DOCSLIB.ORG

Repurposing Deleuze and Design

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

REPURPOSING DELEUZE AND DESIGN by BILLY GOEHRING A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of Philosophy and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2019 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Billy Goehring Title: Repurposing Deleuze and Design This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of Philosophy by: Nicolae Morar Chairperson and Advisor Daniel Smith Core Member Colin Koopman Core Member Lisa Mazzei Institutional Representative and Janet Woodruff-Borden Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2019 ii © 2019 Billy Goehring iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Billy Goehring Doctor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy June 2019 Title: Repurposing Deleuze and Design Gilles Deleuze’s interdisciplinary reception privileges the term, “assemblage,” but this translation runs the risk of appearing as jargon, whereas the original agencement would appear to a French audience as a more ordinary term. In the absence of a better alternative translation, I propose that we translate the problems motivating Deleuze’s word choice rather than the word, agencement, itself. I consult a wide range of the figures influential for Deleuze and Félix Guattari who are relevant for the many contexts in which agencement appears in their work. This leads me to propose design as suitable terrain for redescribing Deleuze’s philosophy. At the other end of the project, I note that design has its own share of problems. Theoretical approaches to design are often limited to particular kinds of design, and there are few efforts to reconcile design theories and definitions rooted in different designs, e.g. cinematography and engineering. Most accounts, though, define design primarily or exclusively in terms of its purpose or intended function. This poses problems for understanding changes in function and design’s unintended effects. Deleuze scholarship and design both have problems, and therefore I use each as an intervention into the other: design affords us the opportunity to redescribe Deleuze’s philosophy, while the problems at stake in Deleuze’s philosophy allows us to redescribe design and treat design in a more iv comprehensive manner. In the end, I propose that we understand agencement as the interaction between coinciding, heterogeneous considerations or perspectives of the same substance; a living room is a series of activities, a spatial configuration of things, a collection of ideas, an arena of feelings and affects, and so on. We can tell a similar story with design, which explains why intentional design decisions can have unintended consequences. I arrange furniture while considering quantity, but unbeknownst to me, the change in quantity results in a change in quality. Both agencement and design are ways of describing how considerations which are different in kind can nevertheless coincide and affect one another. v CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Billy Goehring GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Missouri State University, Springfield, Missouri DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, 2019, University of Oregon Master of Arts, Philosophy, 2013, Duquesne University Bachelor of Arts, English, 2011, Missouri State University GRANTS, AWARDS, AND HONORS: Graduate Teaching Fellowship, Philosophy, 2013-2019 First Place Graduate Research Panel, University of Oregon, 2018 Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship, University of Oregon, 2015 Strasser Scholarship for Language Study, Duquesne University, 2012 Critical Language Scholarship, U.S. Department of State, 2009 PUBLICATIONS: Goehring, Billy, and Larry Alan Busk. “Narcissus and the Transcendental: Merleau- Ponty, Deleuze, and the Challenge of Meillassoux.” Chiasmi International 19 (2018). ———. “What is a Working-Class Intellectual?” Rhizomes 27 (2014). vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to gratefully acknowledge the endlessly generous and patient support of my advisor, Nicolae Morar, without whom this dissertation would not have been possible. For their helpful feedback and encouragement at various points in the planning and writing process, I would also like to thank the members of my committee: Daniel Smith, Colin Koopman, and Lisa Mazzei. The completion of this project was made possible, in part, by the Department of Philosophy at the University of Oregon, whose financial support I appreciate. My colleagues, Larry Busk and Eli Portella in particular, offered invaluable feedback that not only informed the direction of this research but led the way for its future development into other projects for publication. Finally, because the object of my inquiry is design, I acknowledge the practical and theoretical insights I owe to regular conversations with two designers—my brother, A. J. Goehring, and my partner, Chad Lowe. vii To Mom and Dad, for everything. You may have wondered what it is I’ve been doing with my life. You supported me, nevertheless. (This probably won’t make it any clearer.) viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. TRANSLATING AGENCEMENT .......................................................................... 1 A Reader Caught Unawares ................................................................................... 2 The Translation of Agencement............................................................................. 6 The Meaning of Agencement in General ............................................................... 14 According to Deleuze and Guattari........................................................................ 18 Substitutions: What Agencement Is Not .......................................................... 19 The Positive Definition of Agencement .......................................................... 25 General Problems, Translation............................................................................... 36 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 41 II. DELEUZE AND GUATTARI’S PLAN FOR POTTERY: FROM STRATIGRAPHY TO CERAMIC RUDIMENTS ................................... 44 Plan and Its Translation ......................................................................................... 45 Deleuze and Guattari’s Plans ................................................................................. 48 Content and Expression ................................................................................... 48 Note 1: Louis Hjelmslev .................................................................................. 52 Between Concepts and Chaos .......................................................................... 57 Note 2: Jakob von Uexküll .............................................................................. 60 Dessein and Dessin .......................................................................................... 64 Note 3: Cuvier and Geoffroy ........................................................................... 66 Two Houses in One .......................................................................................... 69 Note 4: Leibniz ................................................................................................ 72 ix Chapter Page The Meaning of Plan .............................................................................................. 75 Plan as Perspective ........................................................................................... 77 Plan as Attribute ............................................................................................... 80 The Agencement of Plans ...................................................................................... 82 A General Logic: Plan Philosophy ........................................................................ 88 Design .................................................................................................................... 91 The Word “Design” ......................................................................................... 92 Design’s Desiderata ......................................................................................... 94 Archaeology: Series and Type ............................................................................... 95 Ceramic Stratification ............................................................................................ 110 Skeuomorphs and Rudiments ................................................................................ 112 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 121 III. DESIGN BETWEEN DESSIN AND DESSEIN: DIAGRAMS ABSTRACT AND CONCRETE .................................................... 129 Christopher Alexander’s Whole Problem .............................................................. 130 Problems and Solutions.......................................................................................... 134 Diagrams in Architecture ....................................................................................... 138 Eisenman’s Diagrams ............................................................................................ 143 Diagrams, Regarding Continuity ..........................................................................
Recommended publications
  • Xerox University Microfilms

