As technological systems increasingly define intelligence through models or systems based on control, efficiency, and optimization grounded in machine learning, we find ourselves questioning what human intelligence is and how it should be protected. The digital video games that this paper approaches and focuses on as cultural technologies traditionally seem to reinforce the kind of reason defined by technological systems through their goal-oriented mechanics and hero centered narratives, strengthening paradigms of mastery, struggle, and domination.

In this paper, drawing on Hélène Cixous’s concept of écriture féminine (women’s writing) and feminist game studies, through the analysis of GRIS (Nomada Studio, 2018), What Remains of Edith Finch (Giant Sparrow, 2017), and Venba (Visai Games, 2023), alternative principles to today’s technological paradigm such as vulnerability, subjective existence, uncertainty, and involuntary memory are discussed. Unlike the conventional, these games, rather than privileging skill or technique, encourage a form of intelligence based on embodied experience and the practice of healing, and invite the player toward an inclusive and communication-based intelligence regarding their surroundings and the other.

In this context, as cultural outputs, these games go beyond merely offering an alternative to the domination created or that could be created by algorithmic reason. They position emotional awareness, vulnerability, relational contact, and bodily/spiritual healing not as weaknesses, but as central qualities of human intelligence. The qualities that the games expressed here present together contribute to what it means to be human within contemporary technological culture.

Authors:
Tolga Hepdincler, Bahcesehir University, Tuerkiye

About the Presenter(s)
Tolga Hepdinçler is Vice Dean at Bahçeşehir University. His research focuses on visual culture, game studies, art theory, and memory. He is currently working on a project exploring care and embodied intelligence in contemporary videogames.

See this presentation on the full schedule – Sunday Schedule

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