Ontic Communities: Speculative Fiction, Ontology, and the Digital Design Community

This dissertation is about the digital design community, those who build cultural and artistic works primarily using digital media. This dissertation, however, is also centered around a larger argument, of which the digital arts and design community serves as a case study. In short, the larger argument is a call to examine more closely the social relationships of material objects (including, but not limited to, humans and things) and idea objects (including, but not limited to, broad cultural and social forces) that constitute the world. This dissertation forwards three major arguments: 1.) That it is often the case, particularly in the social sciences, that scholars look not at non-human objects, but instead at the ways those objects are perceived and labeled by humans/society. Scholars of materiality, then, often miss the mark, and study the conceptualizations of objects at the expense of the objects in of themselves. 2.) That it is theoretically and empirically possible to examine objects in of themselves, and that it is important to do so, as both material and non-material objects contain causal powers that impact history and society independent of the human recognition or conceptualization of these powers. 3.) That objects are also subjects, and engage in intersubjective meaning-making both with humans and other objects. Objects, then, should not be theorized as having various mechanical impacts upon human communities that they interact with, but should instead be theorized as members of the community in of themselves. Non-human entities, in other words, are themselves social beings.Ph.D., Communication, Culture, and Media -- Drexel University, 201

NON-HUMANS AS MEANING-MAKERS: ELIZABETH AS A CO- DESIGNER of BIOSHOCK INFINITE

Who participates in the Community of Practiceof the design of digital technology? Cultural studies scholars traditionally focus on human elements as the key actants and meaning-makers in the design of technology. Even Actor-Network Theory, which attributes causal power to non-human material objects, stops short of crediting objects with interpretive power and meaning-making ability. However, recent theoretical approaches coming out of Speculative Realism, New Materialism, and Non-Human Ethnography are posing challenges to this anthropocentric model of meaning-making

THE ENGINE IS THE MESSAGE: VIDEOGAME INFRASTRUCTURE AND THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL PLATFORMS

On January 18, Microsoft revealed its $68.7 billion deal to acquire videogame publisher Activision Blizzard. The acquisition was pitched as an investment towards “metaverse platforms” that gaming would play a key role in developing. Journalists speculated about the increasing consolidation of the videogame industry and whether blockbuster franchises would be locked into Microsoft’s platforms and subscription services. Commentary on the metaverse weighed in on how toxicity and harassment in game industry workplaces such as Activision Blizzard might relate to issues of trust and safety in virtual worlds such as Meta’s Horizon Worlds. Seemingly above the fray of platform strategy, market speculation, and corporate scandal, New Yorker writer Kyle Chayka (2022) tweeted as a matter of fact: “video game infrastructure and tools are increasingly going to take over all digital platforms”. This panel contextualizes discussions about the business and aesthetics of 3D platforms in the infrastructural work of game engines, which routinely integrate databases, file formats, web protocols, and translational algorithms. We trace public debates and corporate statements over representation and governance, equity and inclusion (Bosworth 2021) to the techniques, technologies, and practices that enable massive real-time 3D digital spaces to flow and transact. We also highlight the growing intertwinement between game engine development companies and related content ecosystems, such as the Epic Games Store and the Unreal Engine, and Epic’s and Unity’s Asset Stores. This panel investigates how digital systems are designed to regulate technical interoperability and its implications for creative practice and cultural production. Together, these papers map how power and capital become centralized and distributed throughout the back end of the metaverse, and politicize how social practices and subjectivities are negotiated through technological architecture