    Xerox University Microfilms

    INFORMATION TO USERS This malarial was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again - beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation.
  • The Documentality of Memory in the Post-Truth Era Claire Scopsi

    The Documentality of Memory in the Post-Truth Era Claire Scopsi

    The documentality of memory in the post-truth era Claire Scopsi To cite this version: Claire Scopsi. The documentality of memory in the post-truth era. Proceedings from the Document Academy, The University of Akron, 2018, 5 (2), 10.35492/docam/5/2/4. hal-02177585 HAL Id: hal-02177585 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02177585 Submitted on 10 Jul 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. The documentality of memory in the post-truth era Claire Scopsi Dicen-idf Cnam Paris, [email protected] This article compares the definitions of the document, produced by the document theorists and the arguments advanced by the French historical epistemology of the twentieth century in order to set what is a reliable documentary source. In the context of digital post-truth, the former criteria, based on the paradigm of truth and authenticity guaranteed by institutions and scientists, can be questioned. We suggest to consider the production of historical narratives as a design process, and to evaluate the truthfulness of a source according to their three regimes of documentality: textualization, auctorialisation and documentarisation. Keywords: memory, narratives, document theory, post-truth 1 The documentality of memory in the post-truth era Claire Scopsi Dicen-idf Cnam Paris, [email protected] Politics, environment and economy are affected by the phenomenon of post truth.
  • Anthropoetics V, 1

