Alf Seegert | University of Utah (original) (raw)
I’m Alf Seegert, Professor (Lecturer) in the Department of English and Affiliate Professor for the Division of Games at the University of Utah.
I teach courses both in the classroom and online, including Video Game Storytelling; Literature, Film, and Video Games; Film Genres: Virtuality and Enchantment; and Fantasy: The Lord of the Rings on Page and Screen.
My research examines the interrelations of nature, virtuality, and narrative as represented in literature, film, and new media. My work has been published in academic journals including Western Humanities Review, Journal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds, The Journal of Ecocriticism, Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, and in the anthologies Eco-Trauma Cinema, Doors in the Air: C.S. Lewis and the Imaginative World, and Philip K. Dick and Philosophy.
My board game designs, published internationally, attempt to combine narrative and gameplay in unexpected ways. Twelve have been published so far and include The Road to Canterbury, Haven, Fantastiqa, and Illumination.
I’m also a writer of interactive fiction, including storybook encounters for Ryan Laukat’s storytelling board games Above and Below, Near and Far, and Sleeping Gods with Red Raven Games.
My website is at alfseegert.com
Find my faculty webpage at https://faculty.utah.edu/u0062123-Alf\_Seegert/
Email: alf.seegert@utah.edu
Phone: (801) 581-6905
Address: University of Utah Department of English
Languages & Communication Bldg
255 S Central Campus Dr Rm 3500
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
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Papers by Alf Seegert
Seegert, Alf. "Into the Wilde?: Art, Technologically-Mediated Kinship, and the Lethal Indifferenc... more Seegert, Alf. "Into the Wilde?: Art, Technologically-Mediated Kinship, and the Lethal Indifference of Nature in Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man." Eco-Trauma Cinema (Routledge Advances in Film Studies). Ed. Anil Narine. New York, London: Routledge, 2015. Print.
Doctoral Dissertation, British and American Literature, May 2010
"Cybercultural Ecologies examines the interpenetrating relationships between nature, virtuality, ... more "Cybercultural Ecologies examines the interpenetrating relationships between nature, virtuality, and narrative. Operating at the interface between ecocriticism and cyberculture, its approach is narrative-based and thematic, focusing on texts (literary, cinematic, and new media) which depict varying conceptions of technology, virtuality, and their effects. Understanding these effects is ecologically crucial, because technovirtual interfaces profoundly alter one’s experience of nature, corporeality, and relationships. Even the most basic sense of what counts as an environment in the first place depends on the interfaces one uses.
The Introduction examines the ambiguities surrounding the terms of its own investigation: cyberculture, ecology, interface, nature, virtuality. Drawing from Jacques Derrida and Marshall McLuhan, it responds to the “interface anxiety” evinced by environmental writers and ecocritics by arguing that nostalgia for an “authentic,” supplement-free mode of “contact” is itself a pastoral fiction.
Chapter I examines virtuality’s relationship with nature in both virtual reality and mixed reality paradigms, beginning with nineteenth-century decadence and aestheticism — Huysmans’ A Rebours (1884) and Morris’ News from Nowhere (1890)—before moving to Cronenberg’s eXistenZ (1999), Gibson’s Spook Country (2007), and Vinge’s Synthetic Serendipity (2004).
Chapter II questions the attempt to evade virtuality and machinery in order to reclaim “unmediated contact” through the “natural” body in Forster’s “The Machine Stops” (1909) and Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928).
Chapter III looks at the liberation offered by the virtual body, as well as its liabilities, in Sterne’s Tristram Shandy (1759), Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and Danielewski’s House of Leaves (2000).
Chapter IV scrutinizes the authenticity of virtual relationships in Bioy Casares’ The Invention of Morel (1940) and Herzog’s Grizzly Man (2005).
Chapter V inquires into how a virtual sense of place is evoked in Dickens’ mid-nineteenth century railway sketches and in 21st-century digital interactive narratives.
The Conclusion examines the film Avatar (2009) and explores the possibilities (and problems) that arise in attempting to make audiences “see” with ecological vision through the lenses of virtuality."
![Research paper thumbnail of The Mistress of Sp[l]ices: Technovirtual Liaisons in Adolfo Bioy Casares’ The Invention of Morel](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/30482578/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Jan 25, 2013
"As Georges Méliès discovered to his astonished glee in the late nineteenth century, moving pictu... more "As Georges Méliès discovered to his astonished glee in the late nineteenth century, moving pictures do more than just record reality—they create one. Through stop-trick substitutions, multiple exposures, and splices, celluloid becomes a portal translucent not only to the projector’s bulb, but to the projections of the fantastic. For Argentine writer Adolfo Bioy Casares, such cinematic sleights-of-hand become so compelling that they promise to substitute a special effect for all of reality itself. In his 1940 novel The Invention of Morel, Bioy Casares represents two dissociated worlds that, although temporally estranged, are spliced together spatially through layered technological projections—creating the illusion of two lovers immortalized in a virtual union, played back without end. This Borgesian splicing of virtual and actual demonstrates the fantastical possibilities—and tremendous manipulative power—of the splice and the image overlay. In so doing, Bioy Casares raises striking questions about our ability to embrace fantastical projections and attempt to achieve satisfaction from virtual liaisons."
