As Jay-Z and Beyoncé watch Kanye rush the podium at the Grammys (to interrupt Beck before he accepts the award for Album of the Year), the power couple appear to embody the paraconsistent logic that aptly describes our cultural situation: P is not-P. The Vine, in particular, is a perfect format for this demonstration. We get to repeatedly watch Kanye’s stage-rush as both seriously horrifying and self-referentially comical. The kicker is the E! interview where Kanye reveals (at least during the interview) that he was serious. As a result, the Vine appropriately allows Jay-Z to perform our response to the E! interview when it loops: “uh oh, he’s serious!” We’re just stuck oscillating between interpretations of an event without ever knowing what it is. The same commodity returns to haunt us, sold back to us as its opposite, without undermining its ability to signify itself.

© 2015, Sean Peuquet. All rights reserved.