New Media Workshop

The 2012-13 year kicks off on Tuesday, October 9th with Daniel Johnson, PhD candidate in the Cinema & Media Studies and East Asian Languages & Civilizations departments. Daniel will be presenting a paper entitled, “Game-Becoming Laughter.”

The New Media Workshop now meets in Rosenwald 405, from 4:30 to 6:00pm.

The paper is available here.

To obtain the password to access this paper, please contact workshop co-coordinator Matthew Sims at mbsims [at] uchicago [dot] edu.

Abstract: 

“Let’s Play” recordings of video-game playthroughs have become 
a popular form of entertainment on video sharing sites like 
Youtube and Nicovideo. Although possibly first appearing as a 
variation of written or still-image walkthrough guides and  
evidence of high scores or speed runs these videos have also 
developed into a community-oriented space of communication 
with particular modes of discourse via the user comment 
sections. This paper will take up concepts of laughter, meta-
interaction, and anonymity in relation to the spoken, embodied 
performance of the player/uploader in the video and the 
written, anonymous discourse of the audience in the comments 
section in English and Japanese language "let's play" videos. 
What is the relationship between anonymous communication and 
ironic laughter? How do audiences experience different forms 
of “watching together” or a “double-vision” of screen-surfaces 
and visual content? These questions will serve as a spring-
board into a more abstract interrogation into the relationship 
between visual representation, written discourse, and 
anonymity on the internet.