Alex Gekker
University of Amsterdam, Media Studies, Faculty Member
- Utrecht University, New Media and Digital Culture, Graduate Studentadd
- Media Studies, Digital Humanities, Digital Culture, Play, Spatial Theory, Maps and Society, and 14 moreVideo Game Studies, New Media and Digital Culture, Social Sciences, Social Networking, Political communication, Computer-Mediated Communication, Virtual Communities, Online Media, Media theory and Research, Political Identity, Mobile and Location-Based Media, Manuel Castells, Lev Manovich, and International Relationsedit
- Alex Gekker is a Assistant Professor of New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam. He completed hi... moreAlex Gekker is a Assistant Professor of New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam. He completed his PhD at Utrecht University, working on the relations between mapping, digital interfaces and power. He is interested in ways socio-technical systems are designed to influence users, and his researched touched upon quantification and datafication of society, the experience economy and interface critique. He publishes on maps, UI/ UX, privacy and platforms.edit
This paper critically interrogates the claims of game-like elements in online brokerages through an interface analysis of three platforms, eToro, Plus500 and DeGiro. The 2021 GameStop Short Squeeze, where coordinated Redditors influenced... more
This paper critically interrogates the claims of game-like elements in online brokerages through an interface analysis of three platforms, eToro, Plus500 and DeGiro. The 2021 GameStop Short Squeeze, where coordinated Redditors influenced financial markets through the mass purchase by individuals of ‘meme stock’, was made possible through the availability of retail trading platforms. One popular reading of the events saw it as ‘gamification’ of trading, without necessarily defining how the term is applicable. While we do not find evidence of direct gamification, we offer an explanation of why the gamification discourse persists. The platforms subtly deploying affective grammars linked to playfulness, thus creating a feeling of play without explicit game-like elements. In so doing, they are not just encouraging users to trade extensively, but are calling into question the epistemic distinction between investment and play, which has underpinned the development of finance since the eigh...
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The paper explores Google Maps’ COVID-19 layer, a special feature launched by the cartographic platform in September 2020, and shut down two years later. Through the reading of promotional corporate blogposts and interfacial analysis of... more
The paper explores Google Maps’ COVID-19 layer, a special feature launched by the cartographic platform in September 2020, and shut down two years later. Through the reading of promotional corporate blogposts and interfacial analysis of the layer, it critiques the layers' mediation of the pandemic, caught between public health needs and Google's overarching ethos. The analysis underscores three central claims: that interfacial choices endemic to the layer impose certainty and reduce necessary user hesitancy; promote data commodification regardless of its pandemic need; and stake unnecessary exceptionalism to the pandemic-spcecific information rather than integrating it into the maps’ existing hybridity. The paper ends with design recommendation for a better COVID layer, centered around bottom-up community practices, higher degree of personalisation, and increased friction.
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This thesis is concerned with the production and deployment of the digital maps in contemporary computational culture. By bringing together theories from Media Studies, Critical Cartography and Science and Technology Studies (STS) I look... more
This thesis is concerned with the production and deployment of the digital maps in contemporary computational culture. By bringing together theories from Media Studies, Critical Cartography and Science and Technology Studies (STS) I look at digital maps as interfaces, designed to be implemented on various screens and modes. Building on production-studies informed ethnographies within a major public mapping organization and a smaller private commercial developer, I point out the tendency for such digital maps to be simultaneously ubiquitous in their desire to be available to all users, on all devices while being personalised by implementing various ways of tracking the user. Thus, I suggest the term ‘uniquitous’ to describe such configuration, and tie it to the changing nature of digital media and cartographic practices. Consequently, I offer a new conceptual framework to understand the emerging relations between mapmakers and map-users, which I name ‘casual power’. The framework ide...
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Following the infrastructural turn in media studies with its focus on the material and social practices, this paper offers to reexamine contemporary data colonialism by empirically exploring some of its most crucial infrastructural... more
Following the infrastructural turn in media studies with its focus on the material and social practices, this paper offers to reexamine contemporary data colonialism by empirically exploring some of its most crucial infrastructural artifacts – data centers. Particularly, this paper explores six data centers currently built in Israel as part of "Project Nimbus" – a $1.2 billion tender offered by the Israeli government to move its computational infrastructure "to the cloud". The tender was won by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud, and has drawn considerable attention, both due to its high-cost and technical complexity; and due to attempts by these companies' workers to curtail the tech giants' involvement in Israel/Palestine on moral grounds. Power differentials are also present within the Israeli society, as intimate governmental data will be processed and stored by foreign US companies. Based on thematic analysis of local journalistic sources, pu...
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The article examines a ‘trinity’ of interconnected components by Mobileye, a company moving into autonomous driving. However, Mobileye is neither an automotive manufacturer, nor a nominal ‘big tech’ company, but an established maker of... more
The article examines a ‘trinity’ of interconnected components by Mobileye, a company moving into autonomous driving. However, Mobileye is neither an automotive manufacturer, nor a nominal ‘big tech’ company, but an established maker of ‘bolt-on’ advanced driver assist systems (ADAS), able to draw on over 65 million vehicles. Through these devices, Mobileye is undertaking a ‘platformisation’, transforming from an automotive supplier into a provider of autonomous vehicle (AV) platforms. We characterise this as a ‘car-agnostic’ approach to autonomous driving. Mobileye represents the advancement, and modulation, of a platform logic into a different type of hardware: the car. To understand the implications of this, we argue that Mobileye acts parasitically in three ways: by inserting itself between driver and vehicle, vehicle manufacturer and vehicle data, and specific vehicles and the emerging AV industry.
