Abstract
The following discussion examines the notion of the digital sublime by reflecting on the videogame as an aesthetic form. It does so not with the intention of categorizing videogames as art (or not), but in order to examine what sublime affect might mean in the context of contemporary digital technologies. It draws on Kant’s classical formation of the sublime as laid out in the Critique of Judgement, as well as later accounts of the technological sublime, the contemporary ‘posthuman’ sublime, and the more recent concepts of ‘stuplimity’ and flow. Although the remarks below are concerned specifically with contemporary electronic entertainment, the arguments could be extended to a broad range of digital technologies — the mobile phones, home computers, cameras and other electronic devices that feature in the daily lives of an increasing number of people worldwide.
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© 2012 Eugénie Shinkle
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Shinkle, E. (2012). Videogames and the Digital Sublime. In: Karatzogianni, A., Kuntsman, A. (eds) Digital Cultures and the Politics of Emotion. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230391345_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230391345_6
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