Jane McGonigal's introduction to Reality is Broken is utterly refreshing, as it dares us to think about direct, generative potentials of games for our current reality. After working through last week's readings on employing small tactics to disrupt reality, or inventing our freedom as dividuals within flows, it's cool to hear someone just flat out … Continue reading Let’s Fix Reality! but like the most neutral version, without the culture and stuff.
Habit, Virus, and Social Media Activism
Wendy Chun's chapters were a brilliant read. I want to focus on her distinction between habit and virus in relation to Malcolm Gladwell's take on social media activism as well as Deluca et al.'s article on Weixin and Weibo. Chun distinguishes between tracking fast, new, spontaneously spreading viruses and focusing on the more lingering, infrastructural … Continue reading Habit, Virus, and Social Media Activism
“The Whole Concept of Allegorithm…”
A commenter on the last card in McKenzie Wark’s article seems to throw in the towel, asking with exasperation, “what do you mean when you say [Sims and other video games are] an allegorithm? The whole concept of allegorithm throws me off, whats the meaning of this passage?” I very much felt that comment. Wark’s … Continue reading “The Whole Concept of Allegorithm…”
Phillips: Labour and Play
The two excerpts assigned from Whitney Phillips’ book This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things were funny, shocking, upsetting, and insightful. One grappled with some loose characteristics of the online troll and trolling behavior; one reflects on how to conduct research on a phenomenon where our “subjects” are anonymous and deceptive (it is challenging … Continue reading Phillips: Labour and Play
Hebdige and The Significance of Style
In Dick Hebdige’s introduction to Subculture: The Meaning of Style, he places faith in the fact that subculture movements use style to interrupt ideological structures – perhaps more specifically the American conservatism and middle class suburban mundanity during the mid-to-late 20th century. I want to dig deeper into Hebdige’s own detailed understandings of “ideology” and … Continue reading Hebdige and The Significance of Style
Politics of Media 