Feng Zhu

Base

Country

United Kingdom

Institutional affiliation

King's College London

Title

Lecturer

Research interests relevant to game philosophy

I am interested in self-transformative practices that are abetted through the use of playful digital technologies. I have focused on the work of Michel Foucault with respect to the ethico-aesthetic practices of the self, or care of the self, but have also researched the work of other theorists who have explored ‘subjectivation’ and ‘individuation’. This investigation expands into defining the contours of an ethics that conjoins the anti-normativism and ‘micro-political’ nature of the aesthetic practices of the self with the possibility of a transformation beyond the self, i.e., a broader (macro-political) social change that arises through the reflexive awareness of individual habits and the gestation of new social habits that are connected to digital play.

Publications and presentations relevant to game philosophy

‘The ‘affective’ ethics of computer games: ‘aesthetic education’, the ‘technologies of the self’, and the cultivation of an ‘affectivity’’. Proceedings of The 12th International Philosophy of Computer Games Conference (2018).

‘‘Subjects’ and ‘objects’ in game studies.’ Panel at The 12th International Philosophy of Computer Games Conference: Values in Games. IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen (August 13-15, 2018).
Panellists: Espen Aarseth (IT University of Copenhagen), Andreas Gregersen (University of Copenhagen), Justyna Janik (Jagiellonian University in Krakow), Sebastian Möring (University of Potsdam), Feng Zhu (University of Manchester).

Critical theory and video games (co-written with Graeme Kirkpatrick). The Routledge Handbook for the Philosophy of Games. Sageng, J.R. & Nguyen, T. (eds.)(forthcoming).

‘The aesthetic education of computer game literacy and the problematisation of gaming pleasures: re-examining Schiller’s ethico-aesthetic project.’ The 12th International Philosophy of Computer Games Conference: Values in Games. IT University Copenhagen, Copenhagen (August 13-15, 2018).

The freedom of alienated reflexive subjectivity in The Stanley Parable. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies (forthcoming). OnlineFirst available at: http://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/g7cgYdT64gVksH8fgNHJ/full

‘Computer Gameplay and the Aesthetic Practices of the Self: Game Studies and the Late Work of Michel Foucault.’ ToDiGRA Vol. 3, No. 3 (2018). Available at: http://todigra.org/index.php/todigra

Narratives of self-transformation in computer games: death and rebirth in the monomyth. Gaming and the Art of Storytelling Symposium. The University of Abertay. May 9, 2018.

Computer gameplay and the aesthetic practices of the self. DiGRA UK. The University of Salford, Salford. May 5, 2017.

Computer Games and the Aesthetic Practices of the Self: Wandering, Transformation, and Transfiguration. Ph.D. thesis, The University of Manchester, 2016.

What Does it Mean to do Game Philosophy? Panel at The 10th International Philosophy of Computer Games Conference: Knowledge. The University of Malta, Malta. November 1-4, 2016. Speakers: John Richard Sageng (University of Oslo), Sebastian Möring (University of Potsdam), Feng Zhu (University of Manchester), Olli Tapio Leino (City University of Hong Kong), Marta Matylda Kania (University of Lower Silesia).

Analytical Gameplay and the Politics of Cognitive Mapping. Presentation at The 10th International Philosophy of Computer Games Conference: Knowledge. The University of Malta, Malta. November 1-4, 2016.

Between Autopoiesis and Neoliberal Self-Fashioning: The Dialectics of Self-Construction in Single-Player Role-Playing Games. Presentation at The 9th International Philosophy of Computer Games Conference: Meaning and Computer Games. BTK, University of Art and Design, Berlin. October 14-17, 2015

Thinking Heterogeneous Homogeneity: Jamesonian ‘Totality’ and Game Studies. Panel presentation at The 9th International Philosophy of Computer Games Conference: Meaning and Computer Games. BTK, University of Art and Design, Berlin. October 14-17, 2015

The Implied Player: Between the Structural and the Fragmentary. Presentation at DiGRA 2015: Diversity of Play: Games – Cultures – Identities. Leuphana University, Lüneburg.
May 14-17, 2015

Eventualisation (Événementialisation), Inevitability and Futility in Dragon Age: Inquisition. Presentation at Challenge the Past/Diversify the Future. The University of Gothenburg. Mar 19-21, 2015

The Freedom of Alienated Reflexive Subjectivity in The Stanley Parable. Presentation at The 8th Philosophy of Computer Games Conference: Freedom in Play. Istanbul Bilgi University, Istanbul. November 13-15, 2014

The Political Potential of Play and its Constitution of Subjectivities. Presentation at The 2nd Creative Intentions Conference. University of Manchester, June 20, 2014

Keywords

aesthetics, subjectivity, neoliberalism, habitus, Foucault, Rancière

Name

Feng Zhu

Background

philosophy, art history, media studies, sociology, game studies