The ability of computers to produce ‘presence’ – the visceral feeling of actually ‘being there’ –... more The ability of computers to produce ‘presence’ – the visceral feeling of actually ‘being there’ – is typically associated with the presentation of intensive graphical effects. But studies on presence indicate that what players are able to ‘do’ in fact contributes more to their sense of presence than graphical realism. Keeping this in mind, I explore possibilities for 'performing’ presence in digital narratives, particularly through the non-graphical digital medium of interactive fiction. I draw from critical theorists (Barthes, Iser and especially Gumbrecht) as well as theorists of new media (Aarseth, Ryan, Montfort) to frame an investigation into two major aspects of presence production in interactive fiction, namely: 1) how interactive fiction generates presence through the exclusive use of verbal signifiers rather than graphical images, and 2) how it allows users to generate presence themselves through their own actions. I conclude by examining three works of interactive fiction: Adventure, All Roads and Luminous Horizon (Crowther and Woods 1975–6; Ingold 2006; O’Brian 2004).
As a prescient critique of telepresence technologies like the Internet, “The Machine Stops” satir... more As a prescient critique of telepresence technologies like the Internet, “The Machine Stops” satirizes hypermediated contact and in its place valorizes contact made with the fleshly body-—so much so, that it fantasizes the removal of all technological mediations between that body and the “real.” This move carries strong ecocritical implications in its suggestion that all authentic connection—whether between people themselves or between people and the earth—must be corporeal. The narrator’s apology on behalf of “beautiful naked man” (122) and his nostalgia for the robust, technology-free body are, however, both problematic. Forster appears to conflate nakedness and fleshly connection with unmediated contact or “full presence,” a view that raises many potential criticisms and questions. If the body proves to be but one kind of mediating interface itself, then on what grounds should the mode of fleshly connection be privileged over interactions mediated by motors, buttons, and video screens? If all contact must be mediated somehow, does it even make sense to consider one type of interface as “more authentic” than another? Is it right to equate nakedness with freedom from technology? In this paper I use an ecocritical perspective to explore such questions in the text, focusing in particular on Forster’s depiction of technology as devastating to both the human body and to the experience of space and place. The timeliness of such concerns suggests that “The Machine Stops” might prove even more significant in the hypermediated world of today than it was a hundred years ago for questioning the relationship between corporeality, representation, and nature.
![Research paper thumbnail of Till We Have [Inter] faces: The Cybercultural Ecologies of Avatar](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/7290103/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Conference Presentations by Alf Seegert
Society for Novel Studies Conference 2014 Desert of the Real, Oasis of the Virtual: Technostalgi... more Society for Novel Studies Conference 2014
Desert of the Real, Oasis of the Virtual: Technostalgic Pastoral in À Rebours and Ready Player One
Dr. Alf Seegert
Department of English, University of Utah
alf.seegert@utah.edu
Paper for Panel 18: FantasyLand, Virtuality, and Speculative Geography
Seegert, Alf. "Into the Wilde?: Art, Technologically-Mediated Kinship, and the Lethal Indifferenc... more Seegert, Alf. "Into the Wilde?: Art, Technologically-Mediated Kinship, and the Lethal Indifference of Nature in Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man." Eco-Trauma Cinema (Routledge Advances in Film Studies). Ed. Anil Narine. New York, London: Routledge, 2015. Print.
Doctoral Dissertation, British and American Literature, May 2010
"Cybercultural Ecologies examines the interpenetrating relationships between nature, virtuality, ... more "Cybercultural Ecologies examines the interpenetrating relationships between nature, virtuality, and narrative. Operating at the interface between ecocriticism and cyberculture, its approach is narrative-based and thematic, focusing on texts (literary, cinematic, and new media) which depict varying conceptions of technology, virtuality, and their effects. Understanding these effects is ecologically crucial, because technovirtual interfaces profoundly alter one’s experience of nature, corporeality, and relationships. Even the most basic sense of what counts as an environment in the first place depends on the interfaces one uses.
The Introduction examines the ambiguities surrounding the terms of its own investigation: cyberculture, ecology, interface, nature, virtuality. Drawing from Jacques Derrida and Marshall McLuhan, it responds to the “interface anxiety” evinced by environmental writers and ecocritics by arguing that nostalgia for an “authentic,” supplement-free mode of “contact” is itself a pastoral fiction.