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This article examines contemporary practices of ‘idling’ (playing ‘idle games’) and ‘let’s playing’ (watching ‘Let’s Play’ [LP] videos of performed gameplay) as forms of power and resistance in the attention economy. Through the prism of... more
This article examines contemporary practices of ‘idling’ (playing ‘idle games’) and ‘let’s playing’ (watching ‘Let’s Play’ [LP] videos of performed gameplay) as forms of power and resistance in the attention economy. Through the prism of interpassivity, a theory developed by Robert Pfaller and Slavoj Žižek, it establishes idling as relegating certain enjoyment from gameplay to the machine, while reproducing the anxieties associated with digital work as a whole. LPs, on the other hand, position the viewer as a critical analyst rather than a hands-on player. This vicarious experience of delegating play to others can allow avoidance and disengagement, which in turn may allow for a critical examination of the system as whole. As I will argue in this article, such interpassive practices can thus be seen as forms of resistance enabling users to step outside the controlling mechanism of digital media and the associated cybernetic feedback loops.
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The paper draws parallels between quantification as found in the user interfaces of video games, to similar elements of more “serious” devices, in particular mapping and navigational platforms. I present an autoethnographic study of a... more
The paper draws parallels between quantification as found in the user interfaces of video games, to similar elements of more “serious” devices, in particular mapping and navigational platforms. I present an autoethnographic study of a mundane experience that would be familiar to many Google Maps users: locating a nearby place of interest and figuring out how to reach it. The navigational case is used as a canvas for a further analysis of the role of quantified elements in user interfaces. My autoethnography shows how the mundane actions performed on the screen are informed by the necessary reductions that mapped media perform on the physical world. Such reductions are imitated and enabled by user interfaces designed to control and guide user attention. Designers aim to simplify and streamline user interactions with the system and such practices are built on tracking the user and habituating the actions she performs through the screen. Golden rule for young warriors: when in doubt raise DEX! To-hit chance is THE most important stat for a warrior (no matter what your damage is, it’s exactly zero if you miss...), BLOCKING with a shield can actually be a substitute for armor and, early on, 1 AC from a level up is nothing to be looked down on. armin’s Diablo level Up poinT DisTribUTion gUiDe1 Both Armor Class (AC) and To Hit are based on your Dexterity. Below is a summary on how they are calculated. For more information about AC and To Hit, see chapter 5.6.5.
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This paper presents an exploratory research of health games in EU, focusing on the role of multiplayer in the health-games experience, utilizing the health-game taxonomy suggested by Sawyer and Smith [1], combined with a preliminary... more
This paper presents an exploratory research of health games in EU, focusing on the role of multiplayer in the health-games experience, utilizing the health-game taxonomy suggested by Sawyer and Smith [1], combined with a preliminary survey of fity existing European health games in order to point out existing trends and suggest currently untapped venues of exploration. First, a theoretical review is presented, utilizing framework from the humanities and cultural studies in order to address what seen as a design issue with contemporary serious health games. Then, the results of a quantitative study of existing health games are presented, and analyzed through an existing taxonomy. Last, based on the lacunas found in the taxonomy, a thorough theoretical analysis is undertaken on their possible reasons, and suggestions on design methodologies are introduced through a comparison with existing commercial multiplayer games.
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This book opens opens with a discussion of race and racism in a new genomic era and concludes with a debate about method in the study of ethnicity and race. In between these two poles, the chapters in this volume have examined ethnicity,... more
This book opens opens with a discussion of race and racism in a new genomic era and concludes with a debate about method in the study of ethnicity and race. In between these two poles, the chapters in this volume have examined ethnicity, race, post-race and racism across a range of national contexts, chiefly the USA but also France and the United Kingdom. The coverage in this volume - such as mixed-race identities, critical race feminism and intersectionality, sexualities, psychoanalytical and performativity perspectives, critical rationalism and critical whiteness studies - offers an insight into the extent and variety of lively debates and investigations in contemporary race theorising and research. This summary reflects the organisation of this book around a range of contemporary debates and perspectives. Although no book can provide a comprehensive global outlook on the wide and expanding scope of debates and perspectives in which ethnicity, race and racism are key issues, the array of views in this book is intended to highlight a number of key questions in their study. Collectively, the chapters underscore one of these: the extent to which there is recurring and continuing debate about what race is and whether it can, or should, be transcended. This is a theme reflected across both parts of this book. Looked at as a whole, the chapters specify the multiple, sequential and contradictory processes at play in contemporary social science approaches to race.
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Improved antimicrobial prescribing is a key effort to reduce the impact of increasing antimicrobial resistance. Quality improvement programmes in antimicrobial prescribing have to ensure the continued engagement of prescribers with... more
Improved antimicrobial prescribing is a key effort to reduce the impact of increasing antimicrobial resistance. Quality improvement programmes in antimicrobial prescribing have to ensure the continued engagement of prescribers with optimal prescribing behaviours. Serious games have been proposed to improve clinical practice and may serve to resolve some of the behavioural and social barriers influencing prescribing. We describe here the ongoing development and future evaluation of a mobile device-based serious antimicrobial prescribing game for hospital clinicians.
