Pub Date : 2023-03-30DOI: 10.4467/20843860pk.23.005.17848
Agnieszka Podruczna
The article aims to analyze the ways in which Larissa Lai, in her short story Rachel, appropriates and racializes the figure of the cyborg by re-visioning and retelling the story of one of the most iconic characters in the history of cinema, the android Rachael from Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (and, by extension, her literary predecessor). Using postcolonial theory as well as theory of science fiction as the primary methodological frameworks, the article demonstrates how – by infusing the character of Rachael/Rachel with a hybrid identity – Lai engages in a discussion concerning race, belonging, and the power struggle between the central and the peripheral. This struggle, in turn, is embodied by the liminality of the cyborg, who may be interpreted as a metaphor for all that eludes (and actively rejects) the colonial Self–Other binary. This, in turn, highlights the tensions accompanying the intrusion of the peripheral into the hegemonic and allows for a more in-depth discussion of the processes concerning negotiation of identity. Moreover, the paper focuses on the way in which Lai constructs the metaphor of the Othered, racialized cyborg in order to deconstruct the notion of the cyborg perceived as a neutral (i.e. white) entity, writing against the hegemonic canon. In this way, the racialized cyborg stands as the symbol of transgression, rebellion and rejection of the center/periphery dichotomy, one which eschews the (neo)colonial binaries and becomes a source of anxiety for the hegemonic discourse.
{"title":"Transgressive Automatons. Re-Visioning the Cyborg in Larissa Lai’s Rachel","authors":"Agnieszka Podruczna","doi":"10.4467/20843860pk.23.005.17848","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860pk.23.005.17848","url":null,"abstract":"The article aims to analyze the ways in which Larissa Lai, in her short story Rachel, appropriates and racializes the figure of the cyborg by re-visioning and retelling the story of one of the most iconic characters in the history of cinema, the android Rachael from Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (and, by extension, her literary predecessor).\u0000\u0000Using postcolonial theory as well as theory of science fiction as the primary methodological frameworks, the article demonstrates how – by infusing the character of Rachael/Rachel with a hybrid identity – Lai engages in a discussion concerning race, belonging, and the power struggle between the central and the peripheral. This struggle, in turn, is embodied by the liminality of the cyborg, who may be interpreted as a metaphor for all that eludes (and actively rejects) the colonial Self–Other binary. This, in turn, highlights the tensions accompanying the intrusion of the peripheral into the hegemonic and allows for a more in-depth discussion of the processes concerning negotiation of identity.\u0000\u0000Moreover, the paper focuses on the way in which Lai constructs the metaphor of the Othered, racialized cyborg in order to deconstruct the notion of the cyborg perceived as a neutral (i.e. white) entity, writing against the hegemonic canon. In this way, the racialized cyborg stands as the symbol of transgression, rebellion and rejection of the center/periphery dichotomy, one which eschews the (neo)colonial binaries and becomes a source of anxiety for the hegemonic discourse.","PeriodicalId":187788,"journal":{"name":"Przegląd Kulturoznawczy","volume":"56 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133320372","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-30DOI: 10.4467/20843860pk.23.002.17845
Magda Popławska
The aim of this article is to analyze women’s experiences of household food production, distribution and consumption as a response to the difficulties and challenges of daily life. The adopted perspective integrates research from food studies, historical sociology, and gender studies. The author’s intention is to discuss the multifaceted, gendered nature of food practices, highlighting their transformations, and modes of continuation. References to the analysis of alternative food networks draw attention to both contemporary and post-WWII food practices and introduce to the discussion concepts which remain important for contemporary society, e.g. community and sustainable solutions. This analysis is based on a review of literature, particularly oral histories and autobiographical accounts by both urban and rural women, and references various documented food-related activities. As demonstrated in the article, presentation of women’s food-related stories involves exploring alternatives to the scarcity economy of state socialism and contemporary anonymous mass production. These alternatives, embedded in the space of the kitchen, the farm field, or the allotment garden, are more than just coping strategies – they appeal to such values and ethical norms as mutual assistance, trust, and reciprocity. They can be interpreted through the lens of creativity and resourcefulness, as well as in terms of power relations and resistance in the context of everyday crises.
