determined and a natural representative of each class is given.