The automotive world is evolving. Ten years ago Nigel Thrift (2004: 41) made the claim that the experience of driving was slipping into our 'technological unconscious'. Only recently the New York Times suggested that with the rise... more
The automotive world is evolving. Ten years ago Nigel Thrift (2004: 41) made the claim that the experience of driving was slipping into our 'technological unconscious'. Only recently the New York Times suggested that with the rise of automated driving, standalone navigation tools as we know them would cease to exist, instead being 'fully absorbed into the machine' (Fisher, 2013). But in order to bridge the gap between past and future driving worlds, another technological evolution is emerging. This short, critical piece charts the rise of what has been called 'social navigation' in the industry; the development of digital mapping platforms designed to foster automotive sociality. It makes two provisional points. Firstly, that 'ludic' conceptualisations can shed light on the ongoing reconfiguration of drivers, vehicles, roads and technological aids such as touch-screen satellite navigation platforms. And secondly, that as a result of this, there is a c...
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This paper explores Disco Elysium’s first major expansion, “Working Class Update” as emblematic of the potential fracture between the game’s themes and its politics of production and distribution. Our central claim is that in this update,... more
This paper explores Disco Elysium’s first major expansion, “Working Class Update” as emblematic of the potential fracture between the game’s themes and its politics of production and distribution. Our central claim is that in this update, the studio has reacted to the audience’s appreciation for the game’s labor themes within broader dissatisfaction with the industry’s otherwise exploitative practices, yet was constrained by the contemporary dynamics of said industry. First, we examine Disco Elysium’s radical political orientation and the platformized political economy of digital game distribution through ZA/UM’s origins within the Estonia-specific ICT scene. Second, we describe the current state of videogames distribution, in critical dialog with Dyer-Witheford and De Peuter’s concept of a “game of multitude.” We show the limits and contradictions of Disco Elysium to enact radical political stance in a grow-ingly consolidated and platform-dependent video games market. Finally, thro...
The article explores the limitations of the current scholarly game studies (GS) field. Its central presuppositions are (1) that there are certain attributes broadly understood as “GS” by those writing in or adjacent to the field; (2) that... more
The article explores the limitations of the current scholarly game studies (GS) field. Its central presuppositions are (1) that there are certain attributes broadly understood as “GS” by those writing in or adjacent to the field; (2) that those attributes are historically rooted in an attempt to disassociate videogames from other types of electronic (and later—digital) media; and that (3) the preconditions that have led to this split are currently moot. In the first section of this article, I elaborate on these presuppositions through reading GS as a historically rooted field, centred around the videogame artefact. Following, by examining the notion of being ‘against’ something in academic work, I move to my central claim for the article: that maintaining this conception of GS is counterproductive to the state of contemporary videogames scholarship and that adopting a post-dualistic and post-humanities stance will greatly contribute to the broadening of the field. I break down this ...
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The monetization of the modern Triple-A game has undergone severe changes, as free-to-play revenue models and game as a service distribution strategy have become standard for game developers. To date, the established tradition of the... more
The monetization of the modern Triple-A game has undergone severe changes, as free-to-play revenue models and game as a service distribution strategy have become standard for game developers. To date, the established tradition of the industry’s political–economic analysis focused on the value extraction and user exploitation of video game as a cultural commodity, centered on the video game as generating value through the selling of boxed or digital units. In this article, we present a new analytical framework grounded in understanding the modern video game as an asset that continuously generates revenue for its owners. This theoretical lens encapsulates the changes in contemporary game development, distribution, and value generation. To demonstrate, we apply it to the analysis of the monetization strategies of three recent free-to-play Triple-A titles: Fortnite (2017), Apex Legends (2019), and Call of Duty: Warzone (2020).
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In the last decade, digital media technologies and developments have given rise to exciting new forms of ludic, or playful, engagements of citizens in cultural and societal issues. From the Occupy movement to playful city-making to the... more
In the last decade, digital media technologies and developments have given rise to exciting new forms of ludic, or playful, engagements of citizens in cultural and societal issues. From the Occupy movement to playful city-making to the gameful designs of the Obama 2008 and Trump 2016 presidential campaigns, and the rise of citizen science and ecological games, this book shows how play is a key theoretical, methodological, and practical principle for comprehending such new forms of civic engagement in a mediatized culture. The Playful Citizen explores how and through what media we are becoming more playful as citizens and how this manifests itself in our ways of doing, living, and thinking. We offer a pluralistic answer to such questions by bringing together scholars from different fields such as game and play studies, social sciences, and media and culture studies.
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Founded in 2004, the Games for Health Project supports community, knowledge and business development efforts to use cutting-edge games and game technologies to improve health and health care. The Games for Health Conference brings... more
Founded in 2004, the Games for Health Project supports community, knowledge and business development efforts to use cutting-edge games and game technologies to improve health and health care. The Games for Health Conference brings together researchers, medical professionals and game developers to share information about the impact of games, playful interaction and game technologies on health, health care and policy. Over two days, more than 400 attendees participate in over 60 sessions provided by an international array of 80+ speakers, cutting across a wide range of activities in health and health care. Topics include exergaming, physical therapy, disease management, health behavior change, biofeedback, rehab, epidemiology, training, cognitive health, nutrition and health education.
