[-empyre-] Ludic loops and vertiginous compulsions

[Luke Stark]

Hi folks,

This has been an amazing dialogue thus far - my apologies that I'm coming a
little late to it. It's inspiring to be a doctoral student in an area where
so much compelling *ahem* work is being done, and to have the chance to
bounce ideas off of so many great people.

My dissertation project explores how psychological tools, theories and
techniques have been built into the interaction design of the digital
device we use on a daily basis, through a genealogy of human mood tracking
from the 19th century to the present. Like Natasha and Katie, I'm also part
of a body of scholars who are explicitly thinking about questions of values
and design - how tools and objects (particularly digitally-connected ones,
in my case) are designed to elicit or prompt different kinds of norms,
ethics, habits, codes, or what have you. I'm also starting work on a longer
history of the concept of the "visceral," which is one way of classing the
 the embodied mechanisms through which we feel compelled to tap a Grindr
profile or play another level of Candy Crush.

Natasha, I love the phrase "ludic loops." This semester I'm teaching an
undergraduate course on game studies, and in reacquainting myself with some
of the seminal literature in that field, I've been struck by what Roger
Caillois, in his 1960s classic "Man, Play, and Games," calls the qualities
of "alea" and  "ilinx" in games. "Alea" distinguishes games of chance;
Caillois describes games featuring ilinx as ones which:

"...are based on the pursuit of vertigo and which consist of an attempt to
momentarily destroy the stability of perception and inflict a kind of
voluptuous panic upon an otherwise lucid mind. In all cases, it is a
question of surrendering to a kind of spasm, seizure, or shock which
destroys reality with sovereign brusqueness."

So, spinning, bungee jumping, and the like - seemingly far away from the
measured nature of digitally designed feedback designed for "juiciness" and
repeated compulsive use. Natasha, we'd both connect the "machine zone" of
the gambling addict or the "ludic loop" to Caillois' concept of "alea" "a
negation of the will, a surrender to destiny," in Caillois' poetically
Gallic turn of phrase.

I'm beginning to wonder, though, if compulsion and its appearance in the
machine zone is as much about ilinx, vertigo, as it is about the aleatory.
The etymological dictionary reminds me that the word "compel" stems from a
Latin root that involves driving cattle into one place - a surrender, yes,
but a surrender through movement. As Caillois points out, truly aleatory
games are ones in which all players are equal in the face of Fate, a
condition that you've brilliantly exposed as completely inoperative in the
face of digital gambling systems, and which I'd say extends to all digital
media (our devices are designed, they don't appear sui generis). Natasha,
one of your gambling interlocutors describes the machine zone thus: "It's
like being in the eye of the storm...your vision is clear on the machine
around you but the whole world is spinning around you, and you can't really
hear anything. You aren't really there -- you're with the machine and
that's all you're with."* It's as if vertigo has somehow been frozen, tamed
so that embrace of aleatory quietism seems all the more appealing. As you
suggest, maybe it's the switching between that certainty and uncertainty,
between ilinx and alea, which produces the compulsiveness of digital media.
"Fragmentation feels like flow," indeed.

And of course sexual desire is one of the most vertigo-inducing, compelling
sensations an embodied human can have - no wonder hook-up apps like Grindr
or Tindr have such success with such (comparatively) simple interface. No
gamification is necessary when the devices and desires of the heart are
involved.

Just a few thoughts - can't wait for more!

*For those who aren't the author, the quote is on page 2 of "Addiction by
Design"

Best,

Luke

Luke Stark
Ph.D. Candidate
Department of Media, Culture, and Communication

The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development
New York University
239 Greene Street, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10003

tel: (1) 646.530.0400
fax: (1) 212.995.4046
email: luke.stark at nyu.edu
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