Part III - Digital Miracles as Digital Play

Summary

Prologue: Embodying the digital

Our bodily activities are increasingly directly connected to the use of technological devices, as we carry our laptops, phones, and other electronic items throughout the day: we rely on these devices to communicate, socialize, stay productive, and, as we will see in the following chapters, enact miracles. We no longer use digital technologies simply to communicate, as the previous section has dissected; as we engage with these technologies beyond textual modes, our bodily performance in the digital milieu becomes richly entwined in the dynamic technological affordances that are already embedded in distinct cultural contexts and collective habits. What does it mean to perform digital miracles? What are the sociotechnical conditions that make digital miracles possible?

The ease with which digital images can be produced with digital devices has transformed the social mode of photography and videography from a fixed position of being gazed at and consumed to a dynamic visual practice that is intended to be shared, discussed, and revisited. This transformation not only changes the language of vernacular image-making, but also the very conditions of possibility of creative, spiritual, and miraculous pursuits. Because taking photos and videos has become routine and mundane practice thanks to increasingly ubiquitous availability of devices and internet access, it is to the level of the everyday that we should now turn our attention. In this section, we will interrogate the conditions of possibility for living with digital miracles through a complex digital mode of engagement: that of platform livestreaming.