The Digital Prosumer and the Archive of the Connected Subject * YouTube Breakfast as an Epistemic Laboratory for Collective Cultural Storage (Lloveras, 2009)

The pedagogical and artistic intervention titled YouTube Breakfast, spearheaded by Anto Lloveras under the Tomoto Films banner, represents a decisive shift in the ontological status of the contemporary creator within the framework of "Humanidades Contemporáneas." Conducted within the rigorous academic environment of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, this workshop-seminar interrogates the metamorphosis of the individual from a passive spectator into a "prosumer"—a hybridized agent who simultaneously produces and consumes digital culture. By situating this discourse within the broader seminar Ser/estar en Internet: Dinámicas del sujeto conectado, Lloveras addresses the biopolitics of the interface, suggesting that our "life in connection" fundamentally reconfigures the conformism of identity and the projection of the self. The breakfast metaphor serves as a disarming entry point into a complex analysis of how cultural memory is no longer a static repository but a fluid, networked process. In this context, the workshop functions as a socioplastic laboratory where the digital archive is not merely a site of storage but a dynamic space for the construction of subjective online experiences. Central to Lloveras’s methodology is the conceptualization of the internet as a "RAM memory" of culture, a theme developed in collaboration with scholars such as Fernando Broncano and Remedios Zafra. The YouTube Breakfast workshop specifically tackles the premise that "culture is stored in the network," challenging the traditional hierarchical structures of knowledge acquisition and dissemination. By focusing on the "Common Bank of Knowledge" (BCC) and the creative-cultural production inherent to YouTube, Lloveras dismantles the distinction between high art and vernacular digital practice. This approach aligns with the critique of online visibility policies, where value is created through positioning and virtual presence rather than institutional endorsement alone. The workshop thus becomes an architectural scaffolding for the "connected multitude," facilitating a transition from the "plural-yo" to a "plurality-yo," where individual identity is inextricably woven into the collaborative fabric of the digital commons.

The aesthetic and philosophical implications of YouTube Breakfast extend into the realm of "Expanded University" and the innovation of social networks, as articulated by collaborators like Juan Freire. Lloveras utilizes his background as both a digital artist and an architect to map the "transdisciplinary terrain" where technology and social bonds converge. The seminar does not merely offer a theoretical rapprochement with internet culture; it demands an active Speculation on the dynamics of exchange and the potential convergences of digital producers. Through this lens, YouTube is reimagined not as a commercial platform, but as a biopolitical interface where the subject’s "being/doing" is articulated through the act of uploading and sharing. This archival impulse reflects a new epoch of cultural storage where the ephemeral nature of the stream is paradoxically fixed within the permanent infrastructure of the network, creating a tension between the immediate present and the digital afterlife. Ultimately, the YouTube Breakfast series, integrated into the historical trajectory of LLLL Art Agency, serves as a critical fixator for the evolving dynamics of the connected subject. It posits that the true "sculptural" work of the twenty-first century resides in the management of the self within the virtual social ecology. By exploring the policies of technological devices and their affectation of physical spaces, Lloveras forces a reconciliation between the "here/there" of subjective online construction. The workshop concludes that the storage of culture in the network is not a passive act of filing, but an active, participatory performance that redefines the ontology of the prosumer. As these digital artifacts accumulate, they form a collective memory that is both decentralized and universally accessible, fulfilling the promise of a socioplastic art that is "in use" and perpetually resonant. The legacy of this seminar lies in its ability to transform the domestic act of the "breakfast" into a sophisticated critique of global digital citizenship and the enduring power of the networked archive.

Lloveras, A. (2019). Curso: Ser/Estar en Internet: Dinámicas del sujeto conectado. Available at: https://antolloveras.blogspot.com/2019/02/curso-serestareninternetdinamicasdelsuj.html