johnathon john's definitions

vuzak

MassMedia-generated visual 'noise', especially in 'public space', and in the context of entertainment spectaculars: e.g. the Olympics. The visual counterpart of Muzak. (The term has also come to refer to the spill-over effect evident on websites, t.v. news, phone-screens, ATMs, vending-machines, etc., and characterised by low signal-to-noise-ratio visual distraction masquerading as 'information').

"People come from all over, to New York's Times Square, to Tokyo's Shibuya, hoping for that 'vuzak moment', to surrender themselves to the visual, to merge with the Media-Sphere, to become one with the world... pure CG Satori..."

by johnathon john December 22, 2008