Minor visions

Abstract

Chapter 2 traces the emergence of the viral child by first identifying histories and scenographies of vision that coincide with culturally specific ideations of priceless, innocent childhood. Late nineteenth century baby exhibition show cultures are placed into conversation with the origin example of a viral child – the eponymous hero of the viral YouTube clip, Charlie Bit My Finger . Both scenes enact a conceptual ‘birthing’ of the child-figure that takes place as an expression of fin de siècle anxieties. Both scenes frame the child as the anchor of industrial, and then post-industrial, forms of attention. Through a focus on vision, this chapter proposes a relationship between kinds of durational consciousness enacted by the performing child and the time-specific formation of forward-looking sentiments. More particularly, it proposes that the form of temporality indexed by the viral child is speculative futures – the investment, financial and otherwise, in a hypothetical outcome, the arrival of which is yet-to-be-seen. With the recent indexation of Charlie Bit My Finger as a non-fungible token, the chapter points to how the ‘minor visions’ of a viral child both shape public perceptions of childhood and reshape the conditions through which those perceptions are conceived.