Theories of Interaction

1. Extension: McLuhan theorizes media as extensions of man, and in particular de

scribes games as media of interpersonal communucation and extensions of our soci
al (as opposed to individual) selves.
2. Interface: Galloway's theory of the interface is a theory of interface effect
s as mediating thresholds between self and world and as processes, autonomous zo
nes of activity, effects in that they bring about transformations in material st
ates.
3. Intra-action: Intra-action was Karen Barad's theory that reworks the concept
of interaction by insisting that relation comes before and produces individual o
bjects. This is a theory based on her reading of the history of quantum physics
and critical theory.
4. Metacommunication Framing: This was Bateson's theory of play in which he defi
nes complex communication as that which recognizes communication as a signal and
not object-identification and thus as something that can be wrong.
5. Deep Play: This is Clifford Geertz's theory of how certain forms of play oper
ate as mirrors of societies, dramas that allow groups to tell themselves stories
about themselves.
6. Hierarchy of Self-Other Relations: This was Barbara Smuts definition of seven
levels of relationship that can exist between self and other.
7. Fort-Da (Gone-There): This is Freud's theory of how a child invent a to and f
ro game as way to practice and eventually mastering the task of foregoing the sa
tisfaction of an instinct and replacing it with the pleasure of controlling the
object's going and coming
8. Winnicot's Theory of Play: Winnicot theory of play as theory of object relati
ons in which the self (and eventually society) are constituted by the the interp
lay of personal psychic reality and the experience of the control of actual obje
cts.
9. The Quasi-Object: This is the central concept in Michel Serres' theory for ho
w the "we" of society is produced through the passing around of the "I". The qua
si-object is neither an object nor a subject and yet is both.
10. Symbolic Interactionism: Both Robert Perinbanayagam and Suchman draw on and
define symbolic interactionism which argues that communication - linguistic, ges
tural, etc - and systems of meaning play a fundamental role in the constitution
of the individual as a social being. Perinbanayagam uses it to describe games as
places where players take on roles and play out cultural narratives through alw
ays various dialectics of action and resistence.
11. Situated Action: This is Lucy Suchman's extension of symbolic interactionism
to encompass human-machine interaction. She argues that the "significance of ar
tifacts and actions and the methods through which their significance is conveyed
, have an essential relationship to their concrete circumstances."
12. Game Ethos and Global Empire: C. L. R. James, Dyer-Witheford/de Peuter, and
Nakamura all address the interactions between cultures that occur in colonial, i
mperial, transnational contexts. James reflects on his lifelong inhabitation of
the British old-school-ties ethos of fair play in the context of Trinidad's colo
nial history and his trajectory as a Marxist historian. Nick Dyer-Witheford and
Greg de Peuter argue that video games are a paradigmatic media, demonstrating th
e interaction of virtual games and actual power in the context of Empire. And Li
sa Nakamura looks at the racism that digital players direct towards digital work
ers in World of Warcraft.
13. Phenomenology: As we discussed in class, you may decide to take up phenomeno
logy which is an approach that emphasizes direct bodied perception.