Dr. Alex Gekker

Alex Gekker is a Senior Lecturer at the department of Communication Studies, Tel Aviv University. Previously, he was Assistant Professor of New Media and Digital Culture at the University of Amsterdam. His research incorporates various aspects of digital media, primarily focusing on platforms and interfaces to analyse maps, surveillance assemblages, autonomous cars, videogame ecosystems and more. He published in New Media & Society, American Behavioral Scientist, Surveillance and Society, and Geoforum. He co-edited two Open Access books on mapping, one on temporality and the other on play. In the past he has worked in a variety of media positions, as journalist, editor, and spokesperson.

My research interest include:

• (UX) Interfaces and User Experience
• Digital mapping, location based techologies and Augmented/ Hybrid Reality
• Videogames and their political economy, gaming culture and streaming content
• Digital methods for social science and humanities

See my Research Gate for uploaded pre-prints and OA files

 Articles in Refereed Journals

• Gekker, A and Joseph, D. 2021. Selling Elysium: The Political Economy of Radical Game Distribution. Baltic Screen Media Review 9 (1): 20–31. SOI: 10.2478/bsmr-2021-0003
• Bernevega, A and Gekker A. 2021. The Industry of Landlords: Exploring the Assetization of the Triple-A Game. Games and Culture. SAGE Publications: 15554120211014152. DOI: 10.1177/15554120211014151.
• Vijaj, D and Gekker A.. 2021. Playing politics: How Sabarimala played out on TikTok. American Behavioral Scientist, Special Issue on Social Platform Accountability in Global Perspectives.  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002764221989769
• Gekker, A. 2021. Against Game Studies. Media and Communication 9(1) https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/3315 
• Knight, E and Gekker, A. 2020. Mapping interfacial regimes of control: Palantir’s ICM in America’s post-9/11 security technology infrastructures. Surveillance & Society 18 (2): 231-243
• Gekker, A and Hind, S. 2019. Infrastructural surveillance. New Media and Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819879426
• Gekker, A. 2018. Let’s not play: Interpassivity as resistance in ‘Let’s Play’ videos.  Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds 10 (3): 219–42. https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw.10.3.219_1.
• Gekker, A. 2016. Casual power: Understanding user interfaces through quantification. Digital Culture & Society “Quantified Selves | Statistic Bodies” 2 (1): 107-121.
• Hind, S. and Gekker, A. 2014. 'Outsmarting traffic, together': Driving as social navigation. Exchanges: the Warwick Research Journal,. 1(2): 165-180. https://doi.org/10.31273/eirj.v1i2.84

Edited Volumes

• Perkins, S., Lammes, S., Gekker, A., Hind, S., C. Wilmott and D. Evans (Eds). 2018. Cartographic temporalities: Time and space in digital mapping. Manchester: Manchester University Press.  https://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=650132 [citations: 11]
• Playful Mapping Collective. (2016). Playful mapping in the digital age. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures. http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/playful-mapping-in-the-digital-age/

Chapters in Edited Books

• Hind, S. and Gekker, A. 2019. On autopilot: Towards a flat ontology of vehicular navigation. In: Media’s Mapping Impulse. Chris Lukinbeal and Elisabeth Sommerald (Eds.): 141-160. Meinz: MGM
• Gekker, A. 2018. Playing with power: Casual politicking as a new frame for political analysis. In: The Playful Citizen: Civic Engagement in a Mediatized Culture, Rene Glas, Sybille Lammes, Michiel de Lange, Joost Raessens and Imar de Vries (Eds.): 387-419. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. https://doi.org/10.5117/9789462984523/ch20
• Gekker, A. (2012). Legionnaires of chaos: “Anonymous” and governmental oversight of the internet. In D. Helder & A. L. Massanari (Eds.), Digital Ethics,  pp. 178–192. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.

Peer-Reviewed Conference Proceedings

• Gekker, A., & Hind, S. (2020). RE-VALUING PLATFORMS, RECLAIMING THE LOCAL. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2020. https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2020i0.11119
• Mniestri, A., & Gekker, A. (2020). TEMPORAL FRAMES FOR PLATFORM PUBLICS: THE PLATFORMIZATION OF BREADTUBE. AoIR Selected Papers of Internet Research, 2020. https://doi.org/10.5210/spir.v2020i0.11281