Canadian video game developer BioWare’s critically acclaimed Mass Effect video game series has be... more Canadian video game developer BioWare’s critically acclaimed Mass Effect video game series has been called the most important science fiction universe of a generation. Whether or not one is inclined to agree, it cannot be denied that Mass Effect matters. It matters not only because of its brilliant narrative and the difficult questions it asks, but also because, as bioethicist Kyle Munkittrick writes, it reflects society as a whole. Mass Effect is a sci-fi epic in the truest sense, spanning over years and across hundreds of planets tucked away in the darkest corners of the galaxy, populated with dozens of species with their own histories, beliefs, cultures, and technologies. Academics and dedicated fans have explored the numerous facets of the game, from its philosophy to time and temporality, fandom ethnographies, and ethics. This article proposes to explore the boundaries of alien sex and the desire for alien others as represented in sci-fi role playing games, and their reinterpretation by fans. Science fiction role playing games in particular enable the production of sexual modalities outside of the constraints of heterosexual norms. Alien sex, animal sex, or monstrous sex are common tropes in fantasy and sci-fi media—the vampire, the werewolf, and monstrous non/in-humans are eroticized and construed conduits of a mainly female sexual desire. However, the example I would like to approach is slightly more radical, both in terms of execution and in terms of media audience response: examples of “alien sex” as illustrated in the Mass Effect video game series, whose canonical representation of alien-human romances invite some interesting questions about either the potential exacerbation, or the rendering-unintelligible of sexual difference, as well as about cross-species desire and about the ontology of the natural and the artificial.
This article proposes to explore the boundaries of alien sex and the desire for alien others as r... more This article proposes to explore the boundaries of alien sex and the desire for alien others as represented in the Mass Effect role playing games, and their reinterpretation by fans. Science fiction role playing games in particular enable the production of sexual modalities outside of the constraints of heterosexual norms. Alien sex , animal sex or monstrous sex are common tropes in fantasy and sci-fi media - the vampire, the werewolf and monstrous non/in-humans are eroticized and construed conduits of a mainly female sexual desire. However, the example I'd like to approach is slightly more radical, both in terms of execution, and in terms of media audience response: examples of 'alien sex' as illustrated in the Mass Effect video game series, whose canonical representation of alien-human romances invite some interesting questions about either the potential exacerbation, or the rendering-unintelligible of sexual difference, as well as about cross-species desire and about the ontology of the natural and the artificial.
In this paper, I will discuss a recently documented case of media addiction, that of the first pe... more In this paper, I will discuss a recently documented case of media addiction, that of the first person ever to be treated for internet addiction induced by the use of the Google Glass. By taking this case as a starting point, I am drawing together strands from new materialism, Gabriel Tarde’s social ontology, and N. Katherine Hayles’ work on attention in order to argue that the contemporary debate on media addiction translates into a reconfiguration of attention as an embodied, embedded and finite resource. The Google Glass, as media object, thus occupies a precarious and paradoxical place in today’s attention economy: as both a gateway to a technical wonderland, and as a corrosive agent that disrupts the proper workings of the social.
Forthcoming in FORUM, University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture & the Arts
This ar... more Forthcoming in FORUM, University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture & the Arts
This article proposes an exploration of the phenomenon of media addiction as the expression of a haunting: the re-emergence of nostalgia for presence and materiality. Relying on Jacques Derrida’s hauntology and Karen Barad’s neomaterialist theory, media addiction is refigured as an unavoidable human-technology bond that politics of life cannot escape.
Building on the first three successful issues we are looking to continue the inquiry into the int... more Building on the first three successful issues we are looking to continue the inquiry into the intersections of these disciplines. This issue, mobilising a variety of topics, concepts, and theories, aims to contribute to this specialised area of interest. Pulse specialises in bringing together wide-ranging and diverse topics in, and perspectives on, science studies. In previous issues the journal has published articles related to: Physicalism; Systems medicine, cancer, and new materialism; neurobiology and homosexuality; and Marxism, Foucault, and French epistemology.
What do we do with media technologies, and what do they in turn do to us? These questions underli... more What do we do with media technologies, and what do they in turn do to us? These questions underlie much of the philosophy of media and technology, and they provide the context in which this project wishes to situate itself. I aim to investigate the construction of human-media relationships in the biopolitical arrangements of postindustrial capitalism, in which the management of the somatic individual and the regulations of its various intimacies play a prominent role. I argue that contemporary media addictions, such as Internet and gaming addiction, exist as paradigmatic formulations of the way in which biopolitical subjects engage with media; more than that, media addictions are pivotal in sustaining the production and maintenance of a media-infused ‗politics of life itself‘ (In Nikolas Rose‘s formulation). In order to support this argument, I will investigate some possibilities to reformulate the ontological basis of media-human relationships so as to re-read media addiction as a self-affirming and fruitful intimacy with the in/nonhuman, i.e. media technologies, based on desire, pleasure and drive towards alternative relationalities. This project can be distilled into three main theoretical strands: the exploration of the biopoliticization of the phenomenon of media addiction one the one hand, a potential refiguration of media use as a form of intimacy with the in- and non-human on the other, and finally an investigation into the place of gender and materiality within media philosophy. The crux of the project is the proposition that the ontology of media, in the context of Western metaphysics, is in a perpetual oscillation between the poles of humanity and nonhumanity. Because of this unstable process, media technology is positioned as a threatening figuration that destabilizes the privilege accorded to the category of the human, while at the same time redrawing its boundaries. Contemporary Western biopolitics, the ‗politics of life itself‘, relies precisely on the uncertain status of media in order to codify the character of the media addict as a paradigmatic figure of the contemporary climate, as a techno-somatic individual. The goal of the work is to understand the role of media within contemporary Western biopolitics, and to survey the dynamics between the various ontological states attributed to media in political and academic discourse, and the human users who engage with them.
