[-empyre-] Compulsion vs. Distraction

[Patrick Keilty]

Jacob, I love your question about whether compulsion is always recuperable
as extracted value through advertising. I agree that there are significant
differences between compulsion in gambling and compulsion in pornography.
And you're right that interface design and software design on online
pornography sites, such as xtube or pornhub, are very different from the
designs we find in penny slot machines (I love comparing and contrasting
the two). While online porn might be less scripted, viewers can still only
search/ browse/ explore within certain constraints according to the design
of the interface and the database management system (including metadata and
algorithmic elements). Browsing occurs according to certain cues. So it's a
kind of guided exploration, like a navigation with many prescribed routes.
I am fascinated by compilation videos as part of my broader interest in new
narrative techniques in online pornography (a topic for a whole other
empyre discussion!). One thing I wonder about is whether viewers actually
watch compilation videos all the way through, or do viewers jumnp around
within the video and jump between videos. If viewers jump around, then I do
think it lends itself to extraction through advertising as a form of
browsing. I agree that the 2+ hour extended cuts don't lend themselves to
the same kind of revenue model, but I wonder if most people get access to
those cuts through a different financial model, like a subscription. Maybe
not. I don't know. I haven't really thought as much about the 2+ hour
videos as I have about short clips. It's a good question, and maybe
something I should think more about.

Also, *love* the meme. The promise of something better is partly what
drives this form of compulsion.

Patrick Keilty
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Information
Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies
University of Toronto

On Wed, Oct 21, 2015 at 11:36 AM, Jacob Gaboury <
jacob.gaboury at stonybrook.edu> wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Hello All,
>
> It's been a fascinating discussion so far, and I just wanted to pick up on
> a few key points made by Patrick and others over the past few weeks. The
> question of design and compulsion rings true on several levels,
> particularly as it relates to certain kinds of gamified use and play.
> However I don’t want to ascribe all forms of compulsive use to design *per
> se*, at lease not design as some kind of calculated practice. I’m
> particularly interested in the question of vernacular and improper use,
> which I wrote about in a brief piece for Art Papers this past January <
> http://www.artpapers.org/feature_articles/2015_0102-feature3.html>. When
> is compulsion not designed for, and is it always recuperable as extracted
> value through advertising, in-app purchases, etc. As Natasha Schüll’s
> fantastic work on machine gambling shows, certain spaces and forms of use
> are highly scripted and designed, but I don’t think that is entirely the
> case when it comes to the pornographic context that many contributors have
> discussed over the past few weeks. I immediately think of the tendency
> toward compilation videos that string together only the climaxes or “money
> shots” of a collection of videos, or 2+ hour extended cuts that can be set
> to play uninterrupted, which seem designed instead for some kind of
> distracted use. Is this form of use equally recuperable, or does it somehow
> fall outside of design? After all a single two hour video would seem to
> frustrate the ad revenue model of many porn sites.
>
> This kind of distracted use also brings to mind James Hodge’s earlier
> question regarding the temporality of compulsion. This kind of distracted
> use brings to mind not only the compulsion associated with our phones, but
> also other forms of mobile game technology as Samuel Tobin’s research shows
> <http://www.amazon.com/Portable-Play-Everyday-Life-Nintendo/dp/113739658X>.
> This kind of distracted but habitual engagement brings us outside of both
> the temporality of riveted engagement as well as the space of something
> like a casino or the home.
>
> I suppose my question is if this is also a form of compulsion as we are
> seeking to articulate it, and if this distinction is in some way
> significant.
>
> I also couldn’t help but attach this meme image, which feels relevant to
> our discussion.
>
>
> Jacob Gaboury
> --
> Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Visual Culture
> Dept. of Cultural Analysis and Theory, Stony Brook University
> --
> Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (Dept II)
> Berlin, Germany 2015 - 2016
> --
> http://www.jacobgaboury.com/
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>
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