<p>This chapter zooms in on transformations of intimacy and relational spaces in a time of ... more <p>This chapter zooms in on transformations of intimacy and relational spaces in a time of a viral, global crisis. Set against the backdrop of "social distancing" practices, the chapter opens with a discussion of digital intimacy, focusing on the layering of anxiety and anticipation within networked connectivity. Secondly, it moves on to discuss how such anticipatory anxiety may become punctuated by pleasure and joy. Considering the dynamics between physical disconnection and digital intensity within pandemic hookup practices, it explores in particular instances of quarantine humor in queer hookup cultures. This humor stems from impossibly contradictory spaces of self-isolation, desire, and longing, in relation to which the swiftness of the swipe is transformed into a disconnect in the shape of a delay. The chapter ends with an example of Swedish, queer quarantine humor and a discussion of partial disconnections, or selective connectivity in difficult times in the interest of self-care.</p>
Nas redes sociais, o humor feminista geralmente chama a atenção pela dinâmica com que aborda o gê... more Nas redes sociais, o humor feminista geralmente chama a atenção pela dinâmica com que aborda o gênero binário, do qual zomba, subverte e comenta. Com foco no Tumblr “Congrats, you have an all male panel”, no perfil “Man Who Has It All” no Twitter e do Facebook e no perfil do Twitter “Men Write Women”, este artigo observa como esses projetos reexecutam o poder assimétrico de gênero binário por meio da repetição e subversão, extraindo seu apelo da própria lógica que eles mesmos criticam para ter um efeito disruptivo. Além disso, o texto questiona como as diferentes dinâmicas de plataforma de mídias sociais ajudam a agrupar certa sociabilidade e como a crítica do riso em rede aborda a importância da diversidade afetiva ao fazer piada de coisas absurdas. Nosso argumento é de que, ao recusar e evitar a lógica que a maioria oferece, e ao focar em situações absurdas, ridículas e inadequadas, este tipo de humor gera zonas produtivas de ambiguidade e risos incontroláveis onde tensões e difer...
The aim of this presentation is to show how the idea of computer technologies as disembodied and ... more The aim of this presentation is to show how the idea of computer technologies as disembodied and immaterial always has corporeal implications. Letting a range of female cyborg bodies serve as a backdrop, the discussion will focus on questions of online embodiment and cybersubjectivity. I will pay a visit to a hypertextual female Frankenstein’s monster, as well as reflect upon the creation of online bodies in a MOO – a text-based virtual world. Central to the argument is a reconfiguration of Donna Haraway’s cyborg in terms of a she-cyborg.
... type: Chapter in book (Other academic). Language: English. In: Cyberfeminism in Northen light... more ... type: Chapter in book (Other academic). Language: English. In: Cyberfeminism in Northen lights: digital media and gender in a Nordic context. Editor: Malin Sveningsson Elm, Jenny Sundén. Place of publ.: Newcastle-upon-Tyn ...
Feminist game studies scholars are still few and far between, and little has been done in the int... more Feminist game studies scholars are still few and far between, and little has been done in the intersection of queer theory and games. Informed by feminist discussions of affect, and of emotion, this article uses an ethnographic study of queer potentials in the MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) World of Warcraft as its core example. The article develops an understanding of online gaming by investigating embodied experiences, affective investments and circulations within game spaces. Ultimately, it asks what an online game like World of Warcraft puts in motion, and what consequences such stirring may have for ways of thinking – and feeling – games, critically, yet sensitively. How do emotions circulate in and through games? How do corporeal desires and belongings map onto games? Could certain game spaces or moments of play be termed ‘queer’?
In the midst of the affective networks of contemporary digital cultures, something seemingly of t... more In the midst of the affective networks of contemporary digital cultures, something seemingly of the opposite order is taking shape. It is a culture that contrasts speed with slowness, displaces the new with the old and the used, and replaces supposedly immaterial streams of data with highly material, tactile technologies, materials and fabrics. This chapter turns to steampunk cultures as compelling examples of a contemporary affective investment in the analog, coupled with intense digital connectivity. Drawing on affect theory in a neo-materialist vein, the author formulates a critique of Brian Massumi’s notion of the superiority of the analog and suggests that steampunk, rather than being understood as analog nostalgia, is more aptly understood in terms of the transdigital. The term transdigital accounts for analog passions that are shaped through the digital in ways that concretely activate, but also move across the borders of, or beyond the digital. Steampunk, rather than merely ...