{"title":"Food Herstories and Everyday Life in Times of Crisis. Women’s Experiences in Food Production, Distribution and Consumption","authors":"Magda Popławska","doi":"10.4467/20843860pk.23.002.17845","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860pk.23.002.17845","url":null,"abstract":"The aim of this article is to analyze women’s experiences of household food production, distribution and consumption as a response to the difficulties and challenges of daily life. The adopted perspective integrates research from food studies, historical sociology, and gender studies. The author’s intention is to discuss the multifaceted, gendered nature of food practices, highlighting their transformations, and modes of continuation. References to the analysis of alternative food networks draw attention to both contemporary and post-WWII food practices and introduce to the discussion concepts which remain important for contemporary society, e.g. community and sustainable solutions. This analysis is based on a review of literature, particularly oral histories and autobiographical accounts by both urban and rural women, and references various documented food-related activities. As demonstrated in the article, presentation of women’s food-related stories involves exploring alternatives to the scarcity economy of state socialism and contemporary anonymous mass production. These alternatives, embedded in the space of the kitchen, the farm field, or the allotment garden, are more than just coping strategies – they appeal to such values and ethical norms as mutual assistance, trust, and reciprocity. They can be interpreted through the lens of creativity and resourcefulness, as well as in terms of power relations and resistance in the context of everyday crises.","PeriodicalId":187788,"journal":{"name":"Przegląd Kulturoznawczy","volume":"249 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115595892","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-30DOI: 10.4467/20843860pk.23.006.17849
Justyna Tabaszewska
The starting point of the article is an analysis of the volume PL +50 (2004), edited by Jacek Dukaj and the short stories by Łukasz Orbitowski: Nadchodzi and Popiel Armeńczyk (2017). The interpretation of those alternate stories is used as a point of departure for posing a broader question regarding the social and cultural functions of constructing a coherent imaginations regarding the future. Particular attention is paid to the dominance of negative visions of the future and the dangers of describing what is yet to come in overly optimistic colors. The article combines the methodology arising from the analysis of alternative histories, affect studies and memory studies to indicate that theory of premediation (Richard Grusin, 2010) can be especially useful in order to explain the positive social impact of negative visions of the future. Premediating threatening future can be – as indicated for example by B. Hirst and M. Topcu – the first step towards improving the present.
{"title":"Antycypacja i wyobraźnia. Tekstowa „przyszła Polska”","authors":"Justyna Tabaszewska","doi":"10.4467/20843860pk.23.006.17849","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860pk.23.006.17849","url":null,"abstract":"The starting point of the article is an analysis of the volume PL +50 (2004), edited by Jacek Dukaj and the short stories by Łukasz Orbitowski: Nadchodzi and Popiel Armeńczyk (2017). The interpretation of those alternate stories is used as a point of departure for posing a broader question regarding the social and cultural functions of constructing a coherent imaginations regarding the future. Particular attention is paid to the dominance of negative visions of the future and the dangers of describing what is yet to come in overly optimistic colors. The article combines the methodology arising from the analysis of alternative histories, affect studies and memory studies to indicate that theory of premediation (Richard Grusin, 2010) can be especially useful in order to explain the positive social impact of negative visions of the future. Premediating threatening future can be – as indicated for example by B. Hirst and M. Topcu – the first step towards improving the present.","PeriodicalId":187788,"journal":{"name":"Przegląd Kulturoznawczy","volume":"72 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133918796","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-30DOI: 10.4467/20843860pk.23.007.17850
Marta Stańczyk
The review is devoted to the book by Małgorzata Radkiewicz Refleksje zza kamery. Reżyserki o kinie i formie filmowej [Reflections from behind the Camera: Women Directors on Cinema and Film Form]. The publication showcases a deeply feminist frame of reference not only in its theme which is women directors’ theoretical oeuvre, from Alice Guy-Blaché to Alexandra Juhasz, but also in its concept. The author presents their reflections on cinema in the broader context of changing social norms, cinematic language, feminist philosophy and other minority discourses. The review highlights the importance of translating and publishing those reflections in Polish, however it pays particular attention to the author’s proposal of alternative form of scientific discourse and historical narrative. Radkiewicz changes traditional structure – which, typically, is linear, final, unified and focus on progress and hierarchization – for more open, horizontal and activating. That approach led to placing the book as a parallel to feminist, avant-garde endeavors of presented women directors. It could be positioned as a new narrative mode in the process of (re)writing film history by women and other minorities and inspire future relocations.
