Avant-Garde, Emergency, and Digital Games Discourse

Author:

Prokopek Aleksandra1ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Doctoral School in the Humanities, Jagiellonian University in Cracow

Abstract

What may be considered as the greatest emergency in the contemporary world is the lack of a sense of emergency; the prevailing feeling that everything is fine, that, despite ongoing crises, we live in the only acceptable system, and it is impossible to imagine any alternative to it. Mainstream digital games, by offering repetitive, standardised, and predictable forms of gameplay, by focusing on technological advancement, and by exploiting workers in large corporations, became a part of that emergency. According to Santiago Zabala, what is needed to recover the sense of emergency and to break through contemporary complacency, is an “aesthetic force,” a disruptive artistic shock. What is proposed in this article is the possibility of considering the avant-garde as an aesthetical force in the field of videogames; a force that shocks the player and demands something more than a simple contemplation. As presented by game scholars, avant- -garde videogames (through formal experimentation and political intervention) open the medium, and propose games that object to standardised, mindless repetition. Avant-garde games proclaim new ways of playing, accept diversity that opposes the stereotypical image of a player as a white, heterosexual male, and propose new kinds of engagement with the outside world. They tend to “remove the automatism of the perception” by disrupting players’ engagement and through disclosure of the system. To achieve that, avant-garde videogames break through the category of flow, problematize notions of videogame hermeneutic and interrupt the feeling of immersion.

Publisher

Uniwersytet Jagiellonski - Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellonskiego

Reference32 articles.

1. 1. Angelucci D., Forum on S. Zabala, "Why Only Art Can Save Us", "Lebenswelt" 2019, no. 15, pp. 114-154.

2. 2. Arjoranta J., Real-Time Hermeneutics: Meaning-Making in Ludonarrative Digital Games, Jyväskylä University Printing House, Jyväskylä 2015.

3. 3. Boal A., Theatre of Oppressed, transl. C.A. Leal McBride, M.-O. Leal McBride, E. Fryer, Pluto Press, London 2008.

4. 4. Boruszkowska I., Kmiecik M., Kornhauser J., Teorie awangardy - wstępne rozpoznania [in:] I. Boruszkowska, M. Kmiecik, J. Kornhauser (red.), Teorie awangardy. Antologia tekstów, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Kraków 2020.

5. 5. Bürger P., Theory of the Avant-Garde, transl. M. Shaw, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis 1984.

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3