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The paper draws parallels between quantification as found in the user interfaces of video games, to similar elements of more “serious” devices, in particular mapping and navigational platforms. I present an autoethnographic study of a... more
The paper draws parallels between quantification as found in the user interfaces of video games, to similar elements of more “serious” devices, in particular mapping and navigational platforms. I present an autoethnographic study of a mundane experience that would be familiar to many Google Maps users: locating a nearby place of interest and figuring out how to reach it. The navigational case is used as a canvas for a further analysis of the role of quantified elements in user interfaces. My autoethnography shows how the mundane actions performed on the screen are informed by the necessary reductions that mapped media perform on the physical world. Such reductions are imitated and enabled by user interfaces designed to control and guide user attention. Designers aim to simplify and streamline user interactions with the system and such practices are built on tracking the user and habituating the actions she performs through the screen. Golden rule for young warriors: when in doubt ra...
This paper presents an exploratory research of health games in EU, focusing on the role of multiplayer in the health-games experience, utilizing the health-game taxonomy suggested by Sawyer and Smith (1), combined with a preliminary... more
This paper presents an exploratory research of health games in EU, focusing on the role of multiplayer in the health-games experience, utilizing the health-game taxonomy suggested by Sawyer and Smith (1), combined with a preliminary survey of fity existing European health games in order to point out existing trends and suggest currently untapped venues of exploration. First, a theoretical review is presented, utilizing framework from the humanities and cultural studies in order to address what seen as a design issue with contempo- rary serious health games. Then, the results of a quantitative study of existing health games are presented, and analyzed through an existing taxonomy. Last, based on the lacunas found in the taxonomy, a thorough theoretical analysis is undertaken on their possible reasons, and suggestions on design methodologies are introduced through a comparison with existing commercial multiplayer games.
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This thesis brings together the fields of political communications and games studies, in order to facilitate novel analysis methods for post-broadcast democracies and the digital citizens that inhabit them. Following the process of... more
This thesis brings together the fields of political communications and games studies, in order to facilitate novel analysis methods for post-broadcast democracies and the digital citizens that inhabit them. Following the process of mediatization, in which the dominant media exerts “moulding forces” over the socio-cultural spheres in which it resides, the author suggests that digital games are a growing component in mediatization, as part of the overall development of the ludification of culture. Consequently, this work implements play and games studies theoretical framework in order to explain how political engagement is shifting from the ideological to the casual, how politicians use game-like mechanics in their campaigns to influence and engage audiences and how the gaming skills of the younger generation are applied also to navigating public battlefields rather than only virtual ones. The author dubs these new forms of engagement “casual politicking”, as it prioritizes non-committing and mundane actions facilitated through the amalgamation of digital devices and social practices arising from ICT and games culture. Such forms are dependent on actions more than words, evoking and harnessing impulsive bursts of productivity that serves certain issues, utilizing technological interfaces and social connectedness of users. The author concludes by suggesting that future propagation of playful and gameful practices in political communications implores the employment of additional research framework from cultural studies and humanities to supplement traditional tool of communications.
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Playful Mapping is the result of many years of joint enterprise in which we, as authors, devel-oped a close intellectual collaboration. As a book, it emerged towards the end of the ERC project Charting the Digital that ran from 2011-2016,... more
Playful Mapping is the result of many years of joint enterprise in which we, as authors, devel-oped a close intellectual collaboration. As a book, it emerged towards the end of the ERC project Charting the Digital that ran from 2011-2016, and during a still-ongoing Erasmus+ project; Go Go Gozo. Over this five year period, members of the Playful Mapping Collective got to know each other as colleagues and friends, participating regularly in diverse academic and social activities, such as conference panels and workshops.1 The authorship of this book therefore reflects an interesting collaborative experiment, enrolling researchers who have been working together in an active way over the past half-decade. This preface explains the genealogy of the emerging and open collaboration through which we developed ideas
The digital era has brought about huge transformations in the map itself, which to date have been largely conceptualised in spatial terms. Novel objects, forms, processes and approaches have emerged and pose new, pressing questions about... more
The digital era has brought about huge transformations in the map itself, which to date have been largely conceptualised in spatial terms. Novel objects, forms, processes and approaches have emerged and pose new, pressing questions about the temporality of digital maps and contemporary mapping practices: in spite of its implicit spatiality, digital mapping is strongly grounded in time. This collection brings time back into the map, taking up Doreen Massey's critical concern for 'ongoing stories' in the world; it asks how mapping enrols time into these narratives. Maps often seek to ‘freeze’ and ‘fix’ the world, looking to represent, document or capture dynamic phenomena. This collection examines how these processes are impacted by digital cartographic technologies that, arguably, have disrupted our understanding of time as much as they have provided coherence. The book consists of twelve chapters from experts in the field. Each addresses a different type of digital mapping practice and analyses it in relation to temporality. Cases discussed range from locative art projects, OpenStreetMap mapping parties, sensory mapping, Google Street View, to visual mapping, smart city dashboards and crisis mapping. Authors from different disciplinary positions consider how a temporal lens might focus attention on different aspects of digital mapping. This kaleidoscopic approach demonstrates a rich plethora of ways for understanding the temporal modes of digital mapping and the interdisciplinary background of the authors allows multiple positions to be developed and contrasted."
