2,678 research outputs found
Who are our nomads today?: Deleuze's political ontology and the revolutionary problematic
This paper will address the question of the revolution in Gilles Deleuze's political ontology. More specifically, it will explore what kind of person Deleuze believes is capable of bringing about genuine and practical transformation. Contrary to the belief that a Deleuzian program for change centres on the facilitation of 'absolute deterritorialisation' and pure 'lines of flight', I will demonstrate how Deleuze in fact advocates a more cautious and incremental if not conservative practice that promotes the ethic of prudence. This will be achieved in part through a critical analysis of the dualistic premises upon which much Deleuzian political philosophy is based, alongside the
topological triads that can also be found in his work. In light of this critique, Deleuze's thoughts on what it is to be and become a revolutionary will be brought into relief, giving rise to the question of who really is Deleuze's nomad, his true revolutionary or figure of transformation
Shoot at first sight! First person shooter players display reduced reaction time and compromised inhibitory control in comparison to other video game players
Studies have shown that regular video game use might improve cognitive and social skills. In contrast, other studies have documented the negative outcomes of excessive gaming vis-Ă -vis health and socioprofessional spheres. Both positive and negative outcomes of video game use were linked to their structural characteristics (i.e., features that make the game appealing or are inducements for all gamers to keep playing regularly). The current study tested whether active video gamers from main genres (massively multiplayer online role-playing games, online first person shooter, multiplayer online battle arena) differed in a laboratory task that measured inhibitory control. Eighty-one gamers performed the Hybrid-Stop Task, assessing restraint (go/no-go trials) and cancellation (stop-signal trials) processes of a prepotent response. They completed additional self-reported questionnaires measuring demographics, problematic video game use, impulsivity traits, and depressive symptoms. Results showed that when confounding variables were controlled for, participants who favored online first person shooter were characterized by accelerated motor responses yet reduced abilities to cancel a prepotent response. No differences between groups were identified regarding the restraint process. The findings of this pilot study might have clear implications for video gaming research by supporting the critical importance of distinguishing between video game genres when considering their specific potential benefits and detrimental effects
The great ephemeral tattooed skin
The skin is always and already a series of planes which signify race, gender, age and such. Tattooing creates a new surface of potential significance upon the body. Tattooing can call into question concepts of volition in reference to the power to inscribe and define oneâs subjectivity through oneâs own skin, and the social defining of the subject. Skin is the involution or event between subject and object, will and cultural inscription, the social and the self. Feminism, particularly corporeal feminists, have attempted to think ways in which the female flesh may be recognized and self-defined without risking essentialism through reification of the meaning of âwomanâs bodyâ. Thinking the tattooed female body thus resonates with some of the risks and benefits feminism has found in theorizing a marginalized body. Using Deleuze, Guattari, Lyotard and other major influences on corporeal feminists this article explores ways in which significance is sought in skin and possible configurations of skin and world which challenge the desire to read the flesh as a legible incarnation of subjectivity
The racist bodily imaginary: the image of the body-in-pieces in (post)apartheid culture
This paper outlines a reoccurring motif within the racist imaginary of (post)apartheid culture: the black body-in-pieces. This disturbing visual idiom is approached from three conceptual perspectives. By linking ideas prevalent in Frantz Fanonâs description of colonial racism with psychoanalytic concepts such as Lacanâs notion of the corps morcelĂ©, the paper offers, firstly, an account of the black body-in-pieces as fantasmatic preoccupation of the (post)apartheid imaginary. The role of such images is approached, secondly, through the lens of affect theory which eschews a representational âreadingâ of such images in favour of attention to their asignifying intensities and the role they play in effectively constituting such bodies. Lastly, Judith Butlerâs discussion of war photography and the conditions of grievability introduces an ethical dimension to the discussion and helps draw attention to the unsavory relations of enjoyment occasioned by such images
Can the evolution of music be analyzed in a quantitative manner?
We propose a methodology to study music development by applying multivariate
statistics on composers characteristics. Seven representative composers were
considered in terms of eight main musical features. Grades were assigned to
each characteristic and their correlations were analyzed. A bootstrap method
was applied to simulate hundreds of artificial composers influenced by the
seven representatives chosen. Afterwards we quantify non-numeric relations like
dialectics, opposition and innovation. Composers differences on style and
technique were represented as geometrical distances in the feature space,
making it possible to quantify, for example, how much Bach and Stockhausen
differ from other composers or how much Beethoven influenced Brahms. In
addition, we compared the results with a prior investigation on philosophy.
Opposition, strong on philosophy, was not remarkable on music. Supporting an
observation already considered by music theorists, strong influences were
identified between composers by the quantification of dialectics, implying
inheritance and suggesting a stronger master-disciple evolution when compared
to the philosophy analysis.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, added references for sections 1 and 4.C, better
mathematical description on section 2. New values and interpretation, now
considering a bootstrap metho
Addicting via hashtags: How is Twitter making addiction?
Persons, substances, bodies, consumption: an ever widening process of ââaddictingââ is underway in Western societies. In this article, we turn our attention to the production of addiction on the microblogging social media platform, Twitter, as an important emerging site in which the addicting of contemporary societies is also occurring. Our analysis explores two questions. First, we investigate the ways in which addiction is enacted via Twitter. How is addiction being made on Twitter? Second, we ask how the technology of Twitter itself is shaping meaning: how do the technological ââaffordancesââ of Twitter help constitute the kinds of addiction being materialized? While we find a multiplicity of meanings in the 140-character messages, we also find a pattern: a tendency toward extremesâaddiction riven between pain and pleasure. In addition, we find significant areas of commonality between approaches and notable silences around alternatives to common understandings of addiction. We argue that the constraints on communication imposed by Twitter technology afford a ââshorthandââ of addiction that is both revealing and productive. Illuminated is the importance of addiction as a piece of cultural shorthand that draws on and simultaneously reproduces simplistic, reductive addiction objects. In concluding, we consider what these realities of addiction being enacted through Twitter can tell us about contemporary conditions of possibility for drug use in society and for individual subjectivities and experiences
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