Marcel Thiel-Woznica M.A.

PhD Student | Human Limits and Infrastructures

I am a sociologist at the Collaborative Research Center 1482 “Studies in Human Differentiation,” where I focus on sociotechnical visions in digital games. In my dissertation, I explore the question of how sociotechnical visions are experienced within the context of digital gaming practices. Specifically, I examine the role played by the representation of technologically enhanced bodies, fictional future technologies, and highly technologized urban spaces in the construction of future visions. I then investigate how these elements can be experienced during gameplay and how such experiences differ to other media technologies such as films and books. For example, what does it mean when technologically enhanced bodies, fictionalized future technologies, or urban spaces can be explored or experimented with through gameplay? What notions of human-technology relationships are negotiated within the realm of digital gaming practices? To answer these questions, I conduct a video-analytical examination of computer game practices based on three cases: Cyberpunk 2077, Frostpunk, and Detroit: Become Human.

Publications

2023 Thiel-Woznica, Marcel; Tost, Jordi; Weller, Kevin; Matzner, Nils (i.E.): Prototypes as Future Artifacts of Today – Towards Prototyping Alternative Futures, in: On_Culture.

2022 Woznica, Marcel: Stage performances as means for linking sociotechnical imaginaries and projective genres in the dicourse around urban air mobility, European Journal of Futures Research, 10/12 (2022), pp. 1-12.

2020 Woznica, Marcel: Videographie im Wandel. Zur Analyse des mediatisierten Alltagsraumes mittels mobiler Erhebungsinstrumente, ZQF – Zeitschrift für Qualitative Forschung, 1-2020, S. 53-68.

2015 Braunstein, Dirk / Woznica, Marcel: Die Veröffentlichung hunderter Texte hunderter Urheber. Probleme und Lösungsversuche bei der Rechteeinholung, in: Martin Endreß, Klaus Lichtblau und Stephan Moebius (Hg.): Zyklos 2. Jahrbuch für Theorie und Geschichte der Soziologie. Wiesbaden: Springer.

Foto: Stephanie Füssenich