The Anti-Poetic: Interactivity, Immersion, and Other Semiotic Functions of Digital Play

essay examines some of the assumptions of early formalist theory and practice - particularly as regards the widely applied formalist concept of "defamiliarization" (ostranenie) - in order to extend the semiotic analysis of interactive media found in Myers (The Nature of Computer Games, 2003). That analysis describes new media interactivity as displaying semiotic functions formally similar (but often in functional opposition) to defamiliarization. The essay argues that, using a cognitive framework, formalist principles and assumptions can be comfortably extended to describe the aesthetic experiences associated with the use of computer-based media (most particularly computer games) - and, further, that the literariness of poetic language is formally similar and in opposition to the interactivity of digital media.