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Affective Encounters with More-Than-Human Entanglements: Transformative Experiences in Digital Spaces
Malmö University, Faculty of Culture and Society (KS), School of Arts and Communication (K3).
2022 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (Two Years)), 20 credits / 30 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

The prior conviction this study built upon is that the natural world's wounds are also societal, and the global ecological collapse is the tangible and historical result of a dualistic and anthropocentric worldview. The current ecological crisis impacts the Earth's living fabric with extreme heat, rising sea levels, ocean acidification, droughts, and increased hurricane activities. However, it is not just an ecological crisis but also a crisis of theory. It is a failure of thinking characterized by systems blindness. There is a growing need to develop new partnerships between the natural and social sciences, humanities, psychoanalysis, and new media studies in order to be able to offer new conceptualizations regarding the contact zones where human and nonhuman natures and environments meet. As suggested by Véronique Bragard, “humans are defined by what they reject” (2013, p. 460). In other words, the subjective identity is further established by the definition of the other, which is nature in this case. However, realizing that humans are inescapably the other and the acknowledgment that the self is already contaminated requires the self to confront the familiarities of the ambivalent strangers and to abandon the privileged position of humanity that is justified by Cartesian logic. Accordingly, examining the posthuman subject through video games may reveal new opportunities for transforming humanity's perception of its place in the ecological network since video games enable a way of being in which the self and the other are intertwined. In this study, the primary method chosen to analyze video games is close reading. Also, the autoethnographic method is used to reveal the researcher's embodied experience of the play as well as its semiotic interpretation. Video games provide a way to be engaged with technology so that the player can experience human and more-than-human entanglements in a safe space. Therefore, video games can facilitate a non-overwhelming affective encounter with the other. However, this posthuman experience must also be realized in a digital space in which the player can obtain critical distance. Video games should combine the transformative potential of the game dynamics together with affective experiences to challenge one's relationship with otherness. In this thesis, I propose that potentially transformative affective experiences can emerge under two conditions : (1) inversion of principles of game mechanics and (2) unconventional environmental design.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2022.
National Category
Cultural Studies
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-56853OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-56853DiVA, id: diva2:1721051
Educational program
KS K3 Culture and Change
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Available from: 2022-12-21 Created: 2022-12-20 Last updated: 2022-12-21Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
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