这篇评论是专门针对Małgorzata Radkiewicz Refleksje zza kamery的书的。Reżyserki o kinie i formie filmowej[镜头背后的反思:女性导演对电影和电影形式的思考]。该出版物不仅在其主题(从Alice guy - blach到Alexandra Juhasz的女性导演的理论作品)上展示了一个深刻的女权主义参考框架,而且在其概念上也展示了一个深刻的女权主义参考框架。作者在不断变化的社会规范、电影语言、女权主义哲学和其他少数民族话语的更广泛背景下提出了他们对电影的思考。这篇评论强调了波兰语翻译和出版这些反思的重要性,但它特别关注作者提出的科学话语和历史叙事的替代形式。Radkiewicz改变了传统的线性、最终、统一、注重进步和分层的结构,使之更加开放、水平和活跃。这种方法导致将这本书与女性导演的女权主义和先锋派努力相提并论。它可以被定位为女性和其他少数民族在(重新)书写电影史过程中的一种新的叙事模式,并对未来的重新定位产生启发。
{"title":"W poszukiwaniu kobiecej narracji historycznej. Małgorzata Radkiewicz, Refleksje zza kamery. Reżyserki o kinie i formie filmowej, Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Fundacja Okonakino, Warszawa, Kraków 2022, ss. 264.","authors":"Marta Stańczyk","doi":"10.4467/20843860pk.23.007.17850","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860pk.23.007.17850","url":null,"abstract":"The review is devoted to the book by Małgorzata Radkiewicz Refleksje zza kamery. Reżyserki o kinie i formie filmowej [Reflections from behind the Camera: Women Directors on Cinema and Film Form]. The publication showcases a deeply feminist frame of reference not only in its theme which is women directors’ theoretical oeuvre, from Alice Guy-Blaché to Alexandra Juhasz, but also in its concept. The author presents their reflections on cinema in the broader context of changing social norms, cinematic language, feminist philosophy and other minority discourses. The review highlights the importance of translating and publishing those reflections in Polish, however it pays particular attention to the author’s proposal of alternative form of scientific discourse and historical narrative. Radkiewicz changes traditional structure – which, typically, is linear, final, unified and focus on progress and hierarchization – for more open, horizontal and activating. That approach led to placing the book as a parallel to feminist, avant-garde endeavors of presented women directors. It could be positioned as a new narrative mode in the process of (re)writing film history by women and other minorities and inspire future relocations.","PeriodicalId":187788,"journal":{"name":"Przegląd Kulturoznawczy","volume":"103 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129326585","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-30DOI: 10.4467/20843860pk.23.003.17846
Anh-Thu Nguyen
The Call of Duty franchise is well-known for its setting in historical warfare and is frequently discussed under the themes of realism or its treatment of history. Whilst this is helpful to address historical inconsistencies and the often-resulting lack of critical perspective on warfare in general, it is perhaps more accurate to refer to Call of Duty as a site of memory. Call of Duty is not interested in an accurate historical retelling of war, rather, it is to evoke cultural memories usually produced by (popular) media related to specific events, repurposing them for entertainment. By analysing Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War through its Vietnam War missions, I explore the formal and narrative qualities of the game to examine what the game chooses to remember. Two key aspects can be found in its gameplay: the game takes on an exclusive U.S.-American perspective on the Vietnam War. Second, Vietnamese characters are largely absent or only exist as enemies. I will then discuss the game’s use of the Vietnam War as a catharsis for its storytelling and how it fails to live up to any subversive potential it has concerning its treatment of memory. This essay will then conclude with final thoughts on how the Vietnam War is remembered in international politics and how its remembrance is also related to intergenerational divides within the Vietnamese diaspora.
