Platforms as Emergence

This chapter discusses the concept of the platform, which is an increasingly prominent way of understanding the functioning of media technologies. It traces the philosophical, disciplinary, and ideological implications of theoretical and critical works that characterize aspects of media technology, at varying scales, as platforms, in particular in the developing subdiscipline of “platform studies.” It challenges the ways that the concept of the platform naturalizes the functioning of media. It shows how the concept of the platform relates to the idea of ontological emergence. It argues that the platform would be more useful in describing epistemological emergence. This chapter argues that an understanding of the platform in terms of ontological emergence erects unnecessary divisions among media, media technologies, and users. It challenges the idea that platforms must necessarily be computational or even technological.

Media and Radical Embodiment

This chapter addresses the concept of mental representations in both media theory and philosophy of mind. It argues that, contrary to what representationalist models claim, the mind does not work by way of an internal language or internal images but through active bodily engagement with the environment. The chapter discusses how mental representations have functioned historically in media theory. It shows how video games have been employed in philosophical and psychological argumentation about the nature of the mind. It presents the case of Hugo Münsterberg, a psychologist whose encounter with film impacted his psychological theory. It discusses the role of imagery in video game play. It illustrates how the use of moving image media in psychological experiments can reinforce ideas about internal mental representations.

Transactionism

This chapter proposes a theoretical approach to media use that treats media and their users’ minds as continuous with one another. It calls this approach “transactionism.” It shows how the philosophy of John Dewey is relevant to the study of contemporary media. The chapter shows how Dewey’s ideas can clarify historical problems from throughout the history of media studies. It uses examples from video games and films to illustrate the utility of transactionism in thinking about individual media and in thinking about relationships among media. It shows how contemporary philosophy of mind extends concepts from Dewey’s philosophy. This clarifies the relationship between Dewey’s ideas and the film and video game examples that the chapter presents.

Designing a Game Boy

This chapter discusses the development of the Nintendo Game Boy portable video game console. It shows how Nintendo imagined its players’ physical relationship to the console, and how it imagined the bodies of the players who might use the device. It examines the patent history of the Game Boy in making an argument that the console’s designers thought about users’ bodies by articulating technology. The chapter shows how the marketing campaign for the device presented consumers with images of Nintendo’s idealized user for the Game Boy, and how the campaign set the tone for Nintendo’s corporate brand identity going forward, an identity that the chapter argues continues to be rooted in particular ideals of mobility and embodiment.

Feeling through the World

This chapter shows how perception of media exemplifies perception in general. It argues that perception of media and art is not an exception to how perception works outside of media use. It discusses the idea that perception is a form of bodily work, and not an automatic or passive phenomenon. This position is opposed to the many theories of mind and theories of media that treat perception as something that just happens automatically. It argues that video games exemplify this active perceptual relationship. The chapter discusses films and video games that pose perceptual and enactive challenges for their users. It shows how ecological theories of perception are appropriate for understanding video game play and understanding media use in general. It illustrates how changing environments and changing technological contexts lead to changes in perception.

Introduction

The introduction argues that conceptual discontinuity, or dualism, has had a significant influence on the development of media theory. Many theories have held media and the mind apart from one another and from the world at large. The introduction argues that this is often a result of media theorists importing dualist conceptions of the mind into their approaches to media. It outlines an alternative history of antidualist thought in media studies, from surrealism in the 1920s through contemporary philosophy of new media, but it argues that an antidualist orientation does not always result in nondualism. The introduction suggests that an embodied, extended understanding of the mind will be key for a truly nondualist theory of media. It provides an overview of the remainder of the book, showing how the chapters work together in articulating a new theory of media and mind.

Conclusion

The conclusion summarizes the key claims of the book, the stakes of these claims, and the utility of a transactional approach to media use. It makes a call for transdisciplinary scholarship, pointing out that no system, whether a medium, a mind, or a discipline, is ever truly closed. It discusses scientific discoveries in recent centuries that have affirmed that humans do not occupy a centralized, privileged position in the universe. While these decenterings can be traumatic, they bring us closer to an understanding of our continuity with the rest of the natural world. The conclusion argues that the task with which we are left is that of feeling our way through the cosmos, and attempting to feel our way toward one another. It suggests that media can be valuable tools for doing just this.

Encounters at the Intraface

This chapter shows how the concept of the interface has been employed in media theory. It discusses theoretical expansions of the concept of the interface to encompass aspects of media use and media users. It argues that this “expanded interface” should be pushed still further, better to reflect the continuity of technology, user, and world. This chapter proposes the term “intraface” as a way of describing contact between media and their users. It shows how media use is transformative for both media and user, and how media use can thus transform users’ relationships to the environments in which media use occurs. These points are illustrated via a discussion of depictions of grief, in film and video games, in which grieving characters navigate and alter the environments in which they live.