    Anthropoetics V, 1

    Anthropoetics V, 1 Anthropoetics V, no. 1 Spring / Summer 1999 ISSN 1083-7264 Table of Contents 1. Erik Eisel - "In the Beginning was the Word...": The Question of the Origin of Language in Goethe's Faust 2. William Mishler - The Question of the Origin of Language in René Girard, Eric Gans, and Kenneth Burke 3. Herbert Plutschow - An Anthropological Perspective on the Japanese Tea Ceremony 4. Eric Gans - The Little Bang: The Early Origin of Language 5. Benchmarks Eric Gans / [email protected] Last updated 7/23/99 http://steadr/anthropoetics/0501/ [5/10/2000 10:29:48 AM] Eisel Anthropoetics 5, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 1999) "In the Beginning was the Word...": The Question of the Origin of Language in Goethe's Faust Erik M. Eisel Department of Germanic Languages University of California, Los Angeles Los Angeles CA 90095-1539 [email protected] Beginning with the Age of Goethe, the history of the question of the origin of language follows from the general questions, "What is man?" "What is culture?" and "What is language?"(1) The Berlin Academy of Sciences conjectured in its Preisfrage of 1769 whether human beings, "abandoned to their natural faculties," are capable of inventing language. In response, the first sentence of Johann Gottfried Herder's winning "Essay on the Origin of Language" gives the starting point for new anthropological thinking in the eighteenth century, changing the history of this question: "Already as an animal the human being has language."(2) As Helmut Mueller-Sievers, the author of Self-Generation: Biology, Philosophy, and Literature Around 1800, points out, Herder's rhetorical procedure is an attempt to deny both empirical and divine origins of language while unifying his philosophical project within the domain of language: The quest for a satisfactory explanation for the origin and status of language at the end of the eighteenth century is, historically and structurally, related to the debate about the origin of living beings.
  • Notes on Abstract Hermeneutics

    Notes on Abstract Hermeneutics

    Research in Phenomenology Research in Phenomenology 41 (2011) 45–59 brill.nl/rp Notes on Abstract Hermeneutics Marcia Sá Cavalcante Schuback Södertörn University, Sweden Abstract Using abstract art as a paradigm, this paper attempts to think, in a provisional manner, the parameters of what the author calls ‘abstract hermeneutics’—a way of thinking capable of responding to the withdrawing, or abstracting, movement of Being. Such abstract thinking— which is an abstracting thinking of the abstract—aims to step beyond objectivity precisely in order to return to phenomenological concreteness. Through an engagement with Heidegger’s understanding of the formal indicative role of the human being as sign (Zeichen), the affinity between the abstracting gestures of abstract art, and the absenting characteristic of human exis- tence, is explored. Keywords Heidegger, hermeneutics, formal-indication, abstract art Die Linien des Lebens sind verschieden Wie Wege sind, und wie der Berge Grenzen. Was hier wir sind, kann dort ein Gott ergänzen Mit Harmonien und ewigem Lohn und Frieden. Hölderlin, “An Zimmern” Would it be something of note for philosophy today to address the question of abstract thought and, more specifically, aboutabstract hermeneutics, what- ever such a phrase might mean? When the challenge of our day seems still, and even more, one of stepping back “to the things themselves” to find a philo- sophical path to the concrete, why address such a question of the abstract? For, phenomenology’s call to the things themselves can be interpreted, and rightly so, precisely as a critique of abstraction. This can also be said in regard to the thoughts of Nietzsche, Marx, and Freud, insofar as they all share with phe- nomenology what could be called a desire or search for lost concreteness.
  • 2012 SPEP Program (Rochester

