The Opening Ceremony: Structural Nostalgia and Pop Pastiche

Abstract

This chapter explores how the Opening Ceremony both activated and contested organised forms of nostalgia for British pasts rooted in rurality as well as the destruction of rurality with the advent of the Industrial Revolution. The centrality of pop pastiche (humorous artistic narratives of cinematic and national characters or personalities) conformed to globalised ideas of home, land and belonging. The event was framed by digital technology as one of Britain’s contributions to the world. Specifically, it transcended folk ideas of technology in favour of new digital crafts (Internet, cinema) that can manipulate ‘national character’ on the big screen. The co-existence of (emotional, ideological and technological) mobilities with stasis (ideas and ideals fixed in time) replicated the working of the Olympic tórnos as leisure, tourism and labour.