{"title":"Memory of War. Remembering Hollywood’s Vietnam War in Call of Duty: Black Ops","authors":"Anh-Thu Nguyen","doi":"10.4467/20843860pk.23.003.17846","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860pk.23.003.17846","url":null,"abstract":"The Call of Duty franchise is well-known for its setting in historical warfare and is frequently discussed under the themes of realism or its treatment of history. Whilst this is helpful to address historical inconsistencies and the often-resulting lack of critical perspective on warfare in general, it is perhaps more accurate to refer to Call of Duty as a site of memory. Call of Duty is not interested in an accurate historical retelling of war, rather, it is to evoke cultural memories usually produced by (popular) media related to specific events, repurposing them for entertainment. By analysing Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War through its Vietnam War missions, I explore the formal and narrative qualities of the game to examine what the game chooses to remember. Two key aspects can be found in its gameplay: the game takes on an exclusive U.S.-American perspective on the Vietnam War. Second, Vietnamese characters are largely absent or only exist as enemies. I will then discuss the game’s use of the Vietnam War as a catharsis for its storytelling and how it fails to live up to any subversive potential it has concerning its treatment of memory. This essay will then conclude with final thoughts on how the Vietnam War is remembered in international politics and how its remembrance is also related to intergenerational divides within the Vietnamese diaspora.","PeriodicalId":187788,"journal":{"name":"Przegląd Kulturoznawczy","volume":"141 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132163707","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-30DOI: 10.4467/20843860pk.23.004.17847
Artur Szarecki
In 2016, Kanye West released his highly anticipated eight album, The Life of Pablo, on a streaming platform Deezer, where it remained exclusively available for over a month. This prevented audiences from several countries, where the service has not yet launched, from accessing it. As a result, Japanese electronic music producer, Toyomu, created his own version of the album, without hearing the original. Browsing the internet, he tracked every sample and every lyric that West used, and assembled them into an original work, comprising an “imagining” of how The Life of Pablo could have sounded. His endeavor, while ingrained in the cultural logic of remix, goes beyond it, comprising a unique musical entity that eludes easy categorization. Therefore, the paper employs Manuel DeLanda’s assemblage theory to account for its specificity. This entails a shift from a relational and processual understanding of the musical album, already implied in West’s work, to mapping the topological structure of possibilities, defined by invariants and attractors, that hints at real but not actual vectors of its becoming. As such, Toyomu’s undertaking provides an opportunity to further rethink the concept of the musical album in a time when it was already decentered by the transition from material objects to digital data.
2016年,坎耶·韦斯特在流媒体平台Deezer上发布了他备受期待的八张专辑《The Life of Pablo》,并在该平台独家发行了一个多月。这使得一些国家的用户无法访问该服务,而这些国家的用户还没有推出这项服务。结果,日本电子音乐制作人Toyomu在没有听到原版的情况下,制作了他自己的版本。浏览互联网,他追踪了韦斯特使用的每一个样本和每一个歌词,并将它们组合成一个原创作品,包括对《巴勃罗的一生》听起来可能是什么样子的“想象”。他的努力虽然植根于remix的文化逻辑,但却超越了它,构成了一种独特的音乐实体,无法轻易归类。因此,本文采用Manuel DeLanda的集合理论来解释其特殊性。这需要从对音乐专辑的关系和过程理解的转变,已经隐含在韦斯特的作品中,到映射可能性的拓扑结构,由不变量和吸引子定义,暗示了真实的,但不是实际的向量。因此,Toyomu的事业提供了一个机会,进一步重新思考音乐专辑的概念,当它已经被从物质对象到数字数据的过渡所分散。
{"title":"From Albums to Musicking Assemblages: Virtual Structures and Topological Unfoldings in Toyomu’s “Imagining” of Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo","authors":"Artur Szarecki","doi":"10.4467/20843860pk.23.004.17847","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860pk.23.004.17847","url":null,"abstract":"In 2016, Kanye West released his highly anticipated eight album, The Life of Pablo, on a streaming platform Deezer, where it remained exclusively available for over a month. This prevented audiences from several countries, where the service has not yet launched, from accessing it. As a result, Japanese electronic music producer, Toyomu, created his own version of the album, without hearing the original. Browsing the internet, he tracked every sample and every lyric that West used, and assembled them into an original work, comprising an “imagining” of how The Life of Pablo could have sounded. His endeavor, while ingrained in the cultural logic of remix, goes beyond it, comprising a unique musical entity that eludes easy categorization. Therefore, the paper employs Manuel DeLanda’s assemblage theory