Dr. Markus Rautzenberg
Markus Rautzenberg is a German media theorist, currently working at the Freie Universität Berlin. In 2007, he received his doctoral degree in philosophy with a thesis on a »Theory of Perturbation«. Scholarships include: DFG-Doctoral Scholarship at the Graduiertenkolleg »Körper-Inszenierungen« (»The Staging of the Body«) and a DFG-Postdoctoral Scholarship at the international graduate school »InterArt«. Since 2011, he heads his own DFG-Research Project on »Evocation. Non-Visual Aspects of Iconicity« there. Main fields of research include: media theory, picture theory, theory and aesthetics of digital media and game studies. Recent publications: “Coping with the Real: Disturbances as Materialities of Communication.” In: Rune Graulund (Ed.): Desperately Seeking Authenticity. An Interdisciplinary Approach, 2010 Kopenhagen; (with Andreas Wolfsteiner): Hide and Seek. Das Spiel von Transparenz und Opazität, 2010 München; (with Kristiane Hasselmann, Erika Fischer-Lichte): Ausweitung der Kunstzone. Interart Studies – Neue Perspektiven in den Kunstwissenschaften, 2010 Bielefeld; Die Gegenwendigkeit der Störung. Aspekte einer postmetaphysischen Präsenztheorie, 2009 Berlin/Zürich.
RESEARCH PROJECT
II. Exploring Uncertainty. Computer Games and Philosophy
The book “Exploring Uncertainty. Computer Games and Philosophy” is the sum of my work on the subject of game studies written over the last ten years. It is an attempt to reflect a decade of research in German computer game studies from a theoretical perspective that combines philosophy and media studies. The subject of the book – game studies – is an emerging interdisciplinary field of research that not only asks about the history and theory of computer games but takes these as a symptom and starting point for a much broader inquiry into the role of games and play in current culture.
The book will provide 1. An introduction to a continental approach towards game studies 2. An aesthetic theory of computer games rooted in concepts of performativity 3. An introduction to an interdisciplinary approach to game studies that is based on philosophical perspectives on the subject matter.
Always rooted in an intimate phenomenology of the subject matter it does not »stick« to just computer games. It is a book that uses computer games as a medium for theory: what do computer games tell us about our current medial world relation? What kind of knowledge is encapsulated in these explorable digital worlds? What is the relation of hand, eye and mind in computer games? What kind of medial practices do computer games induce? The book describes computer games as emblematic for digital media as a whole because digital media already work as performative media par excellence: they do what they say in the act of saying it. Digital code doesn’t ‘mean’ anything, it ‘does’ what it ‘says’ in the moment of its actualization and realization. The ‘ontology’ of computer games therefore consists of a practice of signs and perception.
(Finalization and translation. The book will be published in late 2015/early 2016 at Palgrave Macmillan as part of their book series »Performance Philosophy«)