UC Davis

Drawing from media theory’s preoccupation with the ramifications of “presence,” this essay identifies iterations of instantiation: the proliferation of moving images across social media that aestheticize presence through derivative motions. This aesthetic presentation overwhelmingly saturates trending influencer content. I interpret a now ubiquitous form of influencer expression, viral dances and gestures, as exemplary of instantiation’s affects. Motions on TikTok typically convey series of bodily, facial, and verbal expressions uniquely modulated directly towards and for the viewer. These TikToks are commonly accompanied by “slowed + reverbed” pop songs, sped-up “nightcore” remixes, or meditative soundscapes with modulated frequencies which aesthetically suggest a sonic suspension or sustainment of presence. Through instantiation, experience is conditioned and identity becomes reducible to the reification of presence, encapsulating the viewer’s attention to the screen and ultimately limiting aesthetic expression through mediation to a direct model of user-engagement. These capitalist logics of instantiation pervade beauty, wellness, and lifestyle content, encouraging us to “stay present” while conditioning our experience of the present moment. This conditioning binds our mediated expressions to an externalization of desire rather than inward reflection, suggesting a need to both better understand and crucially defy our current orientation towards “being present.”