2026 Theses Bachelor's

Corecore: Or, Mediation As Care In A Culture Of Digital Immediacy

Song, Karen

Perhaps born out of the same frustration as Kornbluh’s despair regarding the “slopification” of digital media and late-stage-capitalism-induced burnout generally, an experimental style of short-form video content called “corecore” has emerged as a prominent internet trend over the past five or so years. This “corecore” movement, I will argue, is an embodiment of Kornbluh’s call to combat immediacy culture through production. Corecore videos utilize slop content as their medium, collaging already existing videos into audiovisual montages that have the capacity to both reflect and critique the current state of media. In this sense, the creation of corecore videos mediates the immediate, making meaning out of the meaningless through intentional editing and juxtaposition. Ironically, it is a form that is directly enabled by the oversaturated digital media landscape that it seeks to distance itself from. Its use of experimental montage techniques echoes Dziga Vertov’s tradition of avant-garde filmmaking, critiquing the system from within while acting as a space for collective healing on the internet in an otherwise slop-filled attention economy. In this essay, I will attempt to approach a definition of corecore by examining its defining characteristics and affective impact upon viewers through close analysis of a selected example. I will then discuss how corecore’s formal and affective traits as well as its ability to mediate the immediate makes it a viable space for collective healing and care on the internet in an environment that is otherwise ruled by the individualistic culture of immediacy.