Y7
In our article for Flash Art on the #corecore TikTok trend, published in the summer of 2023, we coined the term hyperimposition to describe some of the contemporary affects delivered by aesthetics associated with the hashtag, as well as the circumstances that lay the ground for its emergence.
We posit that the maximalist superimposition and juxtaposition of media found in #corecore— which was in part a result of the formal qualities encouraged by TikTok’s ‘attention capture’ network architecture—might be better thought of as examples of hyperimposition.If, in superimposition, the composing units being overlaid still retain their existence as discreet and recognizable, then
hyperimposition can be conceived of as a process in which the mass and saturation of composing units disintegrate the existing semiotic or formal distinctions altogether.
This can similarly be conceived of as an extension of juxtaposition, in which new meaning is derived from the comparison and contrast of two or more separate things. What if we keep on adding composing units to a juxtaposition? At what point does it lose it’s capacity to generate intelligible meaning? Which bit of semantic luggage will cause the buckaroo to end the meaning-making game?
Tentative examples of hyperimpositional processes can be found in Kevin L. Ferguson’s ongoing project of visualizing entire films in one image through sequential summing, as well as Brett Bergmann and Benjamin Roberts’s We Used to Be Friends, which is a simultaneous, overlaid playback of every episode from the first season of the sitcom Friends.
Hyperimposition can be imagined as the moment a collage becomes a sculpture. Through repeated application, the qualities of the medium take primacy over any representational illusion it may have previously been constructing. This loss of meaning through mass can be compared to two similar phenomena found in language:
Semantic Satiation When words lose meaning through their rapid verbal repetition.
Semantic Bleaching When the initial meaning of words becomes diluted over time, e.g. Awful, Awesome, Nice, Love, Thing.
Hyperimposition is a transformative process where, by accelerating the BPM of a drum loop through the hundreds into the thousands, you pass through gabba and enter nirvana.
An important vector of hyperimposition is scale (and, consequently, speed). During the acceleration a drum loop, the beginning and end of the loop never overlap but instead become more and more concentrated in their repetitions (although the former is also possible).
Therefore, the supposed transformation of rhythm into tone is entirely contingent on the limitations of the viewer / listener’s capacity to process and interpret this information. As such, hyperimposition is acutely tied to the human POV, which establishes boundaries of discretion: the human ear, the human eye,
and the human brain can only process so much information at once.
Hyperimposition is predicated on mass,on excess (or on the perception of such). It functions on scale and speed as forces of abstraction that overload human bandwidth restrictions.
Y7 are a post-disciplinary duo operating out of Salford, UK. They specialise in the use of artificial intelligence for AV works alongside a written practice of cultural criticism.