Bounce: Balls, Walls, and Bodies in Games and Play

A lively and insightful account that follows the bouncing ball through the history of nonelectronic and electronic games. A lively and insightful account that follows the bouncing ball through the history of nonelectronic and electronic games. Bounce follows an array of bouncing balls through the histories of nonelectronic and electronic games, across the spectrum of play, game, and sport, and into the domains of physics, material science, animation, and computing. The book's focus on bounce sidesteps the focus on play found in much of the game studies literature and broadens the scope of game history by spotlighting an interaction that is central to thousands of physical and digital games and sports. The book is divided into three sections that introduce different kinds of bounce to address the matter of the ball, the virtuality of bounce, and bounded spectacle- Ricochet in ancient tennis is set against modern tennis's true bounce; squash and stretch in animation serves as a mirror of the pings and pongs of computer bounce; and the bounce feel in Electronic Art's FIFA video game series and pok ta pok of the Mesoamerican game ulama elaborate the contrasting positions of these two mythological games.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Long Past Play
Part I: To
1 Regarding Ricochet: Modeling the World in a Closed Court
2 True Bounce: Tennis and Television in the Era of Vulcanized Play
Part II: &
3 Squash and Stretch: Animating Elastic Bounce
4 From Ping to PONG: Signal, Simulation, and Programmed Bounce
Part III: Fro
5 Bounce Feel: Playing FIFA Like a Girl
6 Pok ta Pok: The Return of Rubber Bounce
Conclusion: Bounce Break

About the Author :
Carlin Wing is Associate Professor of Media Studies at Scripps College. She is coeditor of The Techno-Galactic Guide to Software Observation and EA Sports FIFA- Feeling the Game.

Review :
ENDORSEMENTS

“Like all great athletes, Carlin Wing makes the difficult feel effortless: Filled with lateral trajectories and unexpected ricochets and guided by a deep, clear logic, Bounce is a sustained volley, a kinetic masterpiece that absolutely flies."
—Finn Brunton, coauthor of Obfuscation and author of Spam

“A brilliant and original book—wholly inhabited, world-enlarging, full of surprises. Ultimately, Bounce is an invitation to sit courtside and watch Wing’s live mind, quick hands, and generous heart play with ‘elastic materials.’”
—D. Graham Burnett, Director of the Strother School of Radical Attention

“Carefully researched, innovatively conceived, and beautifully written, Bounce reveals the multiple ways that technological development and diverse social conditions impact the material trajectories and cultural meanings of play, games, and sports.”
—Mary G. McDonald, Homer C. Rice Chair of Sports and Society, Georgia Institute of Technology