Canadian video game developer BioWare’s critically acclaimed Mass Effect video game series has be... more Canadian video game developer BioWare’s critically acclaimed Mass Effect video game series has been called the most important science fiction universe of a generation. Whether or not one is inclined to agree, it cannot be denied that Mass Effect matters. It matters not only because of its brilliant narrative and the difficult questions it asks, but also because, as bioethicist Kyle Munkittrick writes, it reflects society as a whole. Mass Effect is a sci-fi epic in the truest sense, spanning over years and across hundreds of planets tucked away in the darkest corners of the galaxy, populated with dozens of species with their own histories, beliefs, cultures, and technologies. Academics and dedicated fans have explored the numerous facets of the game, from its philosophy to time and temporality, fandom ethnographies, and ethics. This article proposes to explore the boundaries of alien sex and the desire for alien others as represented in sci-fi role playing games, and their reinterpretation by fans. Science fiction role playing games in particular enable the production of sexual modalities outside of the constraints of heterosexual norms. Alien sex, animal sex, or monstrous sex are common tropes in fantasy and sci-fi media—the vampire, the werewolf, and monstrous non/in-humans are eroticized and construed conduits of a mainly female sexual desire. However, the example I would like to approach is slightly more radical, both in terms of execution and in terms of media audience response: examples of “alien sex” as illustrated in the Mass Effect video game series, whose canonical representation of alien-human romances invite some interesting questions about either the potential exacerbation, or the rendering-unintelligible of sexual difference, as well as about cross-species desire and about the ontology of the natural and the artificial.
This article proposes to explore the boundaries of alien sex and the desire for alien others as r... more This article proposes to explore the boundaries of alien sex and the desire for alien others as represented in the Mass Effect role playing games, and their reinterpretation by fans. Science fiction role playing games in particular enable the production of sexual modalities outside of the constraints of heterosexual norms. Alien sex , animal sex or monstrous sex are common tropes in fantasy and sci-fi media - the vampire, the werewolf and monstrous non/in-humans are eroticized and construed conduits of a mainly female sexual desire. However, the example I'd like to approach is slightly more radical, both in terms of execution, and in terms of media audience response: examples of 'alien sex' as illustrated in the Mass Effect video game series, whose canonical representation of alien-human romances invite some interesting questions about either the potential exacerbation, or the rendering-unintelligible of sexual difference, as well as about cross-species desire and about the ontology of the natural and the artificial.
In this paper, I will discuss a recently documented case of media addiction, that of the first pe... more In this paper, I will discuss a recently documented case of media addiction, that of the first person ever to be treated for internet addiction induced by the use of the Google Glass. By taking this case as a starting point, I am drawing together strands from new materialism, Gabriel Tarde’s social ontology, and N. Katherine Hayles’ work on attention in order to argue that the contemporary debate on media addiction translates into a reconfiguration of attention as an embodied, embedded and finite resource. The Google Glass, as media object, thus occupies a precarious and paradoxical place in today’s attention economy: as both a gateway to a technical wonderland, and as a corrosive agent that disrupts the proper workings of the social.
Forthcoming in FORUM, University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture & the Arts
This ar... more Forthcoming in FORUM, University of Edinburgh Postgraduate Journal of Culture & the Arts
This article proposes an exploration of the phenomenon of media addiction as the expression of a haunting: the re-emergence of nostalgia for presence and materiality. Relying on Jacques Derrida’s hauntology and Karen Barad’s neomaterialist theory, media addiction is refigured as an unavoidable human-technology bond that politics of life cannot escape.
Building on the first three successful issues we are looking to continue the inquiry into the int... more Building on the first three successful issues we are looking to continue the inquiry into the intersections of these disciplines. This issue, mobilising a variety of topics, concepts, and theories, aims to contribute to this specialised area of interest. Pulse specialises in bringing together wide-ranging and diverse topics in, and perspectives on, science studies. In previous issues the journal has published articles related to: Physicalism; Systems medicine, cancer, and new materialism; neurobiology and homosexuality; and Marxism, Foucault, and French epistemology.
