Issue #7/8: Sports - Paperback

by Astria Suparak (Editor), Brett Kashmere (Editor)

INCITE: Sports examines the intersections of sports, politics, popular culture, experimental media, and performance in the context of residual and contemporary media practices - the first volume of its kind.

For millennia, sports have been intrinsic to daily life, physical well-being, civic identity, and social harmony. That presence has expanded in the last century to occupy entire sections of newspapers and news hours, in turn begetting 24-hour television channels, talk radio stations, and endless punditry. Lately, sports have assumed a larger, more multidimensional place in our culture, advancing, for instance, further into the fields of contemporary art and film. The traditional schism, and often times, antagonism (jocks vs nerds, square vs cool) between sports and art have been blurred. Sports are now seamlessly integrated with pop culture, celebrity culture, music, and fashion trends. Meanwhile, ancillary aspects of sports have nearly eclipsed the sports themselves. In the information age, fans are the new experts, gambling with likenesses, and athletes are sets of statistical profiles and avatars. Sports economies are shifting towards the virtual; the daily fantasy site FanDuel paid out more than $500 million in cash prizes last year, new streaming platforms have emerged for live viewing of video game play, and eSports leagues are increasingly lucrative. In the era of flashy data visualization, instant analysis, Twitter journalism, Insiders, the rumor mill, the superfan, and the hot take, experimental media can offer a critical tool for addressing deeper meanings, concerns, connections, and contradictions. And for representing the poetics and aesthetics of athletics.

CONTRIBUTORS: Haig Aivazian, Christina Battle, Rosie Casals, Rebecca Cleman, Jason Concepcion (@netw3rk), Daniel D'Amore, Sally Dixon, Cara Erskine, Russell Field, David Filipi, Walter Forsberg, Howard Fried, Brian L. Frye, Leo Goldsmith, Allison Grant, Isla Hansen, Alex Johnston, Brett Kashmere, Germaine Koh, Karen Kraven, Pasha Malla, Tara Mateik, Hazel Meyer, Cait McKinney, Cameron Moneo, Ayanah Moor, Jeff Parker, Damien Picariello, Jasmine Pisapia, Leila Pourtavaf, Risa Puleo, Rachael Rakes, Chris Reeves, Amy Sadao, Astria Suparak, Martine Syms, Geo Wyeth, Kim Ye, Tanya Zimbardo, Gregory Zinman + sportstalk from John Amaechi, Larry Bird, Jason Collins, Darryl Dawkins, Mark Gonzales, Kwame Harris, Martina Navratilova, Ronda Rousey, Sheryl Swoopes, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Zinedine Zidane