to account for its specificity. This entails a shift from a relational and processual understanding of the musical album, already implied in West’s work, to mapping the topological structure of possibilities, defined by invariants and attractors, that hints at real but not actual vectors of its becoming. As such, Toyomu’s undertaking provides an opportunity to further rethink the concept of the musical album in a time when it was already decentered by the transition from material objects to digital data.","PeriodicalId":187788,"journal":{"name":"Przegląd Kulturoznawczy","volume":"35 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126520992","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-03-01DOI: 10.4467/20843860pk.23.001.17844
Magdalena Dunaj
The paper aims to answer how deaf/Deaf practice inferred the sound. The author analyses the Reddit discussion on deaf experiences with sound. Using Steven Feld’s concept of acoustemology, which is one’s sonic way of knowing and being in the world, the author discusses the meaning of sound in the deaf/Deaf epistemological experience. The sound is a pharmacon. For the deaf/Deaf, the sound brings both positive and negative, expected and unexpected. Ernesto Laclau’s term of emancipation is used to explain how d/Deaf sound practices entail this ambiguity. The author describes four sound emancipatory strategies: expect unexpected, sound management, fabrication of sound, and semiosis. The deafness condition breaks down the perfect ideas of sound and silence, placing us in the sound continuum. Sound is perceivable, but the significance it brings is sometimes debatable. Sound emancipatory strategies enable d/Deaf people to tell their own story of experiencing sound, take control over the sound and show their expertise on it, free their hearing process, and break speech hegemony.
{"title":"How sound is experiences in deaf/Deaf practice? On sound emancipatory strategies","authors":"Magdalena Dunaj","doi":"10.4467/20843860pk.23.001.17844","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860pk.23.001.17844","url":null,"abstract":"The paper aims to answer how deaf/Deaf practice inferred the sound. The author analyses the Reddit discussion on deaf experiences with sound. Using Steven Feld’s concept of acoustemology, which is one’s sonic way of knowing and being in the world, the author discusses the meaning of sound in the deaf/Deaf epistemological experience. The sound is a pharmacon. For the deaf/Deaf, the sound brings both positive and negative, expected and unexpected. Ernesto Laclau’s term of emancipation is used to explain how d/Deaf sound practices entail this ambiguity. The author describes four sound emancipatory strategies: expect unexpected, sound management, fabrication of sound, and semiosis. The deafness condition breaks down the perfect ideas of sound and silence, placing us in the sound continuum. Sound is perceivable, but the significance it brings is sometimes debatable. Sound emancipatory strategies enable d/Deaf people to tell their own story of experiencing sound, take control over the sound and show their expertise on it, free their hearing process, and break speech hegemony.","PeriodicalId":187788,"journal":{"name":"Przegląd Kulturoznawczy","volume":"44 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"123414733","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-30DOI: 10.4467/20843860pk.22.039.17093
K. Clark
Many scholars have looked at how players engage with games of Empire in ways that both reproduce and subvert capitalist-colonial narratives of resource accumulation, war, and conquest. This article examines the 2016 release of No Man’s Sky, and how the colonial conquest and resource gathering that are central to the gameplay quickly unravelled as players spent time with the game. Firstly, this article will explore how the release of No Man’s Sky initially replicated the myth of terra nullius, as well as an understanding of the environment as resources-in-waiting. This is contrasted with the fact that No Man’s Sky did not replicate the traditional triple-A structure of action, which leads the player to a playthrough that focuses on ‘bearing witness’ to the environment, rather than harvesting its resources to strengthen the player-character and progress through the game. However, major updates to No Man’s Sky fundamentally changed the player’s relationship to the game-world, further obscuring many of the moments of speculation that the initial release provided. This analysis demonstrates how games of Empire can create affective experiences that can inadvertently challenge the very narratives that they are enmeshed in. These moments are fleeting but provide a valuable insight into the role that games play in the crises of the Anthropocene.
