Erlenbispolitik between the virtual and the actual : technologies of lived abstraction & the posthuman condition

• Main Author: Kaltofen, Carolin
• Other Authors: Finlan, Alastair ; Erskine, Toni Ann
• Published: Aberystwyth University 2015
• Subjects: 320.01
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.659097

This research seeks to establish a foundation for a posthuman theory of politics that permits novel and explorative politics for the post-anthropocene. The project is situated within new materialist philosophies and pursues its goal through the close engagement with a specific type of advanced technology or immersive gaming technology that is played for political purposes. The arguments and theories developed throughout the thesis are of a metaphysical nature. These claims rework the condition of being and becoming and engage with fundamental ontological, ontogenetic and epistemological questions. Addressing these questions through the thematic case study of gaming technology allows the thesis to trace posthuman bodies and thoughts from their emergence all the way to larger formations that affect political practices. In this sense, gaming scenarios are a test lab not only for emerging posthuman gaming bodies, but also a new political theory associated with it. As such, this thesis is not a gaming critique, but a future-orientated, speculative account on how political games, as a technology characteristic of the posthuman condition, can help to work towards new forms of politics.