Author Description
What Happens When Machines Teach Humans To Dance? Dance Video Games Transform Players' Experiences Of Popular Music, Invite Experimentation With Gendered And Racialized Movement Styles, And Present New Possibilities For Teaching, Learning, And Archiving Choreography. Drawing On Five Years Of Research With Players, Game Designers, And Choreographers For The Just Dance And Dance Central Games, Playable Bodies Situates Dance Games In A Media Ecology That Includes The Larger Game Industry, Viral Music Videos, Reality Tv Competitions, Marketing Campaigns, And Emerging Surveillance Technologies. Author Kiri Miller Tracks The Circulation Of Dance Gameplay And Related Body Projects Across Media Platforms To Reveal How Dance Games Function As Intimate Media, Configuring New Relationships Among Humans, Interfaces, Music And Dance Repertoires, And Social Media Practices.
Menrva's Summary
THE THESIS
This book investigates how dance video games reshape human movement, social interaction, and the cultural consumption of popular music. Kiri Miller, a scholar in music and media studies, utilizes five years of ethnographic research and industry analysis to argue that dance games function as intimate media. She posits that these interfaces create new configurations between human bodies, digital algorithms, and broader media ecologies.
THE SCOPE MAP
What You Will Find
- Ethnographic research involving players, game designers, and professional choreographers.
- Analysis of popular titles including Just Dance and Dance Central.
- Examination of the intersection between gaming, viral music videos, and reality television.
- Investigation into how interfaces influence gendered and racialized movement styles.
Scope Limits
- The study focuses primarily on commercial dance games and does not provide an exhaustive history of all motion-capture gaming technology.
- The analysis does not cover the technical engineering specifications of the game hardware itself.
THE AUTHORITY PERSPECTIVE
Scholars in game studies and media anthropology recognize this work as a significant contribution to the understanding of embodied interaction with digital interfaces. Experts highlight the text for its nuanced approach to how commercial software influences physical performance and social identity.
Page Count:
320
Publication Date:
2017-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0190257857
ISBN-13:
9780190257859
Dance
Technology and Society
Media Studies
Musicology