Develops a theory of contemporary culture that relies on displacing economic notions of cultural production with notions of cultural expenditure. This book represents an effort to rethink cultural theory from the perspective of a concept of cultural materialism, one that radically redefines postmodern formulations of the body.

From early childhood on, mimetic processes are extremely important both for retaining and passing on the negative effects of the Anthropocene as well as for changing them and making fundamental reforms in the relationship between human beings and nature. Plato and Aristotle understood people depend on mimetic processes for their individual and collective, cultural, and social development. This insight has been confirmed by research in Historical Anthropology, in Evolutionary Anthropology and in Neuroscience. People learn to a very large extent in (...) mimetic processes, that is, through imitating, making themselves similar, representing. These processes are not simple copying processes like making photocopies. They are productive processes in which people behaving mimetically take an “impression” of the behaviour of other people which they then integrate into their imaginary. (shrink)

Presence is commonly defined as the subjective feeling of "being there". It has been mainly conceived of as deriving from immersion, interaction, and social and narrative involvement with suitable technology. We argue that presence depends on a suitable integration of aspects relevant to an agent's movement and perception, to her actions, and to her conception of the overall situation in which she finds herself, as well as on how these aspects mesh with the possibilities for action afforded in the interaction (...) with the virtual environment. (shrink)