Introduction Virtual reality (VR) has also been called one of “the scientific, philosophical and technological frontiers of our era”, “art of the highest order”, “an opportunity to transcend the limitations of physical embodiment” and “a complete habitat for the mind and body” (Jerald, 2016, p. 1; Chan, 2014, p. 2; Ryan, 2015, p. 247). Ryan … Continue reading Virtual Reality in the Social Imaginary

An Analysis of Scene Composition and Violent Action  During Sergeant Catherine Cawood’s Rescue of Ann Gallagher Introduction It was a 4.5-minute sequence of British television that made headlines. Police Sergeant Catherine Cawood, protagonist of the BBC’s Happy Valley, is beaten to a bloody pulp by a sociopathic kidnapper and serial rapist while rescuing a kidnapped … Continue reading ‘Out of Darkness’: The Heroic Women of BBC’s Happy Valley

Introduction When Filippo Marinetti sat down to pen his polemical Founding Manifesto of Futurism (1909), the French language treatise that gave rise to the Italian Futurism avant-garde movement, the streets of Milan hung with electric lights, the Italian landscape was slashed with steel railway lines carrying double-decker train cars, the air crackled with early experimental … Continue reading Of Madness and Metaphysics: Italian Futurism at the Dawn of the 20th Century

Introduction Are digital games empathy machines? How do they differ from other modalities in their ability to produce affective empathy? Drawing specifically on the perspectives Flanagan (2009, 2014), Isbister (2016), Gee (2007), Bogost (2007) and Keogh (2018), I will demonstrate how digital games are a means to share lived experiences, and can help players experience … Continue reading Digital Games As Empathy Machines

Introduction  The magic circle has been described as a sacred space that separates play from the seriousness of ordinary life (Salen & Zimmerman, 2004; Huizinga, 1955). The concept has been used by early and contemporary games scholars as a way of explaining the allure, uncommon pleasure and immersion experienced by players of analog, digital and … Continue reading The Magic Circle and the Modern Gamer