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TikTok is commonly known as a playful, silly platform where teenagers share 15-second videos of crazy stunts or act out funny snippets from popular culture. In the past few years, it has experienced exponential growth and popularity,... more
TikTok is commonly known as a playful, silly platform where teenagers share 15-second videos of crazy stunts or act out funny snippets from popular culture. In the past few years, it has experienced exponential growth and popularity, unseating Facebook as the most downloaded app. Interestingly, recent news coverage notes the emergence of TikTok as a political actor in the Indian context. They raise concerns over the abundance of divisive content, hate speech, and the lack of platform accountability in countering these issues. In this article, we analyze how politics is performed on TikTok and how the platform’s design shapes such expressions and their circulation. What does the playful architecture of TikTok mean to the nature of its political discourse and participation? To answer this, we review existing academic work on play, media, and political participation and then examine the case of Sabarimala through the double lens of ludic engagement and platform-specific features. The e...
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This paper brings together emerging work on the platformisation of cultural production (Nieborg and Poell 2018; Duffy, Poell, and Nieborg 2019) with (critical) approaches to digital archiving (Berry 2016; Brügger 2018; Ben-David 2019) and... more
This paper brings together emerging work on the platformisation of cultural production (Nieborg and Poell 2018; Duffy, Poell, and Nieborg 2019) with (critical) approaches to digital archiving (Berry 2016; Brügger 2018; Ben-David 2019) and algorithmic curation (Noble 2018; Amoore 2020) to explore a proposed emerging ‘cloud culture’. The term encompasses (1) the technological capacity to modify cultural commodities after they have reached (and perhaps experience by) users; (2) the erosion of digital ownership, emblematic of similar trends in companies limiting one’s ability to modify – or even repair – their owned hardware and software; and (3) the data-driven race for content optimisation, where platform owners use consumer surveillance to deliver their products for maximum engagement (Helles and Flyverbom 2019). These three components of the term are further explored in relation to the ontological and epistemological repercussions of a continually updating cultural commodities, acro...
In this paper we suggest the notion of $2 to account for the intermingling of socio-technical processes that make online platforms (in this case: YouTube) resistant to stable definitions. It has been over a decade of YouTube studies and... more
In this paper we suggest the notion of $2 to account for the intermingling of socio-technical processes that make online platforms (in this case: YouTube) resistant to stable definitions. It has been over a decade of YouTube studies and yet, a consensus on what precisely YouTube is seems unlikely. Arguably, Burgess and Green began this ontological quest with the first edition of YouTube (2008) in which they set out ‘to work through some of the often-competing ideas about just what YouTube is.” (iv) Snickars and Vondereau (2009) considered the “ontological ambivalence” (2009, p. 28) of YouTube to be an asset since the platform’s success was rooted in its flexibility as a stage for content. Following work attempted to understand YT as a ‘new screen ecology’ (Cunningham 2016); through its platform logics of monetization and viewership (Postigo 2015, Van Es 2020); as a contested space between creators, content and audience (Berryman and Kavka 2018, Bishop 2018; 2019); and as a database,...
This panel brings together emerging scholarship that challenges the contemporary hold of major platforms over public and private life. It critically questions the scope, valence, and embeddedness of platforms in the everyday, challenging... more
This panel brings together emerging scholarship that challenges the contemporary hold of major platforms over public and private life. It critically questions the scope, valence, and embeddedness of platforms in the everyday, challenging (commercial) platformization as the new normal. We attempt to offer new ways of managing, changing and co-opting platforms for the benefit of end-users rather than proprietors only. To this end, the panel discusses and debates 'non-market' approaches to tackling social and environmental effects of platforms. It is designed to build on recent work within infrastructure, platform and critical data studies to suggest alternative approaches to the neoliberal ordering of economic life. A central question is whether the data streams monetized by “big tech” can be harnessed for public, democratic, or socialist ends; in doing so, bringing them 'in house' and into competition with big tech itself. In other words, the panel takes a “protocolog...
This article proposes a new model of privacy: infrastructural surveillance. It departs from Agre’s classic distinction between surveillance and capture by examining the sociotechnical claims of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) as... more
This article proposes a new model of privacy: infrastructural surveillance. It departs from Agre’s classic distinction between surveillance and capture by examining the sociotechnical claims of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) as requiring totalising surveillance of passengers and environment in order to operate. By doing so, it contributes to the ongoing debate on the commodification and platformisation of life, paying attention to the under-explored infrastructural requirements of certain digital technologies, rather than its business model. The article addresses four distinct characteristics of infrastructural surveillance: the aggregation of data, initialisation of protocols limiting possible actions, the prioritisation of distributed modes of governance and the enclosure of the driver in a personalised bubble of sovereign power. Ultimately, unlike previous modes of computer privacy in which activities are being constructed in real time from a set of institutionally stan...
