Dissertation

From OpenSourcePhilosophy

Derivation by Parts

The dissertation is a series of essays in constellation. I think of each as independent, and just order them(because print requires that). and because it seems to make the most sense in this order. Conceptually, they are all organized like a wiki (and will be eventually in another form)

• The first is an essay on method and a kind of as-if ontology. I haven't nailed down my language on it yet, but basically, I'm seeking to develop a method that evades both metaphysics and ontology. Think scope, limits, temporary and bounded belief mechanisms, etc. So instead of basing decisions on "what is," one acts as-if something is the case within certain ranges of situations under particular conditions. Change models when desired or required. That's the first essay

• Second is roughest so far (no outline). Basically it concerns living as an artificial life form (in the sense that artificial entails artifice/crafting). In a sense the self is a collaborative practice between itself and the complex mess that lead toward it's instantiation. That's the rough idea. Still scoping that one

• Third essay is "The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Production." Self-explanatory

• Fourth essay addresses the type of work done concerning photography and film by Roland Barthes's work in Camera Lucida and The Third Meaning and attempts to develop a method for discussing the varieties of information, meaning and experience in digital game media and virtual worlds.

Conceptual Fragments

• articulate a method and language that evades ontology through a temporary pragmatics of as-ifs
• the application/development of that method through the case of the medium of computer games
• the form of several essays related in constellation.
• Descartes' Discourse on Method minus metaphysics and identity
• Barthes' projects in Camera Lucida and The Third Meaning
• Benjamin's motivation for Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
• a critical language for the art/design side of the computer game medium
• poetics of code in games
• designing particular, emergent experiences
  • Significance
  • relationships
  • units, cells, flows, ecologies
• designing spaces for morphogenetic organization
• in-play
• as-if
• anticipation and narrative

People's Work

• Deleuze
• DeLanda
• Massumi
• Descartes
• Barthes
• Benjamin
• James
• Shannon
• Weiner
• Badiou
• Crawford
• Bogost