Braxton Soderman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Film & Media Studies and co-chairs the Humanities Center’s Digital Humanities Exchange (DHX), a group of faculty, staff, and graduate students who share interests in developing digital avenues for humanities research at UCI.  He researches videogames, critical theory, new media aesthetics, and theories of play. He is the author of Against Flow: Video Games and the Flowing Subject (MIT Press, 2021) which critically analyzes Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of psychological flow in relation to game studies and the concept of play. He recently completed a co-authored book on the Intellivision videogame system, developed by the toy company Mattel in the late 1970s. Intellivision: How a Videogame System Battled Atari and Almost Bankrupted Barbie™ will be published within MIT’s Platform Studies Series in Fall 2024. In addition to his books, Professor Soderman has published articles in differences: a Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies, The Journal of Visual Culture, Games and Culture, and elsewhere. He is excited to be working with the Digital Humanities team at UCI and extending its work through a new critical data studies initiative. 

Chair: Francesca Antonacci.

This seminar critically examined the concept and experience of psychological flow within games, play, and digital cultures. The seminar introduced and analyzed the history, theory, and politics of flow, including its development by the Hungarian American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and its widespread use within the fields of game and play studies. In particular, the seminar offered a critical reading of flow as an ideology, an ideology that privileges individual and personal change over collective forms of social transformation. There is a danger to see flow experiences as offering personal solutions to social problems instead of embracing collective, political solutions to issues of social alienation. Indeed, the seminar analyzed how flow can become a strategy to cope with social alienation instead of solving the underlying issues that cause alienation in society. The seminar also examined contemporary digital media culture as a form of “flow culture,” as media scholar Jay Bolter terms it. Within digital culture, flow is commodified as it is integrated into digital games, tools, algorithmic products, and apps to sustain attentive use by consumers. As a form of flow culture, contemporary digital media perpetuate problems of social alienation. Transforming society to reduce alienation, social inequality, and the addictive effect of contemporary technology requires a critical understanding and rethinking of flow. Once the ideological and detrimental effects of flow theory are understood, we can imagine more positive, social uses of flow, games, and digital technologies to create a more free society.

This seminar introduced the psychological experience and theory of flow, particularly in relation to the design and interpretation of games and play. Students learnt what flow experiences are and how flow is discussed and used in contemporary culture. They learnt about the historical emergence of psychological flow theory, its relationship to theories of immersion, and its use within game design to sustain player engagement and enjoyment. Seminar participants also were introduced to problems associated with flow theory, including its use to commodify games and new media. Through hands-on activities with games—including playing the videogame Flow and the popular card game The Mind—students had the opportunity to analyze the implementation of flow in games and the production of both individual and social enjoyment. We also played and discussed other games in relation to flow theory, in order to understand the diversity of flow experiences and how game designers are thinking about flow in the contemporary period.

Critical theory is important to understand the connections between work and play, leisure and labour. Games and play have been theorized as a complete waste and unproductive use of time and effort, so they could be undervalued as cultural objects and, at the same time, used by capitalism and neoliberalism as a way to control our productivity, attention and values. Neoliberalism intensifies and colonizes energies that are inherent in play and games, and thinking critically about these issues could raise the awareness of players and gamers about their experiences. Moreover, critical theory helps us understand the importance of play to analyze processes of neoliberalism in the 21st century.

Unimib's Team:

Marina Borghesan

Alessandro Boscardin

Andrea Brambillla

Anna Chinazzi

Davide Cino

Pier Daniel Cornacchia

Paolo Ferri

Andrea Galimberti

Stefano Malatesta

Paolo Monti

Bogdan Novakovic

Federica Pallavicini

Cristina Palmieri

Stefano Pippa

Paolo Pirillo

Mario Vergani

Guido Veronese

Guests:

Maresa Bertolo (Politecnico di Milano)

Alan Mattiassi (Game Science Research Center)

Gionata Soletti (La casa dei giochi)

Each one contributed to the success of the visiting period.