“You Know It’s Different in the Game Man”: Technodesiring, Technorelating, and TechnoBlackness as Analytical Modes of Queer Worldmaking in Black Mirror’s, “Striking Vipers”

ABSTRACT

This article explores the reach of queer relationality beyond materiality and toward virtual realities. By expounding upon how desire, relationality, and race can be understood within technocultures, particularly within immersive interactive and virtual reality gaming, I situate the potentiality of queer worldmaking outside of the confines of social pressures and expectations in the material world. Through an analysis of Black Mirror’s episode, “Striking Vipers,” I propose three concepts for analyzing queer relationality within technocultures, technodesiring, technorelating, and technoBlackness. The article concludes with possibilities for queer relationality and queer worldmaking that extend beyond the realm of white heteropatriarchal socialities.

KEYWORDS:

• Queer relationality
• technodesiring
• technorelating
• technoculture
• technoBlackness

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. There is a significant distinction between those who engage in digisexual activities and those who might occupy a digisexual identity akin to “erotic orientation (e.g., kinky, fetishest, dominatrix, submissive, sadist, masochist, etc.), relational orientation (e.g., polyamorous, monogamous, polygamous, monogamish, etc.), and sexual orientation (e.g., gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, etc.)” (McArthur & Twist, 2017, p. 5).

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Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.