    2012 SPEP Program (Rochester

    SOCIETY FOR PHENOMENOLOGY AND EXISTENTIAL PHILOSOPHY Executive Co-Directors Anthony Steinbock, Southern Illinois University Carbondale Amy Allen, Dartmouth College Executive Committee Amy Allen, Dartmouth College Alia Al-Saji, McGill University Fred Evans, Duquesne University Brian Schroeder, Rochester Institute of Technology Anthony Steinbock, Southern Illinois University Carbondale Shannon Mussett, Utah Valley University, Secretary-Treasurer Graduate Assistant Christopher C. Paone, Southern Illinois University Carbondale Advisory Book Selection Committee Shannon Winnubst, The Ohio State University, Chair Ann V. Murphy, Fordham University Brad Elliott Stone, Loyola Marymount University Adrian Johnston, University of New Mexico David Carr, Emory University Brent Adkins, Roanoke College Daniela Vallega-Neu, Univeristy of Oregon James D. Hatley, Salisbury University Advocacy Committee Robin James, University of North Carolina Charlotte, Chair Peter Gratton, Memorial University of Newfoundland Gail Weiss, George Washington University Committee on the Status of Women Laura Hengehold, Case Western Reserve University, Chair Shannon Sullivan, The Pennsylvania State University Elaine Miller, Miami University of Ohio Racial and Ethnic Diversity Committee Falguni Sheth, Hampshire College, Chair Hernando Estévez, John Jay College/CUNY Devonya Havis, Canisius College LGBTQ Advocacy Committee Robert Vallier, Institut d’Études Politiques, Chair William Wilkerson, University of Alabama Huntsville Mary Bloodsworth-Lugo, Washington State University Webmaster Christopher P. Long, The Pennsylvania State University Local Arrangements Contacts Brian Schroeder, local contact and organizer, [email protected] Scott Campbell, book exhibit coordinator, [email protected] Lindsey Johnson, student volunteer coordinator, [email protected] All SPEP sessions will be held at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center (RRCC) on 123 East Main St., Rochester, NY. The RRCC is adjacent to the host hotel, the Hyatt Regency Rochester, to which it is connected by an enclosed skyway.
  • The Concrete and the Abstract in the Language of Politics

    The Concrete and the Abstract in the Language of Politics

    Edinburgh Research Explorer The concrete and the abstract in the language of politics Citation for published version: Joseph, J 2017, 'The concrete and the abstract in the language of politics', Rivista di psicolinguistica applicata, vol. Anno XVII, no. 2, pp. 97-112. https://doi.org/10.19272/201707702006 Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.19272/201707702006 Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version: Peer reviewed version Published In: Rivista di psicolinguistica applicata General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 28. Sep. 2021 The concrete and the abstract in the language of politics John E. Joseph, University of Edinburgh ABSTRACT Until well into the modern period, concrete was used to mean what is now called abstract. The terms originated as grammatical descriptors for related pairs of nouns and adjectives, then came to be reinterpeted as logical categories tied to the presence or absence of a clear mental image. They remain ambiguous, yet are used as though every word fell clearly into one or the other category.
  • CUBISM and ABSTRACTION Background

    CUBISM and ABSTRACTION Background

    015_Cubism_Abstraction.doc READINGS: CUBISM AND ABSTRACTION Background: Apollinaire, On Painting Apollinaire, Various Poems Background: Magdalena Dabrowski, "Kandinsky: Compositions" Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art Background: Serial Music Background: Eugen Weber, CUBISM, Movements, Currents, Trends, p. 254. As part of the great campaign to break through to reality and express essentials, Paul Cezanne had developed a technique of painting in almost geometrical terms and concluded that the painter "must see in nature the cylinder, the sphere, the cone:" At the same time, the influence of African sculpture on a group of young painters and poets living in Montmartre - Picasso, Braque, Max Jacob, Apollinaire, Derain, and Andre Salmon - suggested the possibilities of simplification or schematization as a means of pointing out essential features at the expense of insignificant ones. Both Cezanne and the Africans indicated the possibility of abstracting certain qualities of the subject, using lines and planes for the purpose of emphasis. But if a subject could be analyzed into a series of significant features, it became possible (and this was the great discovery of Cubist painters) to leave the laws of perspective behind and rearrange these features in order to gain a fuller, more thorough, view of the subject. The painter could view the subject from all sides and attempt to present its various aspects all at the same time, just as they existed-simultaneously. We have here an attempt to capture yet another aspect of reality by fusing time and space in their representation as they are fused in life, but since the medium is still flat the Cubists introduced what they called a new dimension-movement.
  • Reference and Reinterpretation

