MECCSA-PGN Executive Committee Members
Helen Thornham
University of Ulster
Department of Media and Performing Arts
Email: thornham-h @ ulster.ac.uk
Helen is currently in her second year of her PhD at the University of Ulster. Her MA (Media and Cultural Studies) was undertaken at the University of Sunderland, and her BA (Film and Literature) was at Warwick University. If anyone is interested in getting involved in her research project, she is still looking for subjects!!
How you can help Helen? Fill out this questionnaire!
It should only take about 10 minutes of your time – it’s ticking boxes mostly, and even if you don’t game, please still fill it in – it’s opinion-based!
Obviously don’t answer questions you are uncomfortable with. It’s entirely confidential.
Please forward it to anyone you know! And then back to me at thornham-h @ ulster.ac.uk or h_thornham @ yahoo.co.uk
Thank you so much for your help and if anyone needs more info, I’d love a chance to rant about my PhD!
PhD Project: The Playstation: Boys Toy or Space Relocator?
Supervisors: Marin Mcloone, Sarah Edge, Ned Rossiter
This research is interested in looking at the playstation in relation to conceptions of (gendered) identity, mediated space and interaction, through both a theoretical strand and a qualitative ethnographic strand. The main concern is to establish the importance of the playstation as a domestic technology to perceived notions of identity and (consequential) uses and mediations. If gaming is considered a leisure activity by certain members of households, what are the effects of this on a broader scale, considering the permeation of technologies into our everyday lives?
Following a theoretical strand, the project will primarily situate the videogame as a political, socio-cultural (audio, visual, narrative) text. This is necessary in order to outline possible pleasures and fantasies gaming offers, as well as opening up a discussion around multiple gaming scenarios rather than solitary gaming. The second concern will be to position the gamer into these theorizations as an intrusive element, in order to account for the embedded and interactive nature of gaming. The concern here is to widen the theoretical dynamics of gaming to include a viscerally and physically involved gamer who (in)voluntarily reacts to the game within a domestic setting. The qualitative ethnographic work will be undertaken to see how, when and where games are played, and how spatial, temporal and physical elements are negotiated into these dynamics.
Finally if gaming favours certain age/class/gender groups (either through genre preference, time/energy choices, actual gaming exclusions), what are the results of such negotiations for such a technologically-permeated world in terms of movement, interaction and communication?
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