The Mattertextual Grey Ontology of Black Mirror’s “Plaything”

Abstract

This article offers a posthumanist reinterpretation of Black Mirror’s Season 7 episode “Plaything” by shifting critical attention from dystopian narrative conventions toward the ontological operations of a material interface: a CD. We argue that the CD functions, beyond a narrative prop, as the primary site where the episode’s posthuman ontology becomes legible. Bringing together grey ontology (Shen and Zhao, 2016) and Ağın’s concept of mattertext (2015; 2018; 2020a; 2020b; 2022a; 2022b; 2023), which is further developed into a posthumanist tool for literary and artistic analysis (Ağın, 2026; forthcoming), we demonstrate how the episode stages a world constituted by fluctuating, indeterminate relations rather than discrete entities or stable meanings. Grey ontology provides the formal vocabulary for understanding the CD as an interval-based entity whose agency emerges through uncertain relational intensities, while mattertext designates the material-discursive field in which sound, code, vibration, and embodied receptivity co-produce meaning beyond linguistic or representational capture. Through this dual framework, we show how the CD catalyzes Cameron’s perceptual and ethical rupture from humanist epistemologies. Its sonic pulses, algorithmic residues, and non-linguistic “call” reorganize his cognitive and affective orientations, drawing him toward the Thronglets, the autonomous digital organisms that challenge species boundaries, human-centered ethics, and classical notions of agency. The detective’s failure to comprehend Cameron’s account illustrates a clash between incompatible ontologies, a representational regime grounded in linearity, identity, and confession versus a posthuman ontology grounded in relational attunement, indeterminacy, and material intra-action. By centering an object whose agency unfolds in the grey intervals of mattertextual vibration, this article argues that “Plaything” enacts posthumanism through subtle material interfaces that destabilize epistemic, ethical, and perceptual norms. The CD thus becomes the engine of the episode’s posthuman ontology, revealing how reality unfolds within fluctuating relations rather than within the boundaries of human-centered meaning.

Keywords

• British and Irish Language
• Literature and Culture

Files

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References

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Cite this publication

@article{agin2025mattertextual,
  author = {A{\u{g}}{\i}n, Ba{\c{s}}ak and {\"O}zmen, Do{\u{g}}a},
  title = {{The Mattertextual Grey Ontology of Black Mirror's ``Plaything''}},
  journal = {Hacettepe University Journal of the Faculty of Letters},
  volume = {0},
  number = {Advanced Online},
  pages = {711--725},
  publisher = {Hacettepe {\"U}niversitesi},
  year = {2025},
  month = {11},
  issn = {1301-5737},
  url = {https://hacettepe.hbtech.com.tr/en/publication/the-mattertextual-grey-ontology-of-black-mirrors-plaything},
  language = {en},
  keywords = {British and Irish Language, Literature and Culture},
  abstract = {This article offers a posthumanist reinterpretation of Black Mirror's Season 7 episode ``Plaything'' by shifting critical attention from dystopian narrative conventions toward the ontological operations of a material interface: a CD. We argue that the CD functions, beyond a narrative prop, as the primary site where the episode's posthuman ontology becomes legible. Bringing together grey ontology (Shen and Zhao, 2016) and A{\u{g}}{\i}n's concept of mattertext (2015; 2018; 2020a; 2020b; 2022a; 2022b; 2023), which is further developed into a posthumanist tool for literary and artistic analysis (A{\u{g}}{\i}n, 2026; forthcoming), we demonstrate how the episode stages a world constituted by fluctuating, indeterminate relations rather than discrete entities or stable meanings. Grey ontology provides the formal vocabulary for understanding the CD as an interval-based entity whose agency emerges through uncertain relational intensities, while mattertext designates the material-discursive field in which sound, code, vibration, and embodied receptivity co-produce meaning beyond linguistic or representational capture. Through this dual framework, we show how the CD catalyzes Cameron's perceptual and ethical rupture from humanist epistemologies. Its sonic pulses, algorithmic residues, and non-linguistic ``call'' reorganize his cognitive and affective orientations, drawing him toward the Thronglets, the autonomous digital organisms that challenge species boundaries, human-centered ethics, and classical notions of agency. The detective's failure to comprehend Cameron's account illustrates a clash between incompatible ontologies, a representational regime grounded in linearity, identity, and confession versus a posthuman ontology grounded in relational attunement, indeterminacy, and material intra-action. By centering an object whose agency unfolds in the grey intervals of mattertextual vibration, this article argues that ``Plaything'' enacts posthumanism through subtle material interfaces that destabilize epistemic, ethical, and perceptual norms. The CD thus becomes the engine of the episode's posthuman ontology, revealing how reality unfolds within fluctuating relations rather than within the boundaries of human-centered meaning.},
  affiliation = {TED {\"U}N{\.I}VERS{\.I}TES{\.I} and OSTIM TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY}
}

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Ağın, Başak
AU  - Özmen, Doğa
TI  - The Mattertextual Grey Ontology of Black Mirror’s “Plaything”
T2  - Hacettepe University Journal of the Faculty of Letters
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PB  - Hacettepe Üniversitesi
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AB  - This article offers a posthumanist reinterpretation of Black Mirror’s Season 7 episode “Plaything” by shifting critical attention from dystopian narrative conventions toward the ontological operations of a material interface: a CD. We argue that the CD functions, beyond a narrative prop, as the primary site where the episode’s posthuman ontology becomes legible. Bringing together grey ontology (Shen and Zhao, 2016) and Ağın’s concept of mattertext (2015; 2018; 2020a; 2020b; 2022a; 2022b; 2023), which is further developed into a posthumanist tool for literary and artistic analysis (Ağın, 2026; forthcoming), we demonstrate how the episode stages a world constituted by fluctuating, indeterminate relations rather than discrete entities or stable meanings. Grey ontology provides the formal vocabulary for understanding the CD as an interval-based entity whose agency emerges through uncertain relational intensities, while mattertext designates the material-discursive field in which sound, code, vibration, and embodied receptivity co-produce meaning beyond linguistic or representational capture. Through this dual framework, we show how the CD catalyzes Cameron’s perceptual and ethical rupture from humanist epistemologies. Its sonic pulses, algorithmic residues, and non-linguistic “call” reorganize his cognitive and affective orientations, drawing him toward the Thronglets, the autonomous digital organisms that challenge species boundaries, human-centered ethics, and classical notions of agency. The detective’s failure to comprehend Cameron’s account illustrates a clash between incompatible ontologies, a representational regime grounded in linearity, identity, and confession versus a posthuman ontology grounded in relational attunement, indeterminacy, and material intra-action. By centering an object whose agency unfolds in the grey intervals of mattertextual vibration, this article argues that “Plaything” enacts posthumanism through subtle material interfaces that destabilize epistemic, ethical, and perceptual norms. The CD thus becomes the engine of the episode’s posthuman ontology, revealing how reality unfolds within fluctuating relations rather than within the boundaries of human-centered meaning.
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