Performance and Games : A Love Story

This paper argues that gaming is an embodied phenomenon which is distributed across multiple conceptual domains. Videogames are, as Gee notes, "'action-and-goal-directed preparations for, and simulations of, embodied experience'" (23). However, gaming is more than just what happens on screen. It is a highly mediated experience (the screen sits between that player and the game) in which the player straddles two worlds. They simultaneously exist in the 'virtual' world as their character on the screen as well as in the 'real' world as they press buttons and manipulate the interface of the game. Indeed, Juul argues that playing a game is a "dual structure" in which "the actions we perform have the duality of being real events and being assigned another meaning within the fictional world" (141). Thus, when I click the mouse, I perform a real world action (moving my finger to press the button) as well as a symbolic action in-game (moving a character or selecting an item). Whereas Gee was primarily interested in what happens between the player's head (mind) and the screen, I intend to examine embodiment across this dual structure of physical/virtual experience-that is, not just in the game but in the game play.

This Is Not A Game (TINAG) is a core aesthetic of the medium of Alternate Reality Games, creating a blurred space between the factious and the actual. This opens a liminal space between the story world and the real world spaces or events; those that are in-game or out-of-game. This paper investigates the creative, ethical and practical issues of opening this space and create a medium, or experience which denies its own existence. The paper considers the creation of Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) as a discipline guided by a core set of aesthetics and recurring tropes, such as TINAG, the role of the puppet master, the rabbit holes, or trail head, the player as agent and co-author; rather than as a form of advertising or part of a commercial franchise. The paper gives an overview of these core tropes and aesthetics but argues TINAG is the central or defining aesthetic of the discipline. The paper proposes that through this aesthetic the discipline sets up a dichotomy between the experience and medium existing, and is disappearance or transparency. The paper poses, if TINAG is a core aesthetic, and central to the creation or participation in ARGs then what is the aesthetics purest form, and is any movement away from this as a consideration of ethics or logistics a diluting of theart form. The paper outlines a theoretical and hypothetical game where the player is never aware of the game, either before, during or after it has happened but is an active participant or agent within the game structure and narrative.

Forum, 2021

Ac tA Ac A de m i A e A rt i u m V i l n e nsis / 67 2 012 A RT A N D PL AY Art and play are two fundamental characteristics of humans. Being comparably important, the two notions are strongly interconnected -something that is not only longstanding but has also been carefully observed. Hayden Ramsay notes: "As thinkers from Aristotle onwards have noted, part of the benefit of artistic performances is the opportunity to express and explore powerful emotions and beliefs in safer and more con-This paper examines creative uses of video games. The starting point of the article is an observation of the inherent interconnection between play and art. The demise of the play element, as observed by

Modern digital games are a highly successful commercial form of entertainment, however it is only relatively recently that they have started to be taken seriously as a modern art form. A central aspect of game form is the active role held by the player, whose actions and behaviour create the gaming experience. The argument presented in this paper is that the playing of videogames is a performance act and that our understanding of this precocious dramatic form is enhanced by applying the lens offered by performance theory to more closely understand the dynamics that thrive in the dance between player and game. This paper offers a position statement that outlines some starting points for exploring the unique aspects of digital game performance.

Philosophy & Technology, 2014

This paper discusses the nature and limits of player embodiment within digital games. We identify a convergence between everyday bodily actions and activity within digital environments, and a trend towards incorporating natural forms of movement into gaming worlds through mimetic control devices. We examine recent literature in the area of immersion and presence in digital gaming; Calleja’s (2011) recent Player Involvement Model (PIM) of gaming is discussed and found to rely on a problematic notion of embodiment as ‘incorporation’. We go on to further reflect on the nature of player involvement in digital gaming environments by applying insights from Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception. It is argued that digital embodiment differs so significantly from primordial embodiment that any idea of total immersion is simply fantasy. We subsequently argue that digital game media nonetheless provide us with unique opportunities for exploring the nature of distinctively human forms of embodiment, and so we need more complete and more reliable phenomenological descriptions of the experiences associated with computer games.