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Recent technological advancements in surveillance and data analysis software have drastically transformed how the United States manages its immigration and national security systems. In particular, an increased emphasis on information... more
Recent technological advancements in surveillance and data analysis software have drastically transformed how the United States manages its immigration and national security systems. In particular, an increased emphasis on information sharing and predictive threat modeling following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, has prompted agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security to acquire powerful data analysis software from private sector vendors, including those in Silicon Valley. However, the impacts of these private sector technologies, especially in the context of privacy rights and civil liberties, are not yet fully understood. This article interrogates those potential impacts, particularly on the lives of immigrants, by analyzing the relational database system Investigative Case Management (ICM), which is used extensively by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to track, manage, and enforce federal immigration policy. As a theoretical framework, the we use ...
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Recent technological advancements in surveillance and data analysis software have drastically transformed how the United States manages its immigration and national security systems. In particular, an increased emphasis on information... more
Recent technological advancements in surveillance and data analysis software have drastically transformed how the United States manages its immigration and national security systems. In particular, an increased emphasis on information sharing and predictive threat modeling following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, has prompted agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security to acquire powerful data analysis software from private sector vendors, including those in Silicon Valley. However, the impacts of these private sector technologies, especially in the context of privacy rights and civil liberties, are not yet fully understood. This article interrogates those potential impacts, particularly on the lives of immigrants, by analyzing the relational database system Investigative Case Management (ICM), which is used extensively by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to track, manage, and enforce federal immigration policy. As a theoretical framework, we use Benjamin Bratton's concept of the "interfacial regime," or the layered assemblages of interfaces that exist in modern networked ICT infrastructures. By conducting a document analysis, we attempt to visually situate ICM within the federal government's larger interfacial regime that is composed by various intertwined databases both within and outside the government's realm of management. Furthermore, we question and critique the role ICM plays in surveilling and governing the lives of immigrants and citizens alike.
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This article proposes a new model of privacy: infrastructural surveillance. It departs from Agre’s classic distinction between surveillance and capture by examining the sociotechnical claims of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) as... more
This article proposes a new model of privacy: infrastructural surveillance. It departs from Agre’s classic distinction between surveillance and capture by examining the sociotechnical claims of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) as requiring totalising surveillance of passengers and environment in order to operate. By doing so, it contributes to the ongoing debate on the commodification and platformisation of life, paying attention to the under-explored infrastructural requirements of certain digital technologies, rather than its business model. The article addresses four distinct characteristics of infrastructural surveillance: the aggregation of data, initialisation of protocols limiting possible actions, the prioritisation of distributed modes of governance and the enclosure of the driver in a personalised bubble of sovereign power. Ultimately, unlike previous modes of computer privacy in which activities are being constructed in real time from a set of institutionally standardised parts specified by a captured ontology, we observe the creation of new ontologies.
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This article examines contemporary practices of playing so-called Idle games and watching YouTube videos of performed gameplay through the prism of interpassivity theory. Despite its prevalence in philosophy, the theory has rarely been... more
This article examines contemporary practices of playing so-called Idle games and watching YouTube videos of performed gameplay through the prism of interpassivity theory. Despite its prevalence in philosophy, the theory has rarely been used to examine the burden of contemporary media – but also its liberating potential. I suggest how in a constant state of interactive media's demand for feedback, vicariously experiencing gameplay through others can be constitutive of gestures of avoidance and disengagement, thus acknowledging in part media's demands on one's self. The interpassive actor allows for the cybernetic system to operate without responding to their always-on logic, allowing for critical examination of the system as whole. The article showcases how idle games, while adhering to interpassive analysis, nonetheless partially reproduce the conditions of the game industry if not the gameplay itself. Specifically, they cement the anticipation of action and follow the templates of other interactive gaming practices reminding the player of the constant need to check, react and engage with the game. Finally, I highlight how the detached observation of the Let's Plays is more in-line with the proposed notion of resistance, through its affordance to bring para-textual aspects of gameplay and position the viewer as a critical analyst of the games' production conditions. You've been logged out due to inactivity.-BlackBoard's expired session message.
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Hacktivism is a portmanteau word of hacking and activism. It builds on the notion of the hacker as a creative tinkerer and disruptor of technology (Rheingold 2000). The definition rose to prominence in the early 2000s. In an influential... more
Hacktivism is a portmanteau word of hacking and activism. It builds on
the notion of the hacker as a creative tinkerer and disruptor of technology
(Rheingold 2000). The definition rose to prominence in the early 2000s.
In an influential book chapter, Dorothy Denning defined hacktivism as
‘the marriage of hacking and activism. It covers operations that use hacking techniques against a target’s Internet site with the intent of disrupting normal operations but not causing serious damage. Examples are web sitins and virtual blockades, automated email bombs, web hacks, computer break- ins, and computer viruses and worms’ (Denning 2001: 241). This definition has since been rendered somewhat obsolete, due to the proliferation of electronically mediated communications and the changes in velocity and volume of such communicated acts (Castells 2006).
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-press/browse-books/global-encyclopedia-of-informality-i
the notion of the hacker as a creative tinkerer and disruptor of technology
(Rheingold 2000). The definition rose to prominence in the early 2000s.
