This book offers a wealth of in-depth analysis, which delivers on the promise of taking games seriously. The broad and solid theory building that the book offers is sorely needed. ... [It] pushes our discussion and thought in a different and important direction.
Information, Communication & Society
The book’s readability is assisted by the format of eight relatively ... Read moreshort chapters and a clear expository logic ... [and Ash] does an admirable job explaining computer games in ways that are accessible to nongamers.
Social & Cultural Geography
[Raising] important questions about the commodification of perception ... The Interface Envelope is an interesting text that clearly articulates a vision for how video games localize folds of time-space to orient, and profit from, our perceptual and embodied capacities ... It serves as a platform for understanding the ontological links between—and beyond—gaming, technology, and power.
Society and Space
Theoretically nuanced and empirically rich, this discussion of how big-budget computer games attempt to organise players' perceptions is a must-read for all those interested in how digital technologies are changing our forms of life.
Gillian Rose, Professor of Cultural Geography, The Open University, UK
James Ash's critical study shows how interfaces create spatio-temporal traps in which we are enveloped in alternative worlds. Cognitive capitalism works through techniques that stimulate our perceptions and sense of difference. Ash's book is a strong take on the non-human aspects in contemporary media culture without forgetting issues of political economy either. It will definitely speak to readers in game, media and cultural studies.
Jussi Parikka, Professor of Technological Culture & Aesthetics, Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton, UK, and author of Digital Contagions
More and more aspects of everyday life are being mediated through digital interfaces. And yet, to date, critical thinking about interfaces has been quite limited. The Interface Envelope is a vital contribution to filling this lacuna, providing a compelling new approach to making sense of interfaces that draws on post-phenomenology and new materialist ideas. In so doing, James Ash provides a thoroughly interdisciplinary and provocative analysis of interfaces that takes seriously and weaves together notions of embodiment, affect, memory, materiality, objects, power, space and time, through a detailed analysis of gaming interfaces. If you are interested in understanding how and why interfaces matter read this book.
Rob Kitchin, Professor and ERC Advanced Investigator in the National Institute of Regional and Spatial Analysis, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Ireland
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