Screenplay: Cinema/Videogames/Interfaces, 2002

In opening sequences of Tron (1982), Flynn, a computer specialist, works under the watchful ‘eye’, a laser-optic apparatus, of the master-computer. In a moment of rebellion, the computer, through the electronic eye, transports Flynn into a virtual world created by the computer programme. It is also at this point that special effects dominate the film as the spectator is treated to a spectacle of special effects. The sequence of events where the characters fight for their lives to survive in this fantastic but brutal virtual world becomes then the main narrative sequence of the film. The game becomes a film and the film becomes a game in an inter-affective exchange. Enthused by the example of Tron, this paper will explore the concepts of spatiality and perspective in cinema and 3D computer games, and consider the intimate inter-affectivity of these two genres with relation to space and vision. It will specifically challenge the common understanding of cinematographic viewpoint as a “fourth wall” dividing the spectator (as passive viewer) from the action, and the usual deliberation of 3D computer games as an interactive ‘space’ created through the (inter)active involvement of the spectator and the resultant dissolution of the “fourth wall”. According to Stephen Heath, filmic narratives are weaved together through a stitchwork of sutures that requires the spectator’s participation. The combination of cinematographic techniques and editing requires the viewer to recognise these markers of spatial and narrative gaps (i.e.. camera movements and angles), and actively process them into a whole narrative experience. In 3D computer games, however, the sequence of simulated spatial movement is continuous, and the narrative sequence generally linear (e.g. current hits like Half-Life, Duke Nuke’m). This results in a reduction of the level of organisation and processing of narrative sequence. As such, this paper de liberates the notion of inter-activity in computer games by suggesting that such interactions are limited to the simulation of the immediately visual and aural.

2019

The inclusion of game elements in non-game systems provides great potential and challenges for artistic works. In this paper we study conceptual aspects of action to understand the relationship between player and game system. We study videogames as musical instruments for a performance approach admitting that the relationship between musician and instrument is close to the relationship between player and game system, from an operational point of view. This research aims at an understanding and to explore the potential and artistic challenges that emerge from this. Two case studies were created that explore two ways of playing, or performing with games as musical instruments. These were submitted to experimentation tests with musicians and non-musicians in order to provide us with feedback on the experience of playing them and on how players related with the game system, considering these aspects for future work.

In the practice of building large scale interactive situations, we have followed various paths in order to achieve maximal effectiveness. This paper investigates some of those paths and the way that they relate to the practice of games and gameplay. Considering these practices, we find that there are strong connections of both these areas to the theories and practices of contemporary theatre. One of the main connections is the idea of a game or installation as a form of structured public improvisation. This paper investigates these three aspects, game(play), large scale interactive installations and contemporary the-atre, and brings out some of the ways that they can be seen in our work and work of colleagues working in related areas. We find several ways that theatrical theory can be used to improve the details of large scale interactive environments as well as gaming spaces.

XIV Symposium of Mexican Students and Studies “Knowledge into Solutions”, 2016

[This material was Published by the Committee of the Symposium of Mexican Students in Edinburgh, UK Edinburgh, Scotland, UK December 2016.] Addresses videogames as an ergodic audio-visual narrative medium, in which we are allowed to explore the borders between interpreters and receivers. Pointing that in the forms of narrative expression and transmission of the story, the mode of acquisition thereof greatly influences the way of use. Reaffirming there are forms of narrative that can only exists or be consumed in certain media, referring specifically to those in which it requires direct intervention and a non-trivial reader, in this case video games. Also describes video games as a narrative form, which offers an open path of the experience of "be" and "being there" through the erlebnis, the act that generate knowledge through interpretation. mexsoc(.)org(.)uk/proceedings/ All rights reserved. This work is registered with the UK Copyright Service. Registration No. 284712509. Symposium of Mexican Students and Studies. ISSN 2514-314X Copyright © 2017 Organising Committee of the Symposium of Mexican Students and Studies. Edinburgh, Scotland, UK December 2016. Romano Ponce-Díaz.

