The Object of Platform Studies: Relational Materialities and the Social Platform (the case of the Nintendo Wii)

Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System,by Ian Bogost and Nick Montfort, inaugurated thePlatform Studies series at MIT Press in 2009.We’ve coauthored a new book in the series, Codename: Revolution: the Nintendo Wii Video Game Console. Platform studies is a quintessentially Digital Humanities approach, since it’s explicitly focused on the interrelationship of computing and cultural expression. According to the series preface, the goal of platform studies is “to consider the lowest level of computing systems and to understand how these systems relate to culture and creativity.”In practice, this involves paying close attentionto specific hardware and software interactions--to the vertical relationships between a platform’s multilayered materialities (Hayles; Kirschenbaum),from transistors to code to cultural reception. Any given act of platform-studies analysis may focus for example on the relationship between the chipset and the OS, or between the graphics processor and display parameters or game developers’ designs.In computing terms, platform is an abstraction(Bogost and Montfort), a pragmatic frame placed around whatever hardware-and-software configuration is required in order to build or run certain specificapplications (including creative works). The object of platform studies is thus a shifting series of possibility spaces, any number of dynamic thresholds between discrete levels of a system

Themes, Lexemes, and "Mnemes": Composite Allusions in the Gospel of John and other Jewish Literature

This thesis examines composite allusions to the Jewish scriptures in the Gospel of John and compares these to similar phenomena in late Second Temple Jewish literature. Composite allusions are defined in this study as allusions clustered together in a single literary unit that are best interpreted together. To analyze such allusions, I develop a three-fold method integrating 1) literary analysis; 2) Jewish catchword exegesis; and 3) insights from studies in ancient media culture. The passages I examine are, first, six passages from Jewish literature (CD 1:1–3; 1QHa 16:5–12a; Sir. 33:7–15; Exod. 15:3 LXX; Ps. 71:17 LXX; and Isa. 3:9 LXX); secondly, a double citation in John (12:37–40); and, finally, three composite allusions in John (1:29, 7:37–39, 15:1–11). I argue that the composite features across all of these passages function on the basis of common lexemes, common themes, and metonymy. For all the cases in question I offer fresh insights on how different ancient texts and traditions were likely to have become associated with each other, and how, in the Gospel of John, these associations are embedded in the narrative and utilized for the author’s theological and literary purposes. In my synthesizing conclusion, I apply the results of my findings to the current debate about the “Jewishness” of John. On the one hand, the Gospel of John demonstrates a sophisticated interaction with its scriptural sources—and thus situates itself squarely within the Jewish exegetical traditions of its day. On the other hand, scriptural allusions are employed above all in the interests of christology—setting it outside of and beyond the compass of other Jewish writings