Finland Extended: Encounters with ‘Top Gun’ films and the emerging post-social landscapes of youth

In this chapter, the authors engage with three films selected by, and watched with, a group of teens in Helsinki, Finland. Through discussions surrounding these films and the encounters with them, they probe the post-social landscapes of youth that emerge with contemporary media. By this, they refer to the new geographies of young people beyond nationalities, localities, and scales that are formed through these extended techno-timespaces. These discussions pay special attention to the new absent localities in the globalized media landscapes, asking where and how is ‘Finland’ emerging in relation to these extensions? The chapter aims to conceptualize this landscape of ‘representation’ in a nonrepresentational frame, focusing on the ongoingness of the world: the fleeting, affective, and relational nature of young people’s post-social landscapes. It therefore asks: How do young people reflect on the films in relation to their everyday dwelling? What kind of place-making happens when engaging with the films and how do these new geographies emerge? From cinema to Snapchat to memes and TikTok, where and what is Finland in relation to these extended landscapes—what role does absence play in these ephemeral presences?