Phenomenological accounts of technology, mediation, and embodiment are beginning to problematize traditional distinctions between subject (human) and object (machine). This shift is often attributed to a material or post-human turn since it is usually associated with an interest in the non-human actors and objects that make media interfaces possible. This article contends that these tendencies should also be considered part of a deeper lineage of dialectical thought in critical theory. Using videogames as an example, I argue that academic debates related to the player/game relationship can be read through the lens of Adorno's aesthetic theory. Developing Adorno's concept of mimesis, I argue that the interface is often treated as a dialectical question of how the space between subject and object should be traversed. I reflect on the possible advantages of focusing on this contested space through a discussion of game controllers and the Aristotelian concept of techne.

2008

This article explores digital games and play as transmedia experiences that mix technological and visual recombination trends. With a focus on Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) and the convergence available in these projects between offline and online interactions, performances and happenings, it is argued that these playable spaces are an appropriate place to understand the dynamics of digital aesthetics since they involve their players in a complex and emerging experience. This text inquires old distinctions and dualities, especially the distinction between art and entertainment, higher art and popular art, art and design, among others.

Body and Society, 2025

In this article, I will present Merleau-Ponty's idea of embodiment and apply it to demonstrate two attributes of the on-screen virtual world, which suggest that the videogaming situation is projected in a contextual sense and flattened in a spatial sense. According to Merleau-Ponty, humans are primordially situated body subjects taking up the world in and through movement. He views bodily movements as correlated and solicited by situations that the body subject encounters. Building on this, I argue that, because of the projected and flattened videogaming situation, playing video games always involves an abstract attitude; and it always involves a determined and constrained pattern of bodily movements in the present, as well as limited possibilities for future movement development.

This thesis explores the concepts of space and time in videogames. From the designer's monitor to the player's screen, spatiotemporal elements shape the player's experience of videogame spaces, expanding on her perceptions of everyday life. I draw on theories from art, architecture, geography and anthropology in order to understand how the spatiotemporal elements in videogames relate to contemporary approaches to space and time where the ideas of non- places and everyday life are paramount. My central argument is that spatiotemporal experiences in videogames occur within the context of everyday life, rather than residing within the realm of virtual reality, a simulation that evokes the construction of a space of representation that can be related -as if it were real, effecting a separation from the -really real. Everyday life happens within the context of non- places with unique characteristics and singular manipulations to which space and time are susceptible in videogames, thereby expanding on the player's field of everyday reality in particular ways. Henri Lefebvre suggested that every society produces a certain kind of space of its own and Marc Auge affirms that our supermodern times have spawned a new type of space: the non- place. Non- places are transient spaces, devoid of relational and historical elements and Auge argues that they are the opposite of anthropological places, where inscriptions of the social bond or collective story can be seen. Anthropological places are being lost to supermodern non- places, and by using gamic examples, I will extend the concept of supermodernism to the experience of space within the game realm. These transient passages through videogames challenge us to adapt to new paradigms of interaction in space and time. My central argument is that spatiotemporal experiences in videogames occur within the context of everyday life, rather than residing within the realm of -virtual reality, a simulation that evokes the construction of a space of representation that can be related as if it were real, effecting a separation from the -really real. Everyday life happens within the context of non- places with unique characteristics and singular manipulations to which space and time are susceptible in videogames, thereby expanding on the player's field of everyday reality in particular ways. Henri Lefebvre suggested that every society produces a certain kind of space of its own and Marc Auge affirms that our supermodern times have spawned a new type of space: the non- place. Non- places are transient spaces, devoid of relational and historical elements and Auge argues that they are the opposite of anthropological places, where inscriptions of the social bond or collective story can be seen. Anthropological places are being lost to supermodern non- places, and by using gamic examples, I will extend the concept of supermodernism to the experience of space within the game realm. These transient passages through videogames challenge us to adapt to new paradigms of interaction in space and time.