The Computer Game as a Somatic Experience

Authors

  • Henrik Smed Nielsen

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7557/23.6112

Abstract

This article describes the experience of playing computer games. With a media archaeological outset the relation between human and machine is emphasised as the key to understand the experience. This relation is further explored by drawing on a phenomenological philosophy of technology which sketches the relation as founded on the player´s embodiment in-the-world. Through the framework of somaesthetics, three different, yet intertwined, embodied relations are outlined as facilitating somatic experiences revolving around the experiential, the representational, and the performative which displace the player´s habitual engagement with the world.

Author Biography

Henrik Smed Nielsen

Ph.d. student

Aarhus University

DARC - Digital Aesthetics Research Center

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Published

2010-04-26

How to Cite

Nielsen, H. S. (2010) “The Computer Game as a Somatic Experience”, Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture, 4(1), pp. 25–40. doi: 10.7557/23.6112.

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Section

Articles