Technological embodiment and haptic narrative: postphenomenology in cinema, interactive art and computer gaming

Within this thesis I incorporate Don Ihde’s philosophy of technology to consider the human body’s relationship to three contrasting types of media in the form of cinema, interactive art and computer gaming. Using Ihde’s concept of postphenomenology, I consider how corporeality changes with different technological devices and how engagement with each of these contrasting media contributes towards a unique co-creation of story between a body and a technology. Across three chapters I examine how a user’s experience of fictional stories changes based upon the relationships between media and the user’s body, understood through the framework of postphenomenology. This is considered through Ihde’s key concepts of human-technology relationships, which simultaneously amplify and reduce experiences of bodyhood. In Chapter 1 I consider this through the textual analysis of a number of first person point-of- view films including Franck Khalfoun’s Maniac (2012) and Julian Schabel’s Le scaphandre et le papillon (The Diving Bell and Butterfly, 2007). In Chapter 2 this is expanded upon through analysis of interactive art installations and original interviews with artists. These include Blast Theory’s A Machine to See With (2010), Toni Dove’s Artificial Changelings (1998) and Dennis Del Favero’s Scenario (2011). Chapter 3 considers the postphenomenology of the playing body through titles that range from the Grand Theft Auto franchise (2001-present, Rockstar Games) to smaller independent games such as The Novelist (2013, Orthogonal Games) and This War of Mine (2014, 11 bit studios). Using Ihde’s framework, this thesis contributes a new approach to film and media studies by applying postphenomenology to consider different types of fictional experiences. This is a concept that moves viewers and participants of screen and media culture towards a haptic, corporeal and postphenomenological comprehension of narrative