In an influential book chapter, Dorothy Denning defined hacktivism as
‘the marriage of hacking and activism. It covers operations that use hacking techniques against a target’s Internet site with the intent of disrupting normal operations but not causing serious damage. Examples are web sitins and virtual blockades, automated email bombs, web hacks, computer break- ins, and computer viruses and worms’ (Denning 2001: 241). This definition has since been rendered somewhat obsolete, due to the proliferation of electronically mediated communications and the changes in velocity and volume of such communicated acts (Castells 2006).
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-press/browse-books/global-encyclopedia-of-informality-i
Research Interests:
The paper draws parallels between quantification as found in the user interfaces of video games, to similar elements of more " serious " devices, in particular mapping and navigational platforms. I present an autoethnographic study of a... more
The paper draws parallels between quantification as found in the user interfaces of video games, to similar elements of more " serious " devices, in particular mapping and navigational platforms. I present an autoethnographic study of a mundane experience that would be familiar to many Google Maps users: locating a nearby place of interest and figuring out how to reach it. The navigational case is used as a canvas for a further analysis of the role of quantified elements in user interfaces. My autoethnography shows how the mundane actions performed on the screen are informed by the necessary reductions that mapped media perform on the physical world. Such reductions are imitated and enabled by user interfaces designed to control and guide user attention. Designers aim to simplify and streamline user interactions with the system and such practices are built on tracking the user and habituating the actions she performs through the screen.
Research Interests:
The past several years have seen a huge number of publications, conferences and campaigns on ''land grabbing " or large-scale acquisition of land, most often in Africa. Land-grabbing became a fiercely debated issue and the attention... more
The past several years have seen a huge number of publications, conferences and campaigns on ''land grabbing " or large-scale acquisition of land, most often in Africa. Land-grabbing became a fiercely debated issue and the attention rapidly evolved into a real hype which has generated a wealth of knowledge. This global land grab awareness has coincided in time with the ''big data " discussion which is one of the most hyped terms today in both academia and business, suggesting that the availability of datasets of increasing volume, velocity and variety can help to better understand reality. This article aims to critically review to what extent the availability of huge amounts of information about the land grab debate, including new sources of big data, has helped to untangle land grabbing and – more particularly – raising new questions and formulating new hypotheses that have been overlooked in the past. What is the value of digital methods and data driven research through online platforms for identifying knowledge gaps and proposing solutions? Our article shows the value of big data in uncovering new realities but also challenges to not become overwhelmed – while making more efforts than ever to look at the quality – and reliability – of information. Keep doing empirical research – and keep our feet on the ground while also learning from ''virtual space " – is a sine qua non – for keeping track and making sensible interpretations. In many cases, however, there is a discrepancy between what is reported (big data) and what is important.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The automotive world is evolving. Ten years ago Nigel Thrift (2004: 41) made the claim that the experience of driving was slipping into our 'technological unconscious'. Only recently the New York Times suggested that with the rise of... more
The automotive world is evolving. Ten years ago Nigel Thrift (2004: 41) made the claim that the experience of driving was slipping into our 'technological unconscious'. Only recently the New York Times suggested that with the rise of automated driving, standalone navigation tools as we know them would cease to exist, instead being 'fully absorbed into the machine' (Fisher, 2013). But in order to bridge the gap between past and future driving worlds, another technological evolution is emerging. This short, critical piece charts the rise
of what has been called 'social navigation' in the industry; the development of digital mapping platforms designed to foster automotive sociality. It makes two provisional points. Firstly, that 'ludic' conceptualisations can shed light on the ongoing reconfiguration of
drivers, vehicles, roads and technological aids such as touch-screen satellite navigation platforms. And secondly, that as a result of this, there is a coming-into-being of a new kind of driving politics; a 'casual politicking' centred on an engagement with digital interfaces. We explicate both by turning our attention towards Waze; a social navigation application that encourages users to interact with various driving dynamics.
of what has been called 'social navigation' in the industry; the development of digital mapping platforms designed to foster automotive sociality. It makes two provisional points. Firstly, that 'ludic' conceptualisations can shed light on the ongoing reconfiguration of
drivers, vehicles, roads and technological aids such as touch-screen satellite navigation platforms. And secondly, that as a result of this, there is a coming-into-being of a new kind of driving politics; a 'casual politicking' centred on an engagement with digital interfaces. We explicate both by turning our attention towards Waze; a social navigation application that encourages users to interact with various driving dynamics.
Research Interests:
This thesis brings together the fields of political communications and games studies, in order to facilitate novel analysis methods for post-broadcast democracies and the digital citizens that inhabit them. Following the process of... more
This thesis brings together the fields of political communications and games studies, in order to facilitate novel analysis methods for post-broadcast democracies and the digital citizens that inhabit them. Following the process of mediatization, in which the dominant media exerts “moulding forces” over the socio-cultural spheres in which it resides, the author suggests that digital games are a growing component in mediatization, as part of the overall development of the ludification of culture. Consequently, this work implements play and games studies theoretical framework in order to explain how political engagement is shifting from the ideological to the casual, how politicians use game-like mechanics in their campaigns to influence and engage audiences and how the gaming skills of the younger generation are applied also to navigating public battlefields rather than only virtual ones. The author dubs these new forms of engagement “casual politicking”, as it prioritizes non-committing and mundane actions facilitated through the amalgamation of digital devices and social practices arising from ICT and games culture. Such forms are dependent on actions more than words, evoking and harnessing impulsive bursts of productivity that serves certain issues, utilizing technological interfaces and social connectedness of users. The author concludes by suggesting that future propagation of playful and gameful practices in political communications implores the employment of additional research framework from cultural studies and humanities to supplement traditional tool of communications.
