Fubara-Manuel, Irene (2020) Scaping the border: on black migrant geographic agency in gamescapes. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, 12 (1). pp. 69-90. ISSN 1757-191X

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Abstract

Biometric technologies deployed at the border virtualize this space in such a manner that frontiers and their lines of demarcation are inscribed onto bodies of migrants. This disappearance of the border as a geographic zone, as addressed in critical border studies, has incited multiple theories. Among these is the theory of borderscapes in which, the suffix ‘-scape’, meaning ‘to shape’, accounts for the hegemonic and counter-hegemonic processes of building national frontiers. This article addresses gamescapes ‐ the designed virtual environment of video games ‐ as a zone in which migrants can perform artistic interventions and enact their mobility within borders. The author positions her walking simulator game Dreams of Disguise: Errantry (2018) as one of such gamescapes. Through the analysis of the game, this article addresses the implications of purposeful movement through the virtual border for black migrants.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	biometric borders, black spatiality, borderscapes, errantry, poetics of landscape, postcolonial, spatial stories, video games
Schools and Departments:	School of Media, Film and Music > Media and Film
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GV Recreation. Leisure > GV1199 Games and amusements H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonisation. Emigration and immigration. International migration T Technology > T Technology (General)
Depositing User:	Irene Fubara-Manuel
Date Deposited:	27 Aug 2020 10:55
Last Modified:	06 Jan 2021 16:28
URI:	http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/93310

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