Understanding Modes: Computer Science, Neuroscience, Affect
Understanding modes seeks to explain what are modes and why the concept has found widespread, recent uptake in a variety of fields (such as neuroscience and the science of emotion) and across culture (in popular culture and gaming culture, for instance). Modes, I contend, both reflect and shape contemporary understandings of human beings and society.
The project employs rhetorical analysis, critical theory, and media ecological analysis to answer these questions. The basis of the theoretical approach stems from affect theory and the so-called “affective turn,” a interdisciplinary investigation into the importance of embodiment, feelings, and emotions.
I am completing a book project under this title. The book continues my previous scholarship, which has employed the concept of modes to analyze social media and animation.
Main Research Topics
- Affect
- Digital media
- gaming
- neuroscience
- consumer capitalism
Curriculum Vitae
- Associate Professor of Communication, Film, & Media Studies, University of Cincinnati
- Editor of the Probes Section for the journal Explorations in Media Ecology
- Member of the Executive Board of the Taft Research Center
Publications and Presentations
- Surfing the Anthropocene: The Big Tension and Digital Affect. Peter Lang, 2020. 287pp.
- Special Affects: Cinema, Animation, and the Translation of Consumer Culture. Edinburgh University Press, 2014. 226pp.
- “On Splits, Big and Little: Towards an Intensive Model of Media and Mediation.” Philosophies. Vol. 9, No. 4, 2024. https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies9040102
- “The Modes of Visual Rhetoric: Circulating Memes as Expressions.” Quarterly Journal of Speech. Vol. 100, #4, November 2014. pp. 442-466.
- “Another Punctum: Animation, Affect, and Ideology.” Critical Inquiry. Vol. 39, #3, Spring 2013. pp. 575-591.