The phenomenology of Angry Birds: virtual gravity and distributed proprioception in videogame worlds
The phenomenology of Angry Birds: virtual gravity and distributed proprioception in videogame worlds
This article explores the nature of sensation, perception and proprioception in contemporary digital and mobile culture, as exemplified in digital games. It argues that the application of theories of the phenomenology of perception to digital media and games needs to be extended and adapted to acknowledge and describe the sensing and proprioceptive abilities of technological bodies (both hardware and software) as well as human bodies. The article explores the idea that the embodied ‘feeling’ (proprioception) of virtual physics, particularly gravity, in gameplay experience must be understood as distributed across and through human and non-human sensing bodies. It will take the popular mobile game Angry Birds as a starting point, but will then explore the achievement of distributed proprioception in other games and games hardware more broadly.
Videogames, machine sensing, virtual physics, virtual gravity, phenomenology of perception, postphenomenology
207-224
Giddings, Seth
7d18e858-a849-4633-bae2-777a39937a33
September 2017
Giddings, Seth
7d18e858-a849-4633-bae2-777a39937a33
Giddings, Seth
(2017)
The phenomenology of Angry Birds: virtual gravity and distributed proprioception in videogame worlds.
Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, 9 (3), .
(doi:10.1386/jgvw.9.3.207_1).
Abstract
This article explores the nature of sensation, perception and proprioception in contemporary digital and mobile culture, as exemplified in digital games. It argues that the application of theories of the phenomenology of perception to digital media and games needs to be extended and adapted to acknowledge and describe the sensing and proprioceptive abilities of technological bodies (both hardware and software) as well as human bodies. The article explores the idea that the embodied ‘feeling’ (proprioception) of virtual physics, particularly gravity, in gameplay experience must be understood as distributed across and through human and non-human sensing bodies. It will take the popular mobile game Angry Birds as a starting point, but will then explore the achievement of distributed proprioception in other games and games hardware more broadly.
Text
JGVW 9.3_2_Giddings
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 18 September 2017
e-pub ahead of print date: 30 September 2017
Published date: September 2017
Keywords:
Videogames, machine sensing, virtual physics, virtual gravity, phenomenology of perception, postphenomenology
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 414485
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/414485
PURE UUID: c1d26a18-2c25-4f46-8114-32d6179540f6
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Date deposited: 02 Oct 2017 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:21
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