What do we do with media technologies, and what do they in turn do to us? These questions underli... more What do we do with media technologies, and what do they in turn do to us? These questions underlie much of the philosophy of media and technology, and they provide the context in which this project wishes to situate itself. I aim to investigate the construction of human-media relationships in the biopolitical arrangements of postindustrial capitalism, in which the management of the somatic individual and the regulations of its various intimacies play a prominent role. I argue that contemporary media addictions, such as Internet and gaming addiction, exist as paradigmatic formulations of the way in which biopolitical subjects engage with media; more than that, media addictions are pivotal in sustaining the production and maintenance of a media-infused ‗politics of life itself‘ (In Nikolas Rose‘s formulation). In order to support this argument, I will investigate some possibilities to reformulate the ontological basis of media-human relationships so as to re-read media addiction as a self-affirming and fruitful intimacy with the in/nonhuman, i.e. media technologies, based on desire, pleasure and drive towards alternative relationalities. This project can be distilled into three main theoretical strands: the exploration of the biopoliticization of the phenomenon of media addiction one the one hand, a potential refiguration of media use as a form of intimacy with the in- and non-human on the other, and finally an investigation into the place of gender and materiality within media philosophy. The crux of the project is the proposition that the ontology of media, in the context of Western metaphysics, is in a perpetual oscillation between the poles of humanity and nonhumanity. Because of this unstable process, media technology is positioned as a threatening figuration that destabilizes the privilege accorded to the category of the human, while at the same time redrawing its boundaries. Contemporary Western biopolitics, the ‗politics of life itself‘, relies precisely on the uncertain status of media in order to codify the character of the media addict as a paradigmatic figure of the contemporary climate, as a techno-somatic individual. The goal of the work is to understand the role of media within contemporary Western biopolitics, and to survey the dynamics between the various ontological states attributed to media in political and academic discourse, and the human users who engage with them.
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Papers by Eva Zekany
This article proposes an exploration of the phenomenon of media addiction as the expression of a haunting: the re-emergence of nostalgia for presence and materiality. Relying on Jacques Derrida’s hauntology and Karen Barad’s neomaterialist theory, media addiction is refigured as an unavoidable human-technology bond that politics of life cannot escape.
Call for Papers by Eva Zekany
Deadline: December 15th, 2015
Drafts by Eva Zekany
subjects engage with media; more than that, media addictions are pivotal in sustaining the production and maintenance of a media-infused ‗politics of life itself‘ (In Nikolas Rose‘s formulation). In order to support this argument, I will investigate some possibilities to reformulate the ontological basis of media-human relationships so as to re-read media
addiction as a self-affirming and fruitful intimacy with the in/nonhuman, i.e. media technologies, based on desire, pleasure and drive towards alternative relationalities. This project can be distilled into three main theoretical strands: the exploration of the biopoliticization of the phenomenon of media addiction one the one hand, a potential
refiguration of media use as a form of intimacy with the in- and non-human on the other, and finally an investigation into the place of gender and materiality within media philosophy. The crux of the project is the proposition that the ontology of media, in the context of Western
metaphysics, is in a perpetual oscillation between the poles of humanity and nonhumanity. Because of this unstable process, media technology is positioned as a threatening figuration that destabilizes the privilege accorded to the category of the human, while at the same time
redrawing its boundaries. Contemporary Western biopolitics, the ‗politics of life itself‘, relies precisely on the uncertain status of media in order to codify the character of the media addict as a paradigmatic figure of the contemporary climate, as a techno-somatic individual. The
goal of the work is to understand the role of media within contemporary Western biopolitics, and to survey the dynamics between the various ontological states attributed to media in political and academic discourse, and the human users who engage with them.
This article proposes an exploration of the phenomenon of media addiction as the expression of a haunting: the re-emergence of nostalgia for presence and materiality. Relying on Jacques Derrida’s hauntology and Karen Barad’s neomaterialist theory, media addiction is refigured as an unavoidable human-technology bond that politics of life cannot escape.
Deadline: December 15th, 2015
subjects engage with media; more than that, media addictions are pivotal in sustaining the production and maintenance of a media-infused ‗politics of life itself‘ (In Nikolas Rose‘s formulation). In order to support this argument, I will investigate some possibilities to reformulate the ontological basis of media-human relationships so as to re-read media
addiction as a self-affirming and fruitful intimacy with the in/nonhuman, i.e. media technologies, based on desire, pleasure and drive towards alternative relationalities. This project can be distilled into three main theoretical strands: the exploration of the biopoliticization of the phenomenon of media addiction one the one hand, a potential
refiguration of media use as a form of intimacy with the in- and non-human on the other, and finally an investigation into the place of gender and materiality within media philosophy. The crux of the project is the proposition that the ontology of media, in the context of Western
metaphysics, is in a perpetual oscillation between the poles of humanity and nonhumanity. Because of this unstable process, media technology is positioned as a threatening figuration that destabilizes the privilege accorded to the category of the human, while at the same time
redrawing its boundaries. Contemporary Western biopolitics, the ‗politics of life itself‘, relies precisely on the uncertain status of media in order to codify the character of the media addict as a paradigmatic figure of the contemporary climate, as a techno-somatic individual. The
goal of the work is to understand the role of media within contemporary Western biopolitics, and to survey the dynamics between the various ontological states attributed to media in political and academic discourse, and the human users who engage with them.