Tag: Digital Culture

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Das Video Game Kapital

Co-Authors: Clipper Arnold and Sam Thomas Introduction “All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned” – Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party[1] The gaming industry is a recent victim of capital’s constant need to revolutionize itself, resulting in its own ossification. The telosof gaming has changed: no longer […]

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What would the Frankfurt School think of social media?

Author: Kumars Salehi Adorno. As every conservative freakout over the Frankfurt School reminds us, there is an alternate timeline on the American right where these German Jewish Marxists, who fled to California from Hitler’s Germany, got everything they ever wanted and a lot they didn’t. This article is not about about that, although other articles are. The interesting question isn’t whether the Frankfurt […]

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A Catholicism for the Twenty-First Century: An Interview with a Tradinista

(Image used with permission of the Tradinistas) Author: Sam Thomas Alex Anderson is a contributor to the Tradinista Manifesto, a document from a Christian socialist group which seeks to unify Catholic teaching with Marxist economics. I interviewed Anderson about the integration of two different groups and the state of Catholicism in the 21st century. Diginativ: So the end […]

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Leftist Twitter User @PissPigGrandDad joins YPG to Combat ISIS in Northern Syria

Author: DiginativBotnet There have been several reports and instances of ISIS recruiting Westerners for combat in Syria, though the phenomenon of Westerners joining ISIS resistance movements hasn’t been quite as widely discussed. Recently, Twitter user @PissPigGrandDad boarded a plane to Syria to join the YPG (the People’s Protection Units), a guerrilla combat force in Nothern Syria, and has been documenting the […]

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Sky Blade Cloud on ROM-Hacking: Online Video Game Fan Translation Projects

Author: Clipper Arnold Something in the digital ether has given rise to novel forms of altruism. Under rational, self-interested models of market systems, there’s not much of a “logical” reason for someone to upload every episode of Bleach (for instance) to YouTube or torrent websites. Quite the opposite, in fact. In doing so, users expose themselves to […]

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Only 90s Kids Will Get This: The Demise of Traditional Hegemonic Media Consumption

Author: Clipper Arnold “The future is already here — it’s just not evenly distributed” – William Gibson It’s been previously posited that the “90s-kid” obsession with nostalgia for pop-cultural artifacts reflects millennial distress over significant technological disparities on our generational bookends. We experienced technology in a way that previous generations never had before, and in ways that […]

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Milk Gallery: Virtual Art Museums and the Digital Gallery Experience

Author: Clipper Arnold Milk Gallery is a virtual art museum created by @beefmilk from Twitter. The program incorporates work from various artists from the far reaches of the internet into a gamified virtual experience. You can walk (not run, as the entrance sign advises) and jump through the gallery at your leisure. A hyperreal ambient soundtrack belies the […]

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Digimon: A Postcyberpunk Narrative of Digital Natives and Digital Nomadism

Author: Clipper Arnold Introduction I personally have been, and continue to be today, a fan of Digimon. Perhaps some of this derives from rose-tinted, bittersweet nostalgia. Though, it spoke to me as a child, and continues to speak to me. Digimon incorporated narratives of friendship and morality to be expected of children’s media, though it also encouraged and […]