Walkthrough: videogames and technocultural form - Seth Giddings

The humanist assumptions of constructionism result in clear conceptual distinctions between the
human (from individual identity to human forces such as society, history, and economics) and the
nonhuman (nature, technology). This project will argue that constructionism limits the understanding of a
world of material and technological, as well as discursive and ‘social’, forces and agencies.
identity and subjectivity
An example of the limitations of social constructionism that is central to this thesis is the fundamental role
played by concepts of (human) identity and subjectivity in Cultural and Media Studies. So, when Cultural
Studies and Media Studies has addressed questions of change and newness in media culture it has often
posited human identity and subjectivity as the locus of this novelty. From the mechanics of the cinematic
apparatus with the spectator as its human component, or broader questions of the shifting relationships of
individuals and groups to their locale and the globe through transnational media and information flows, to
ethnographic studies of the ‘construction’ of identity through Internet media such as MUDs and Web home
pages, it is the partially refracted (yet still identifiably humanist) subject that is of concern. As with the
ubiquitous critique of technological determinism outlined above this focus on human identity and
subjectivity, whatever insights are generated, works to elide consideration of the nonhuman agents in media
consumption and communication. This thesis will ask: what are the implications of shifting attention from
subjectivity in media consumption to agency in media technocultural circuits?
technoculture
In its general application technoculture refers to cultural phenomena in which technologies or technological
forces are a significant aspect. The essays in Penley and Ross’s book Technoculture (1991) for instance cover
medical and reproductive technologies and discourses, computer hacking and viruses, erotic manga, hip hop
music and culture, art, and (inevitably) Gibson and cyberpunk. The term ‘techno-popular culture’ has been
used in ethnographic research on young people and computer media (see Facer, Sutherland & Furlong
2003). However it is important to this thesis that any a priori distinction between technology and culture
(i.e. as two largely separate phenomena that come together at certain junctures) be questioned. This will be
explored in Part 3.2, but it is worth raising now Bruno Latour’s assertion that society has always been an
indissoluble network of technological and human entities (Latour 1991, 1992a, 1992b). A distinction can be
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