MASS MOVEMENTS IN COMPUTER-MEDIATED ENVIRONMENTS

Abstract

Human crowds and embodied densities assume important parts in everyday life. In as much as we constitute different formations – demonstrations, traffic jams and concerts – cinematic productions, computer games and other virtual settings invite us to observe mass movements. Unfortunately, the spatial implication of crowds has not been subjected to contemporary academic research. Critical accounts of digitalization techniques and computer-mediated environments have likewise sidestepped further discussions; meticulous attention has been directed to the roles of gender and embodiment in relation to computer-mediated environments, but further scrutiny on mass movements and their entanglement with space largely lies fallow. Computer-mediated inhabitation of space contributes to reconceptualizing, not only the very notion of spatial constraints, but also earlier crowd theories, which admittedly serves to bring forth novel tenets. Scrutiny of the latter reveals a discipline, to a large extent produced according to, and in tandem with, male Western values, which have implicitly subjugated alternative aspects. At the same time, and in line with one of the premises of the iCS Key Thinkers series, this article argues that there is a range of thinkers and theoretical traditions that have a lot to offer theory and research into issues about newer media and information and communication technologies (http://www.tandf.co.uk/-journals/cfp/ricscfp.pdf 2009-12-17). Saying this, the article engages with crowds and how mass formations are enacted and articulated in computer-mediated settings. At the same time, it constitutes a research summary of earlier crowd theories. The intention is to enmesh traditional inquiries within crowd theories with a theoretical bedrock of cybercultural studies and feminist theories. In doing so, new light will confidently be shed upon the crowd as a socio-material density.

Keywords:

• crowds
• computer-mediated environments
• socio-material densities
• spatiality

Notes

This article adopts the term rendering to suggest the processing of outlining an image. Animators and programmers use colour and shading in order for virtual characters to appear three-dimensional.

This article voluntarily leaves aside further discussions regarding the bountiful discipline of feminist theories. Nonetheless, adhering to the work of Harding (1986), feminism should not be regarded as ‘a monolithic set of beliefs and practices’. Quite the contrary, ‘there are significant differences among feminists about what analyses and practices are desirable’ (Harding 1986, p. 109).