Chapter I examines virtuality’s relationship with nature in both virtual reality and mixed reality paradigms, beginning with nineteenth-century decadence and aestheticism — Huysmans’ A Rebours (1884) and Morris’ News from Nowhere (1890)—before moving to Cronenberg’s eXistenZ (1999), Gibson’s Spook Country (2007), and Vinge’s Synthetic Serendipity (2004).
Chapter II questions the attempt to evade virtuality and machinery in order to reclaim “unmediated contact” through the “natural” body in Forster’s “The Machine Stops” (1909) and Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928).
Chapter III looks at the liberation offered by the virtual body, as well as its liabilities, in Sterne’s Tristram Shandy (1759), Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), and Danielewski’s House of Leaves (2000).
Chapter IV scrutinizes the authenticity of virtual relationships in Bioy Casares’ The Invention of Morel (1940) and Herzog’s Grizzly Man (2005).
Chapter V inquires into how a virtual sense of place is evoked in Dickens’ mid-nineteenth century railway sketches and in 21st-century digital interactive narratives.
The Conclusion examines the film Avatar (2009) and explores the possibilities (and problems) that arise in attempting to make audiences “see” with ecological vision through the lenses of virtuality."
Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts, Jan 25, 2013
"As Georges Méliès discovered to his astonished glee in the late nineteenth century, moving pictu... more "As Georges Méliès discovered to his astonished glee in the late nineteenth century, moving pictures do more than just record reality—they create one. Through stop-trick substitutions, multiple exposures, and splices, celluloid becomes a portal translucent not only to the projector’s bulb, but to the projections of the fantastic. For Argentine writer Adolfo Bioy Casares, such cinematic sleights-of-hand become so compelling that they promise to substitute a special effect for all of reality itself. In his 1940 novel The Invention of Morel, Bioy Casares represents two dissociated worlds that, although temporally estranged, are spliced together spatially through layered technological projections—creating the illusion of two lovers immortalized in a virtual union, played back without end. This Borgesian splicing of virtual and actual demonstrates the fantastical possibilities—and tremendous manipulative power—of the splice and the image overlay. In so doing, Bioy Casares raises striking questions about our ability to embrace fantastical projections and attempt to achieve satisfaction from virtual liaisons."
The ability of computers to produce ‘presence’ – the visceral feeling of actually ‘being there’ –... more The ability of computers to produce ‘presence’ – the visceral feeling of actually ‘being there’ – is typically associated with the presentation of intensive graphical effects. But studies on presence indicate that what players are able to ‘do’ in fact contributes more to their sense of presence than graphical realism. Keeping this in mind, I explore possibilities for 'performing’ presence in digital narratives, particularly through the non-graphical digital medium of interactive fiction. I draw from critical theorists (Barthes, Iser and especially Gumbrecht) as well as theorists of new media (Aarseth, Ryan, Montfort) to frame an investigation into two major aspects of presence production in interactive fiction, namely: 1) how interactive fiction generates presence through the exclusive use of verbal signifiers rather than graphical images, and 2) how it allows users to generate presence themselves through their own actions. I conclude by examining three works of interactive fiction: Adventure, All Roads and Luminous Horizon (Crowther and Woods 1975–6; Ingold 2006; O’Brian 2004).
As a prescient critique of telepresence technologies like the Internet, “The Machine Stops” satir... more As a prescient critique of telepresence technologies like the Internet, “The Machine Stops” satirizes hypermediated contact and in its place valorizes contact made with the fleshly body-—so much so, that it fantasizes the removal of all technological mediations between that body and the “real.” This move carries strong ecocritical implications in its suggestion that all authentic connection—whether between people themselves or between people and the earth—must be corporeal. The narrator’s apology on behalf of “beautiful naked man” (122) and his nostalgia for the robust, technology-free body are, however, both problematic. Forster appears to conflate nakedness and fleshly connection with unmediated contact or “full presence,” a view that raises many potential criticisms and questions. If the body proves to be but one kind of mediating interface itself, then on what grounds should the mode of fleshly connection be privileged over interactions mediated by motors, buttons, and video screens? If all contact must be mediated somehow, does it even make sense to consider one type of interface as “more authentic” than another? Is it right to equate nakedness with freedom from technology? In this paper I use an ecocritical perspective to explore such questions in the text, focusing in particular on Forster’s depiction of technology as devastating to both the human body and to the experience of space and place. The timeliness of such concerns suggests that “The Machine Stops” might prove even more significant in the hypermediated world of today than it was a hundred years ago for questioning the relationship between corporeality, representation, and nature.
Society for Novel Studies Conference 2014 Desert of the Real, Oasis of the Virtual: Technostalgi... more Society for Novel Studies Conference 2014
Desert of the Real, Oasis of the Virtual: Technostalgic Pastoral in À Rebours and Ready Player One
Dr. Alf Seegert
Department of English, University of Utah
alf.seegert@utah.edu
Paper for Panel 18: FantasyLand, Virtuality, and Speculative Geography