{"title":"Unravelling Narratives of Empire in No Man’s Sky","authors":"K. Clark","doi":"10.4467/20843860pk.22.039.17093","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860pk.22.039.17093","url":null,"abstract":"Many scholars have looked at how players engage with games of Empire in ways that both reproduce and subvert capitalist-colonial narratives of resource accumulation, war, and conquest. This article examines the 2016 release of No Man’s Sky, and how the colonial conquest and resource gathering that are central to the gameplay quickly unravelled as players spent time with the game. Firstly, this article will explore how the release of No Man’s Sky initially replicated the myth of terra nullius, as well as an understanding of the environment as resources-in-waiting. This is contrasted with the fact that No Man’s Sky did not replicate the traditional triple-A structure of action, which leads the player to a playthrough that focuses on ‘bearing witness’ to the environment, rather than harvesting its resources to strengthen the player-character and progress through the game. However, major updates to No Man’s Sky fundamentally changed the player’s relationship to the game-world, further obscuring many of the moments of speculation that the initial release provided. This analysis demonstrates how games of Empire can create affective experiences that can inadvertently challenge the very narratives that they are enmeshed in. These moments are fleeting but provide a valuable insight into the role that games play in the crises of the Anthropocene.","PeriodicalId":187788,"journal":{"name":"Przegląd Kulturoznawczy","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130556297","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-30DOI: 10.4467/20843860pk.22.042.17096
K. Sikorska
{"title":"W poszukiwaniu zaangażowanego kulturoznawstwa? Sprawozdanie z IV Zjazdu Polskiego Towarzystwa Kulturoznawczego (Wrocław, 15–17 września 2022 roku)","authors":"K. Sikorska","doi":"10.4467/20843860pk.22.042.17096","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4467/20843860pk.22.042.17096","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":187788,"journal":{"name":"Przegląd Kulturoznawczy","volume":"71 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132244963","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-30DOI: 10.4467/20843860pk.22.037.17091
Ragnhild Solberg
This article explores how video games that valorize techno-masculine imaginaries of superhuman domination also present humans as depending on computational and non-human agencies to succeed. Through close readings of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward 2007) and Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projekt Red 2020), I illustrate the close connection between machine vision and militarized visions of domination and agency. The analyses show how beyond-human vision enhances player characters and players, complicating the human-machine relationship in the process. Video games can build on and feed into anthropocentric and masculinist narratives. This article demonstrates how even when the technology appears to support these fantasies of human control, there are moments when it takes over or otherwise disrupts the god-like interventions of the human. By analyzing failures, glitches, and the consistent machine participation in the assemblage, I unpack explicit cases of machine agency as part of a broader assemblage, revealing a more complex power dynamics than those that are initially presented to the player. In doing so, this article demonstrates how the superhuman machine vision was never exclusively human to begin with. Understanding vision and agency as shared with machines both enables and complicates fantasies of dominance in video games.
这篇文章探讨了电子游戏是如何将技术男性化的超人统治想象变为现实,并将人类呈现为依赖计算和非人类机构来取得成功的。通过仔细阅读《使命召唤4:现代战争》(Infinity Ward 2007)和《赛博朋克2077》(CD Projekt Red 2020),我阐述了机器视觉与统治和代理的军事化愿景之间的密切联系。分析表明,超越人类的视觉如何增强玩家角色和玩家,并在此过程中使人机关系复杂化。电子游戏可以建立在人类中心主义和男性主义叙事的基础上。这篇文章展示了即使技术似乎支持这些人类控制的幻想,也有一些时刻它会接管或以其他方式破坏人类的上帝般的干预。通过分析组合中的故障、小故障和一致的机器参与,我将机器代理作为更广泛组合的一部分进行了明确的分析,揭示了比最初呈现给玩家的更复杂的权力动态。在此过程中,本文演示了超人机器视觉如何从一开始就不完全是人类的。理解与机器共享的视觉和代理,既使电子游戏中的统治幻想变得可能,也使其变得复杂。
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