Search

This paper examines work in cultural and human geography that theorises temporality in terms of events. Moving from humanist phenomenology, to non-representational and assemblage theories and current geographies of encounter, it suggests these accounts of events tend to analyse the past and future through the lens of the present. Building upon these literatures and the work of Tristan Garcia, the paper argues for an expanded notion of the event, where past and future events can be considered as both distinct from, and linked to, the present moment. Here, time comes to be defined as the ordering and stacking of events, where events are understood as sites of comprehension, in which entities are differentiated. The paper suggests this position is useful in order to trace temporal causality across and between entities and events. Tracing the causality of entities and their ordering and stacking across events enables a closer analysis of what the paper terms the temporal power of non-human things. To illustrate this argument, examples from an ESRC project on digital gaming and in-game purchasing are analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post‐phenomenological geographies have critiqued the idea that the world appears for humans alone. In turn, these geographies have begun to develop concepts to investigate the way entities appear to one another in ways that exceed or confound human sense, while recognising that these entities can only be investigated through human modes of access. Addressing the absence of explicit spatial theorisation in this literature, the paper develops a post‐phenomenological account of space. Building on relational and phenomenological geographies and expanding the work of Tristan Garcia, the paper analyses space in terms of the comprehension and form of entities. In doing so, it defines space as a dual process of differentiation and distanciation that produces different modes of nearness and farness that are specific to the intercomprehension of particular entities. Through this analysis the paper offers an account of power as tied to the spatiality of entities, where power is defined as the inequality of comprehensions between entities and how these inequalities are designed to provoke and encourage particular forms of engagement. The paper develops a post‐phenomenological account of space. Building on relational and phenomenological geographies and expanding the work of Tristan Garcia, the paper analyses space in terms of the comprehension and form of entities. In doing so, it defines space as a dual process of differentiation and distanciation that produces different modes of nearness and farness that are specific to the inter‐comprehension of particular entities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently cultural geographers have become increasingly interested in postphenomenological ways of thinking. This article develops a distinct postphenomenological style of analysis. Such a style is twofold, referring both to a style of conceptualizing and writing about objects and a concern for those objects' style. Drawing on the example of the television show In the Night Garden, the article demonstrates two postphenomenological styles of thought—allure and resonance—and how these styles enable us to understand the style of these objects and the role they play in the construction and experience of different cultural worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines geography’s engagements with phenomenology. Tracing phenomenology’s influence, from early humanist reflections on the lifeworld to non-representational theories of practice, the paper identifies the emergence of a distinct post-phenomenological way of thinking. However, there is currently no clear articulation of what differentiates post-phenomenology from phenomenology as a set of theories or ideas, nor is there a clear set of trajectories along which such difference can be pursued further. In response to this, the paper outlines three key elements that differentiate phenomenology from post-phenomenology and that require further exploration. First is a rethinking of intentionality as an emergent relation with the world, rather than an a priori condition of experience. Second is a recognition that objects have an autonomous existence outside of the ways they appear to or are used by human beings. Third is a reconsideration of our relations with alterity, taking this as central to the constitution of phenomenological experience given our irreducible being-with the world. Unpacking these differences, the paper offers some suggestions as to how post-phenomenology contributes to the broader discipline of human geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the skills and knowledges involved in multiplayer first-person shooting games, specifically Call of Duty 4 for the Xbox 360 games console. In doing so, it argues that the environments of first-person shooting games are designed to be intense spaces that produce captivated subjects - users who play attentively for long periods of time. Developing Heidegger's concept of attunement and Stiegler's account of retention, the article unpacks the somatic and sensory skills involved in videogame play and discusses how videogame environments cultivate a sense of captivation. In conclusion the article reflects on the politics of captivation for the bodies that engage with these games through the idea of vulnerability as an 'opening of the body's capacity for sense'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I develop the concept of 'technicity' to theorise how technology shapes spatiotemporal perception. This concept of technicity is applied to the development of skilled play in the fighting videogame Street Fighter IV. Drawing upon a larger research project consisting of participant observation, interviews, and video ethnography with professional and nonprofessional competitive players, I develop an in-depth analysis of how information about the animation system for the game is compiled and used to develop new sensitivities to time. In doing so, I argue that this is one example of the ways in which a variety of technologies shape users' capacities to sense space and time through the habitual development of skill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]