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This chapter aims to take a closer look at the issue of user control online, through the prism of anonymity and responsibility. It does so by examining the recent events which were part of “operation payback”, initiated by the online... more
This chapter aims to take a closer look at the issue of user control online, through the prism of anonymity and responsibility. It does so by examining the recent events which were part of “operation payback”, initiated by the online organization/collective/gathering “Anonymous”. In response to several companies’ perceived transgressions, Anonymous has commenced an attack on their public domain servers. In addition, they provided sympathetic web users with a free and easy to use DDoS tool to facilitate the attacks. This paper draws the distinction between Anonymous and hackers, and compares the relation of the two groups with the powers that be. The aim is to show how multitude of varying factors have led to increased resistance to Anonymous because they are not hackers, and how they in fact may contribute to limiting user control online rather than empower it.
Research Interests:
The chapter examines the entanglement of play and politics through digital media. By analysing the Obama 2008 and Trump 2016 presidential campaigns, it proposes a new term to examine political engagement, that of “casual politicking”.... more
The chapter examines the entanglement of play and politics through digital media. By analysing the Obama 2008 and Trump 2016 presidential campaigns, it proposes a new term to examine political engagement, that of “casual politicking”. Building on mediatization theories, the chapter takes the affordances of the casual videogame as a template to analyse the actions performed by citizens, politicians and organisations attempting to persuade and alter behaviours. The resulting characteristics of the political process are presented through four key aspects: the role of ICT platforms with intuitive interfaces, the prevalence of issue-centred rather than ideological action, a perpetual political engagement undeterred by failure and socially-focused networks orientated for fun. When applied to both campaigns, surprising similarities can be seen despite the different messages and personalities of the candidates.
Research Interests:
This is a pre-publication version of a chapter from our upcoming 'Playful Mapping in the Digital Age' Book. It aims to discuss the different roles envisioned by video games designers for maps that they choose to include as visual elements... more
This is a pre-publication version of a chapter from our upcoming 'Playful Mapping in the Digital Age' Book. It aims to discuss the different roles envisioned by video games designers for maps that they choose to include as visual elements in their games. Cartographic maps that portray physical and social environments have become one of the chief ways of understanding and planning actions in the world. Maps have been instrumental for navigation, trade and conquest since the early renaissance era. 1 The 20th century brought enormous technological advances in both production and consumption of maps, culminating with their popular adoption through digital screens and GPS-enabled devices. The complete, and culturally implicit, proliferation of the map as a 'representation' of physical space has, unsurprisingly, ensured its adoption by video game designers for similar purposes in their fictional worlds. If all mapping is playful to some extent (Lammes and Perkins, Chapter 2 this volume), then nowhere is this link more substantial than in the daily encounters of millions of users with imagined spaces on the screens of personal computer and video game consoles. However, maps have never been mere depictions of an existing place, as map-making inherently entails processes of selection and generalization that renders certain aspects of its subject more prominent or hidden. 2 Maps are better understood as guides for action, which dissect, order, colonize and produce 'existing' space, making it available for use and consumption 3. The introduction of precise measuring and ordering technologies have further changed maps' role in allowing them to become user interfaces for habitual uses and arrangement of space. Such systems 'transformed spatial location into a commodity available in much the same way as electricity or water — on demand, at the place of consumption'. 4 Therefore, we must be wary of treating game maps merely as facilitators or as parts of user interfaces. Beyond notions of usability or player fun, maps need to be understood critically as socio-technical assemblages 5 that encapsulate codified relations between the player, the game-space and the envisioned possible interactions promoted by the designer. Just like the medieval cartographer's choice to highlight a certain aspect of the land over another illuminates various politics of visibility and access, so the game designer's choice in relation to mapping can be read
Research Interests:
The chapter examines the entanglement of play and politics through digital media. By analysing the Obama 2008 and Trump 2016 presidential campaigns, it proposes a new term to examine political engagement, that of “casual politicking”.... more
The chapter examines the entanglement of play and politics through digital media. By analysing the Obama 2008 and Trump 2016 presidential campaigns, it proposes a new term to examine political engagement, that of “casual politicking”. Building on mediatization theories, the chapter takes the affordances of the casual videogame as a template to analyse the actions performed by citizens, politicians and organisations attempting to persuade and alter behaviours. The resulting characteristics of the political process are presented through four key aspects: the role of ICT platforms with intuitive interfaces, the prevalence of issue-centred rather than ideological action, a perpetual political engagement undeterred by failure and socially-focused networks orientated for fun. When applied to both campaigns, surprising similarities can be seen despite the different messages and personalities of the candidates.
(An upcoming chapter for the " Playful Citizen" book by Amsterdam University Press, expected December 2018)
(An upcoming chapter for the " Playful Citizen" book by Amsterdam University Press, expected December 2018)