COMMODIFIED PLAY – CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES OF ART OF DIGITAL GAMES
The fundamental changes in the global mode of production occured in the second half of 20th century, with important role of concept of free time and the notion of play. Being structurally decentralized and flexible, digital capitalism moves into the sphere od social networks, massive online games and friend aggregators platform. The notion of play is deeply integrated in micro and macro economies of these interactive environments, by creating social capital, symbolic capital, emotional capital, and last but not least, financial capital.
The works of Paolo Virno and Matteo Paquinelli are helpful in understanding the innovative and competitive aspects of network. Innovative and competitive aspect of social (digital) networks and culture in general, is thus, conceived as inherent “animal spirit” in human that eventually results in “immaterial civil war”. In this sense culture is not something that “humanize” animal in human, but is rather one of many aspects of numerous struggles in society of pure “zoe”. Situationists’ vision of future society as society with minimal necessary work, endless situations of play and interaction, is today materialized through distopian model of massive militant games, network pornography and financialization of libido.
Nick Dyer Whiteford i Greg de Peuter propose models and present some possible artistic approaches that can accurately respond to challenges that digital capitalism and its basis in libidinal economies, are bringing.
