The aim of the paper is to define and to characterize the playable literature. The relation between the playability and the text’s structure projected by its author is strongly stressed, alike the performative character of this kind of texts. The emphasis is also put on the connection between the category of the playability of the literature and its materiality (in context of K. Hayles’s theory of technotext and J. Pressman’s concept of aesthetic of bookishness among others). The author shows transmedia history of the playable texts and at the same time analyzes relation of literary playability with the modern culture and the newest tendencies in HCI creation. Theoretical approach is supplemented by some analysis of B. Ortiz Moreno’s and J. Andrews’ works connecting playability and literacy in really creative way. The final part of the paper reveals also some statements on Polish playable literature.

Author and work in digital culture: the text-machines of Nick Montfort

Cultural and methodological framework set by digital humanities implies a substantial shift in authorial paradigms. A sole humanist thinker is replaced by a humanist-programmer, always ready for collaboration with others and whose research is focused not on close-reading and interpretation, but on computational and generative distance-reading. One of the ways to familiarise with the changed paradigm is to look for similar, authorial figures in arCultural and methodological framework set by digital humanities implies a substantial shift in authorial paradigms. A sole humanist thinker is replaced by a humanist-programmer, always ready for collaboration with others and whose research is focused not on close-reading and interpretation, but on computational and generative distance-reading. One of the ways to familiarise with the changed paradigm is to look for similar, authorial figures in art, specifically in digital literature. The humanist-programmer, someone with higher than usual set of competencies which spanned across computing and literature, has been directly and indirectly present in the work of Nick Montfort – one of the most prolific artists in the field of electronic literature. By looking at the occurrences of the writer-programmer figure in Montfort’s literary happenings and text-machines and by examining the enhanced model of literary communication, the article aims at encouraging new ways of looking at (digitally) infused literature and culture, establishing Nick Montfort as one of their pioneers and proponents. Part of the article, while discussing a poetry generator Sea and Spar Between, concentrates on several categories related to the figure of humanist-programmer: critical code studies, distributive authorship, culture of collaboration, remix culture.t, specifically in digital literature. The humanist-programmer, someone with higher than usual set of competencies which spanned across computing and literature, has been directly and indirectly present in the work of Nick Montfort – one of the most prolific artists in the field of electronic literature. By looking at the occurrences of the writer-programmer figure in Montfort’s literary happenings and text-machines and by examining the enhanced model of literary communication, the article aims at encouraging new ways of looking at (digitally) infused literature and culture, establishing Nick Montfort as one of their pioneers and proponents. Part of the article, while discussing a poetry generator Sea and Spar Between, concentrates on several categories related to the figure of  humanist-programmer: critical code studies, distributive authorship, culture of collaboration, remix culture.

Canadian poet, programmer, and artist Jim Andrews lived and worked in Seattle 1997–2000, participating in the exuberant economic and technological growth known as the dot-com era. Andrews’ DHTML poems engage the materiality of Web technologies from this moment in computational history and were instrumental in his formation as a poet. This article performs media-specific analyses on Enigma n and Seattle Drift to contextualize and demonstrate Andrews’ evolution into an e-poet.

The article is devoted to the signed narratives created by the deaf communities and presents the attempt of genology of sign narratives they are divided into: deaf-lore (storytelling), cinematographic stories, signed songs and stories with constraints (e.g. ABC or number stories). The main corpus of artwork described and analyzed in the article is signed in American Sign Language, but author tried to take into consideration Polish Sign Language works as well. Apart from the genres and types of the signed narratives author tries to place them in a broader context. Most important is the doubt whether deaf narratives may be considered literature at all, as they do not use words and letters in traditional way. The influence of the moving picture technology is also considered as a powerful boost to the signed narratives.

The author introduces the problematics of the changing discourse of face. He argues that it requires a special attention given the scope and strength of mediatization processes permeating contemporary culture. In the article the consecutive historical phases of reflection on the cultural role of face are presented, spanning from ancient Greece and Middle Ages to late modernity. Such undertaking serves as a rich background for the detailed study of discourse of face in cinema and other screen based media.

Article proposes to look at the reflection of the contemporary state of cultural studies through the prism of neo-liberal vision of the world that defines in a special way so called ‘significant field’ of today’s humanities. The concept of monoculture and mediatization serve as a problem of exemplification of entanglement scientific reflection in reality, which should be the subject of a critical vivisection. Some examples show what the word of entanglement is and why it limits the critical potential of the humanities.

The article is an attempt to analyse the emergent practices around designer drugs in the perspective of Roberto Esposito’s biopolitics. New psychoactive substances are understood as technologies that – at the same time – support and subvert the logics of immunization, reestablishing the relationship between subject and object. The author juxtaposes post-Foucaultian and post-Lacanian theories of drug addiction as two possible ways of understanding the realtion between the drug and its user, both failing to account for the agency of the object itself. The excessive nature of designer drugs makes them immune to legal procedures, but also at the same time, reveals the shortcommings of critical discourse analysis. The author emphasizes the need to incorporate the accomplishments of new materialism and object-oriented philosophy into the realm of cultural studies analysis. Following Dunne’s design theory, he describes new ways of knowledge production in designer drugs communities, and examines them in the context of biohacking and bio-DIY communities. The article is aimed at establishing the biopolitical theory of drugs, that provides a better understanding for contemporary media practices around designer drugs.

The article considers the intersectionality issue – its potential for contemporary research and its status among other theoretical propositions. The author presents in her text the history of the analyzed concept, as well as the main theoretical directions of it and also asks for its use in the future. Intersectionality is considered in the paper in relation to feminist theory, theories of multiculturalism, ethnographic research, and to legal discussions. The author also cites the main originators and researchers of intersectionality: Kimberlé Crenshaw, Johanna Kantola and Nousiainen Kevät, Kathy Davis.

Recenzja

Mariusz Pisarski, Xanadu. Hipertekstowe przemiany prozy, Korporacja Ha!art, Kraków 2013, ss. 296.

Recenzja

Simon Frith, Sceniczne rytuały. O wartości muzyki popularnej, przeł. Marek Król, seria Cultura, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Kraków 2011, ss. 390.

Review

Sean Howe Niezwykła historia Marvel Comics