Literatura, Artes e Média

Professores: Pedro Serra e Paulo Silva Pereira

Conteúdos Programáticos
Cultura Virtual
I. Sentidos do vocábulo ‘virtual’. Materialidades do ‘virtual’.
II. História e estudo dos mundos virtuais.
III. Avatares e Meta-Mundos. Inscrição do corpo no espaço virtual.
IV. Tecno-identidades na cultura digital.
V. Imaginação da comunidade virtual. Redes sociais e comunidades de jogos.
VI. A ‘vida virtual’ na literatura e no cinema.

Objetivos do Seminário
a) Compreender a importância dos binómios orgânico/técnico, real/virtual, natural/artificial, material/imaterial na prospeção dos novos processos de subjetivação, identificação e imaginação da comunidade;
b) Produzir descrições densas da noção de avatar como persona do mundo on-line, mediador gráfico ou representação formal do eu e do corpo no cibermundo;
c) Integrar na reflexão crítica sobre identidades e comunidades virtuais as noções de presença/copresença ou interface/imersão, entre outras;
d) Conhecer as modificações sofridas nos últimos trinta anos no âmbito dos mundos em linha, jogos, redes sociais, foros virtuais, chats e blogues;
e) Conhecer as características da normatividade das interações sociais on-line e sua dependência das convenções do relacionamento social off-line;
f) Aprofundar competências de modo a levar a cabo investigação no âmbito das projeções e refrações literárias e cinematográficas da ‘vida virtual’;
g) Adquirir os conhecimentos necessários para compreender diferentes espécies de redes sociais, de modo destacado aquelas que têm temática literária, e identificar os factores que possam determinar o alcance inovador da cultura virtual no âmbito universitário.

Literature, Arts and Media

Seminar Description
Virtual Culture
I. Senses of the word ‘virtual’. Materialities of the ‘virtual’.
II. The history and study of virtual worlds.
III. Avatars and Meta-Worlds. The inscription of the body in virtual space.
IV. Techno-identities in digital culture.
V. Imagination of the virtual community. Social networking and gaming communities.
VI. ‘Virtual life’ in literature and cinema.

Seminar Objectives
a) Understand the importance of the dichotomies organic/technical, real/virtual, natural/artificial, material/immaterial in the exploration of new processes of self-production, identification and imagination of the community;
b) Produce descriptions of the concept of avatar as a persona of the online world, as graphic mediator or formal representation of self and body in the cyber-world;
c) Integrate the notions of presence/co-presence and interface/immersion into a critical reflection on identity and virtual communities;
d) Understand the changes that have occurred in the last thirty years within online worlds, online games, social networks, virtual forums, chats and blogs;
e) Understand the features of the normativity of online social interactions and of its dependence on the conventions of off-line social networking;
f) Acquire the required skills to undertake research on the literary and cinematic projections and refractions of ‘virtual life’;
g) Acquire the necessary knowledge to understand different kinds of social networks, in particular those that have literary content, and identify the factors that may determine the extent of innovation of virtual culture in the university context.

Bibliografia Principal | Main Bibliography
Aboujaoude, Elias (2011). Virtually You. The Dangerous Powers of the E-Personality. New York/London: Norton.
Blascovich, Jim, and Jeremy N. Bailenson (2011). Infinite Reality: Avatars, Eternal Life, New Worlds, and the Dawn of the Virtual Revolution. New York: Harper Collins.
Bracken, Cheryl Campanella, and Paul D. Skalsi, eds. (2010). Immersed in Media: Telepresence in Everyday Life. New York: Taylor and Francis.
Coleman, Beth (2011). Hello Avatar: The Rise of the Networked Generation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Crang, Mike, Phil Crang, and John May (1999). Virtual Geographies: Bodies, Space, and Relations. London: Routledge.
Flichy, Patrice (2007). The Internet Imaginaire. Cambridge, CA: MIT Press.
Gaffey, Peter, ed. (2009). The Force of the Virtual: Deleuze, Science, and Philosophy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Grimshaw, Mark, ed. (2014). The Oxford Handbook of Virtuality. Oxford University Press.
Heim, Michael (1993). The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality. New York: Oxford University Press.
Hinrichs, Randy and Charles Wankel, eds. (2012). Engaging the Avatar: New Frontiers in Immersive Education. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Massumi, Brian (2002). Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Munster, Anna (2006). Materializing New Media: Embodiment in Information Aesthetics. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England.
Nusselder, André (2009). Interface Fantasy: A Lacanian Cyborg Ontology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Pearce, Celia (2009). Communities of Play: Emergent Cultures in Multiplayer Games and Virtual Worlds. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Riegler, Alexander, Markus F. Peschl, Karl Edlinger, Gunther Fleck, and Walter Feigl, eds. (2001). Virtual Reality: Cognitive Foundations, Technological Issues and Philosophical Implications. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Publishing.
Stanney, Kay M., ed. (2002). The Handbook of Virtual Environments: Design, Implementation, and Applications. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Turkle, Sherry (2011). Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic Books.