My research is currently concerned with the relationship between screened digital images and the human body. Beginning from a material / ecological perspective, it takes the position that human environments have, for a long time, been as ‘technological’ as they are ‘natural’. As such technology is inextricably caught up with what it is to be human. Developing this perspective, my research attempts to understand how technologies re-wire bodily capacities to act and think, without coming to conscious attention. In turn, I try to think critically about the kinds of technological environments humans produce and the effects these environments have on those who use them.
Current Projects:
Retentional environments and the politics of captivation (2010 - present)
Currently I am continuing my work on videogames through a number of papers that engage with the the ways in which games work to capture, hold and maintain users attention. These processes generate what I term a 'politics of captivation'. I am also working on accounts of how users develop competence with various forms of videogame interface to show how these interfaces can shape users capacities to experience space and time.
Navigation and journeying using in car and on foot GPS (2011 - present)
This project investigates the changing nature of navigation through the use of emerging technologies in mobile Satellite navigation and Global Positioning Systems found in devices such as mobiles phone and in car systems. Concretely it is interested in how orientation via the screens and user interfaces of these devices changes users experience of factors such as distance, speed and journey duration. This is being studied through a series of interviews with GPS users, drive alongs and video ethnography.
Past Projects:
Intensive worlds of the image: practices and processes of videogame design and use (2005- 2009)
This ESRC funded PhD research project investigated videogames as a designed experience and everyday practice. Empirically I worked with a games design company and conducted interviews and video ethnography with a range of users. The research called into question the moral panic that regard videogames as a medium for the dissemination and cultivation of violent and negative affects to the bodies that engage with them.