The Aesthetics of Posthuman Interactivity in <i>Bandersnatch</i>

Abstract This article examines the film Bandersnatch from the Netflix series Black Mirror to reveal how interactive narratives may function like Katherine Hayles’s concept of the “cyborg”: as a hybrid existence of human agency subject to, integrated into, and operating within a world that is partially/substantially dictated by the possibilities of technology. Using posthumanism and postmodernism as theoretical frameworks, this essay interrogates how interactive storytelling in Bandersnatch parodies the traditional roles of the author and the spectator. Interpreting a “cyborg” film occasions the presence of an interactor with “cyborg subjectivity.” This article demonstrates how the interactor shares a posthuman connection with the narrative through active gestures and relational aesthetics that link themselves with the narrative of the film. This aesthetics of interactive viewing makes Bandersnatch an experiment in cyborg spectatorship.