Mediapoietic thinking
Our cognitive interest lies in the rise of separate display formats in
man-machine perturbations on the level of group interactions, which are
not predictable just by the programming. The applications’ volumes form
the central topics, following Felix Guattari’s notion of the machinic,
but recombined, according to arising contemporary modding cultures
(modding is a term that stands for modifications of software/code
classes in game engines as well as individual modifications of
hardware). The definition of an engine as an algorithmic machine is the
discursive starting point. Software texts as game engines are reflected
and the work focuses on the differentiations and theories of the
machinic towards the actual status of the machine as an engine in
coding-cultures. Machines and engines are here not considered as tools
but as media, as modification material for the arts.
Game modifications
Such a redefinition of game engines promises from our point of view the
possibility of browser free networks. In the actual case the usually
hermetic engine is opened up by integrating the layers of the network
as material for its aesthetic surface. A new hermetic system is shaped
then in the technological sense that such an engine uses its own
proprietary network protocol. In the nybble-toolZ these protocols are
merged with open code standards.
The technological narrative
The main inspiration derives from the structure of the computer game
application, but its initial narrative is based on the technological
potential. A network protocol based on game engines is telling a story
of optional networking as an immersive environment. It can be used on a
console and it can be combined with so called real worlds when it is
implemented on combinatory interfaces.
Cultural application of code
These kinds of narratives are embedded in an existing technology on one
hand and game culture on the other hand. Although the mentioned
applications are sticking to the syntax and images of the language of
shooter games, they are telling a kind of neutral story. The
technological reality is made of the real live circumstances of
individuals creating these software modifications, the network gamers.
They are not quitting the aesthetics or the terminology of game culture
but are providing a different idea of interface culture. This is the
second big narrative shaping up in the field of game inspired
technologies: the techno-cultures itself are telling the stories and
therefore underlining the significance of computer games as a cultural
phenomenon. So the basis for a networked mediapoiesis is both, the
techno code and the cultural application of code.
Moding cultures
These particular types of networked narratives produce its very own
computer literacy. The player community gains interest, when the gamer
clans are originating their own machine movies, their individual
machinimas (as described above.). This means the game users become
pro-active, they start to modify, to recombine. But here the
dispositive raised by this term is that of a community, a culture, or a
so-called scene. It is defined by the act of dealing with programmes,
programme languages, applications and codes. During the recent years a
complete modding scene developed. It encompasses its own magazines, web
pages, discussion groups and a range of minor media, a term that
follows Felix Guattari's conception of art and new media towards
heterogeneous machines, which are obligatory to link people together.
New in this structure of subcultures is the fact that the applications
itself are such minor media communication environments. In general
modding then exemplifies the ongoing and ever intensifying clash over
who will control popular culture. Margaret
Jahrmann, 2003 *)