DCRC - Digital Cultures Research Centre

This paper examines the Nintendo Wii from a perspective informed by Martin Heidegger's existential analysis of equipmental being in order to make some claims about the signficance of the Wii's innovative interface. The Wii has enhanced the analogical, gestural component of user input compared to existing home game consoles which are based more firmly in digital, finger-based input. With a similar remodelling of the Microsoft X-Box 360 console interface in development, the Wii's redefinition of interactive media engagement can be seen as the herald of a wider transition to a more embodied media technicity of virtual experience. Heidegge's insights concerning the equipmental basis of the everyday milieu and the pre-given orientation in the world that comes with it will be read through Bernard Stiegler's critical review of Heidegger's approach to technology. This will enable me to advance some propositions about how to understand the Wii's popularity, its place in advancing a mainstream program of the application of VR technics, and its potential to open up other programmings of spatio-physicality.

Available at http://culturemachine.net/index.php/cm/article/view/374/397