    Reference and Reinterpretation

    Reference and Reinterpretation by Anthony Kulic A thesis presented to the University of Waterloo in fulfilment of the thesis requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in Philosophy Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2007 ©Anthony Kulic, 2007 Author’s Declaration I hereby declare that I am the sole author of this thesis. This is a true copy of the thesis, including any required final revisions, as accepted by my examiners. I understand that my thesis may be made electronically available to the public. ii Abstract Reference is the relation held to obtain between an expression and what a speaker or thinker intends the expression to represent. Reference is a component of interpretation, the process of giving terms, sentences, and thoughts semantic content. An example of reference in a formal context involves the natural numbers, where each one can be taken to have a corresponding set‐theoretic counterpart as its referent. In an informal context reference is exemplified by the relation between a name and the specific name‐bearer when a speaker or thinker utters or has the name in mind. Recent debates over reference have concerned the mechanism of reference: How is it that we can refer? In informal contexts, externalists see the reference relation as explicable in terms of the salient causal relations involved in the naming of a thing, or a class of things, and the ensuing causal chains leading to a term’s use. Opponents of this view— internalists—see the reference relation as being conceptually direct, and they take the external approach to rely on untenable metaphysical assumptions about the world’s structure.
  • TOTE Criticism: Speech Communication: Unions

    TOTE Criticism: Speech Communication: Unions

    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 199 609 CS 205 688 TITLE Rhetoric and Public Address: Abstracts of Doctoral Dissertations Pliblished in "Dissertation Abstracts International," January through June 1980 (Vol. (10 Nos. 7 through 12). INSTITUTION ERIC Clearinghouse.on Reading and Communication Skills, Urbana, Ill. 0_ PUB DATE 80 TOTE 13p.: Pages may be marginally legible. EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage). DESCRIPTORS Annotated Bibliographies,: Churches; *Communication Research: Connected Discourse; Content Analysis; *Discourse Analysis: *Doctoral Dissertations: Organizational Communication: *Persuasive Discourse: Political Science; Politics; *Public Speaking: Religibus Organizations: *Rhetoric; *Rhetorical Criticism: Speech Communication: Unions; Womens Studies ABSTRACT This collection of abstracts is-part of a continuing . 'series'providing information on recent doctorgl dissertations.The'20 titles deal with-A variety oftopics, including the following: (1) the campaign communication during the Carter-Pordtelevision debates: (2) apprehensiveness and performance inpublic speaking; (3)a history and criticism 9f-the Vietnam antivar;movement:((4). a case study of institutional rhetoric and radical :Change (thecontemporary Roman Catholic Church in America):(5) synthesizing methodologies' used,:in the study of political communication during the 1976United States presidential election campaign:(6) the audience effects of (7) rhetorical vision and black social reality: 4 apoliogetic discourse: (8),a case study of organizational apologia. (theAmerican Federation of Labor, 1945-1956): and rhetorical analysesof the speeches/discourses of (9) Dorothy bay for the Catholic Worker movement, (10) British Conservative Party leader MargaretThatcher., (11) Charles Betts Galloway,(12) Carl Schurz,(13) Cleveland mayoral Candidate Arnold Pinkney,(14) Richard Nixon on Vietnam, (15) United States Senator Wayne Morse on Vietnam, (16) Supreme Court Justice Wilgam 0. Douglas on the First Amendment, (17)'U.
  • The Five Key Terms of Dramatism

