Virtual Bodies: Play, Power, Performance

This seminar investigates digital media practices at the intersection of virtual and embodied experience, from video games and virtual communities to viral dance videos and motion-sensing surveillance systems. How do digitally mediated play, performance, and participatory culture incorporate and/or undermine technologies of power and control? How have new interfaces and media platforms invoked and reshaped ideas about liveness, creativity, authenticity, community, and privacy? What happens when embodied techniques and repertoires are taught and learned using digital media? Readings draw on media ethnography, performance studies, interface studies, and theories of intersectional embodied identity. Class members will undertake a series of practice exercises in which they learn new skills from online sources and collectively reflect on this process. Registration permission granted based on questionnaire distributed at first class meeting.