The Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice Noted Scholars Series (co-sponsored by Critical Play Initiative) presents:
Video Games and the Pornography of Death
Dr. Amanda Phillips
WHEN & WHERE
Wednesday November 26th,
12-1pm
Buchanan Tower, Room 323
Please RSVP below in advance
A light lunch will be served at 1:00pm
ABOUT Dr. Amanda Philips
Dr. Amanda Philips
Amanda Phillips (they/he/she) is an Associate Professor at Georgetown University. They are the author of Gamer Trouble: Feminist Confrontations in Digital Culture and co-editor of the NYU Press Queer/Trans/Digital/Diaspora book series. Amanda writes about sex, death, identity, and politics in video games.
ABSTRACT
This talk explores the so-called “pornography of death” in video games. Once infamously called “murder simulators” by anti-obscenity activist Jack Thompson, the simulation and animation technologies of video games are indeed often used to depict elaborate, explicit, and exploitative fantasies about dying and killing. From exploding heads and blood fountains to flailing bodies and x-ray vision, the mechanics of death in video games are polymorphously perverse, and understanding the ways that digital technologies stimulate our curiosity of how bodies respond to violence or how individuals behave under threat is crucial in this moment of genocide, rising fascism, racial injustice, and trans- and queerphobia.