    The Five Key Terms of Dramatism

    INTRODUCTION: THE FIVE KEY TERMS OF DRAMATISM WHAT is involved, when we say what people are doing and why they are doing it? An answer to that question is the subject of this book. The book is concerned with the basic forms of thought which, in ac- cordance with the nature of the world as all men necessarily experience it, are exemplified in the attributing of motives. These forms of thought can be embodied profoundly or trivially, truthfully or falsely. They are equally present in systematically elaborated metaphysical structures, in legal judgments, in poetry and fiction, in political and scientific works, in news and in bits of gossip offered at random. We shall use five terms as generating principle of our investigation. They are: Act, Scene, Agent, Agency, Purpose. In a rounded state- ment about motives, you must have some word that names the act (names what took place, in thought or deed), and another that names the scene (the background of the act, the situation in which it oc- curred) ; also, you must indicate what person or kind of person {agent) performed the act, what means or instruments he used {agency), and the purpose. Men may violently disagree about the purposes behind a given act, or about the character of the person who did it, or how he did it, or in what kind of situation he acted; or they may even insist upon totally different words to name the act itself. But be that as it may, any complete statement about motives will offer some kind of an- swers to these five questions: what was done (act), when or where it was done (scene), who did it (agent), how he did it (agency), and why (purpose).
  • The Shape of Games to Come: Critical Digital Storytelling in the Era of Communicative Capitalism

    The Shape of Games to Come: Critical Digital Storytelling in the Era of Communicative Capitalism

    The Shape of Games to Come: Critical Digital Storytelling in the Era of Communicative Capitalism by Sarah E. Thorne A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Cultural Mediations Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2018, Sarah E. Thorne Abstract The past decade has seen an increase in the availability of user-friendly game development software, the result of which has been the emergence of a genre of reflexive and experimental games. Pippin Barr, La Molleindustria’s Paolo Pedercini, and Davey Wreden are exemplary in their thoughtful engagement with an ever-expanding list of subjects, including analyses and critiques of game development, popular culture, and capitalism. These works demonstrate the power of games as a site for critical media theory. This potential, however, is hindered by the player-centric trends in the game industry that limit the creative freedom of developers whose work is their livelihood. In the era of communicative capitalism, Jodi Dean argues that the commodification of communication has suspended narrative in favour of the circulation of fragmented and digestible opinions, which not only facilitates the distribution and consumption of communication, but also safeguards communicative capitalism against critique. Ultimately, the very same impulse that drives communicative capitalism is responsible for the player-centric trends that some developers view as an obstacle to their art. Critical game studies has traditionally fallen into two categories: those that emphasize the player as the locus of critique, such as McKenzie Wark’s trifler or Mary Flanagan’s critical play, and those that emphasize design, as in Alexander Galloway’s countergaming, Ian Bogost’s procedural rhetoric, and Gonzalo Frasca’s theory of simulation.
  • Teachers Course Description

    Teachers Course Description

    Teachers Stephanie Boluk Patrick LeMieux Associate Professor Assistant Professor English, Cinema and Digital Media Cinema and Digital Media University of California, Davis University of California, Davis [email protected] [email protected] http://stephanieboluk.com http://patrick-lemieux.com Course Description Rather than treat “videogames and culture” as two distinct categories that play off one another, in this large lecture and in discussion sections we will examine the community histories and material practices that have evolved alongside videogames as a mass medium, cultural commodity, and digital technology. We will challenge the seemingly self-evident differences between play and production, leisure and labor, form and function, and freedom and control through a quarter-long investigation of the concept of “metagaming.” Metagames are the games we play in, on, around, and through videogames. From the most complex player practices to the simple decision to press start, just as there are no videogames without culture, there are no games without metagames. And although the term “metagame” has a long history–from Cold War mind games in the 1940s to countercultural role-playing games in the 1970s to collectable card games in the 1990s–the concept has taken on renewed importance and political urgency with the rise of social media, streaming video, and sharing services in the twenty-first century. From speedrunning The Legend of Zelda to making a living playing League of Legends and ​ ​ ​ ​ from modding miniature computers in Minecraft to laundering money through Team Fortress 2, ​ ​ ​ in this class we will document and theorize histories of play through the concept of metagaming and a rigorous engagement with academic disciplines such as media studies, games studies, software studies, platform studies, and code studies.