Graduation Year

2018

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.A.

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Degree Granting Department

Humanities and Cultural Studies

Major Professor

Scott Ferguson, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Amy Rust, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Todd Jurgess, Ph.D.

Keywords

gaming, media studies, Nintendo Switch, VR

Abstract

Since the birth of the New Hollywood blockbuster out of the Hollywood Renaissance in the 1970s, popular moving image media has continually exhibited an intense interest in play with Newtonian physics and tactile, immediate experience. As the entertainment industry has moved further away from analog and celluloid and deeper into a digital media space, we have begun to see new a new breed of media project that differently engages with our sensorium in order to newly use (and abuse) this interest. I term this digital media project “corporealized media.” Corporealized media, as I define it, refers to media that includes, but is not limited to, the current undertaking in virtual reality technology and other media that has the primary focus of calling attention to or recognizing the user’s physicality, corporeal form, and embodiment. Through phenomenological readings of contemporary corporealized works, I suggest that current popular use of corporealized media is potentially dangerous and inhibiting to society. It has the ability not just to inform aesthetics, but also to shape our greater understanding of our potential connections to others. Instead of embracing physical contraction, we should aim to collectively accept the possible expansion that abstraction in media allows.

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