This paper is based on an ongoing ethnography of a GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) gui... more This paper is based on an ongoing ethnography of a GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) guild in the MMOG World of Warcraft. Drawing on queer/feminist theory, the argument concentrates on sexuality as resource for 'transgressive play'. The notion of transgressive play is usually taken to mean play against the 'ideal' or 'implied' player of the game, of playing the game in ways not anticipated by design. For queer gamers, sexuality comes into play in ways that make visible the cultural norms of the ideal player-a player who is at least symbolically male and straight. This ethnographic work indicates that there are queer uses of game spaces that in significant ways make visible-and play around with-norms and expectations that are shaping what online game communities are, and what they could be.
... digital media and gender in a Nordic context. Editor: Malin Sveningsson Elm, Jenny Sundén. Pl... more ... digital media and gender in a Nordic context. Editor: Malin Sveningsson Elm, Jenny Sundén. Place of publ.: Newcastle-upon-Tyne Publisher: Cambridge Scholars. Pages: 1-27. Year of publ.: 2007. URI: urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-11405. ...
Since the 1990s, the particularities of digital culture and online communications have been exten... more Since the 1990s, the particularities of digital culture and online communications have been extensively theorized in terms of immateriality and virtuality. As that which does not factually exist yet has effects, the virtual has been defined as the opposite of the actual, the real, or the material. Images or text on a computer screen become perceptible when computers are attached to modems and when files are read with the aid of correct software. As binary code, files are ephemeral in their immateriality, yet tangible in their perceptibility and effects. Encounters with them involve tactile interconnection of technological objects with the fleshiness of the human sensorium, and such encounters are highly material. In fact it can be argued that any clear distinctions between the material and the immaterial, the actual and the virtual grow leaky in the “material virtualities” (Sunden 2003) of online communication. The intensities of online romance and sex, for example, encompass showin...
<p>This chapter zooms in on transformations of intimacy and relational spaces in a time of ... more <p>This chapter zooms in on transformations of intimacy and relational spaces in a time of a viral, global crisis. Set against the backdrop of "social distancing" practices, the chapter opens with a discussion of digital intimacy, focusing on the layering of anxiety and anticipation within networked connectivity. Secondly, it moves on to discuss how such anticipatory anxiety may become punctuated by pleasure and joy. Considering the dynamics between physical disconnection and digital intensity within pandemic hookup practices, it explores in particular instances of quarantine humor in queer hookup cultures. This humor stems from impossibly contradictory spaces of self-isolation, desire, and longing, in relation to which the swiftness of the swipe is transformed into a disconnect in the shape of a delay. The chapter ends with an example of Swedish, queer quarantine humor and a discussion of partial disconnections, or selective connectivity in difficult times in the interest of self-care.</p>
Nas redes sociais, o humor feminista geralmente chama a atenção pela dinâmica com que aborda o gê... more Nas redes sociais, o humor feminista geralmente chama a atenção pela dinâmica com que aborda o gênero binário, do qual zomba, subverte e comenta. Com foco no Tumblr “Congrats, you have an all male panel”, no perfil “Man Who Has It All” no Twitter e do Facebook e no perfil do Twitter “Men Write Women”, este artigo observa como esses projetos reexecutam o poder assimétrico de gênero binário por meio da repetição e subversão, extraindo seu apelo da própria lógica que eles mesmos criticam para ter um efeito disruptivo. Além disso, o texto questiona como as diferentes dinâmicas de plataforma de mídias sociais ajudam a agrupar certa sociabilidade e como a crítica do riso em rede aborda a importância da diversidade afetiva ao fazer piada de coisas absurdas. Nosso argumento é de que, ao recusar e evitar a lógica que a maioria oferece, e ao focar em situações absurdas, ridículas e inadequadas, este tipo de humor gera zonas produtivas de ambiguidade e risos incontroláveis onde tensões e difer...
