CEPPA TALK: Alex Fisher (Leeds)

Alex Fisher (Leeds) will give a talk entitled ‘QAnon, Crosswords, and Videogames: The Aesthetics and Ethics of Inquiry.

Abstract:
The value of many aesthetic practices comes from working stuff out. Detective novels, cryptic paintings, and crosswords require us to deduce hidden content. I outline how various recent “knowledge-based” videogames and other media also generate aesthetic value through inquiry – but rather than just into hidden content, the aim is to uncover how we are meant to interact with them.
Inquiring into how we interact with media can be aesthetically valuable. But I argue that it can also be ethically risky, with this form of inquiry fuelling the appeal of conspiracy theory movements like QAnon, where innocuous objects and events are interpreted as conveying secret clues.