The aim of this presentation is to show how the idea of computer technologies as disembodied and ... more The aim of this presentation is to show how the idea of computer technologies as disembodied and immaterial always has corporeal implications. Letting a range of female cyborg bodies serve as a backdrop, the discussion will focus on questions of online embodiment and cybersubjectivity. I will pay a visit to a hypertextual female Frankenstein’s monster, as well as reflect upon the creation of online bodies in a MOO – a text-based virtual world. Central to the argument is a reconfiguration of Donna Haraway’s cyborg in terms of a she-cyborg.
... type: Chapter in book (Other academic). Language: English. In: Cyberfeminism in Northen light... more ... type: Chapter in book (Other academic). Language: English. In: Cyberfeminism in Northen lights: digital media and gender in a Nordic context. Editor: Malin Sveningsson Elm, Jenny Sundén. Place of publ.: Newcastle-upon-Tyn ...
Feminist game studies scholars are still few and far between, and little has been done in the int... more Feminist game studies scholars are still few and far between, and little has been done in the intersection of queer theory and games. Informed by feminist discussions of affect, and of emotion, this article uses an ethnographic study of queer potentials in the MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game) World of Warcraft as its core example. The article develops an understanding of online gaming by investigating embodied experiences, affective investments and circulations within game spaces. Ultimately, it asks what an online game like World of Warcraft puts in motion, and what consequences such stirring may have for ways of thinking – and feeling – games, critically, yet sensitively. How do emotions circulate in and through games? How do corporeal desires and belongings map onto games? Could certain game spaces or moments of play be termed ‘queer’?
In the midst of the affective networks of contemporary digital cultures, something seemingly of t... more In the midst of the affective networks of contemporary digital cultures, something seemingly of the opposite order is taking shape. It is a culture that contrasts speed with slowness, displaces the new with the old and the used, and replaces supposedly immaterial streams of data with highly material, tactile technologies, materials and fabrics. This chapter turns to steampunk cultures as compelling examples of a contemporary affective investment in the analog, coupled with intense digital connectivity. Drawing on affect theory in a neo-materialist vein, the author formulates a critique of Brian Massumi’s notion of the superiority of the analog and suggests that steampunk, rather than being understood as analog nostalgia, is more aptly understood in terms of the transdigital. The term transdigital accounts for analog passions that are shaped through the digital in ways that concretely activate, but also move across the borders of, or beyond the digital. Steampunk, rather than merely ...
This paper is based on an ongoing ethnography of a GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) gui... more This paper is based on an ongoing ethnography of a GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) guild in the MMOG World of Warcraft. Drawing on queer/feminist theory, the argument concentrates on sexuality as resource for 'transgressive play'. The notion of transgressive play is usually taken to mean play against the 'ideal' or 'implied' player of the game, of playing the game in ways not anticipated by design. For queer gamers, sexuality comes into play in ways that make visible the cultural norms of the ideal player-a player who is at least symbolically male and straight. This ethnographic work indicates that there are queer uses of game spaces that in significant ways make visible-and play around with-norms and expectations that are shaping what online game communities are, and what they could be.
... digital media and gender in a Nordic context. Editor: Malin Sveningsson Elm, Jenny Sundén. Pl... more ... digital media and gender in a Nordic context. Editor: Malin Sveningsson Elm, Jenny Sundén. Place of publ.: Newcastle-upon-Tyne Publisher: Cambridge Scholars. Pages: 1-27. Year of publ.: 2007. URI: urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-11405. ...
Since the 1990s, the particularities of digital culture and online communications have been exten... more Since the 1990s, the particularities of digital culture and online communications have been extensively theorized in terms of immateriality and virtuality. As that which does not factually exist yet has effects, the virtual has been defined as the opposite of the actual, the real, or the material. Images or text on a computer screen become perceptible when computers are attached to modems and when files are read with the aid of correct software. As binary code, files are ephemeral in their immateriality, yet tangible in their perceptibility and effects. Encounters with them involve tactile interconnection of technological objects with the fleshiness of the human sensorium, and such encounters are highly material. In fact it can be argued that any clear distinctions between the material and the immaterial, the actual and the virtual grow leaky in the “material virtualities” (Sunden 2003) of online communication. The intensities of online romance and sex, for example, encompass showin...
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