----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
Empyreans,
Long time lurker here, I want to first apologize for the informal sloppy
nature of this email, if I don't put it together and send it quickly, I
won't get it out at all.
I too was impressed by Joe's narrative of his works, much of which I have
followed for a number of years. I also had the distinct pleasure of
curating Joe and Paolo into my first museum show on games as art a number
of years ago for Zero1. I have to say that I think the struggle to get
work recognized as art has been playing itself out for a long time across
new media and more recently among those of us who see games as a
particular flavor of interactive media. And though the victories are
trickling in it was that my last show that convinced me that the question
of art in games and games in art just wasn't that interesting to me, but
it was more important what one could do with the medium.
The resistance to putting games into the gallery and museum tends to melt
away as the institutions recognize the tremendous diversity of expression
and audience that are represented in the works and attracted to the shows.
That being expressed I have to say that the idea of Games of the Oppressed
and even Videogames of the Oppressed really flips a switch in my head. I
think Anna Anthropy reflects very well on who and what is oppressed by the
modern games industry and even to a lesser extent indie games. There just
aren't enough voice, and isn't enough diversity in the voices of the games
being played.
The rules and coded culture of the game create a powerful level of control
over the player, and perhaps it is the manipulation of that through some
manner of live coding or game modding that creates a useful dialog within
games of the oppressed, I do not know. I have not encountered this before
but am anxious to learn more. On the other hand a sense of game playing is
at the heart of Theater of the Oppressed too, isn't it?
Games cultivate motivation and teach, but they teach best how to play the
game.
On Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:38:30 -0700, Johannes Birringer
<johannes.birrin...@brunel.ac.uk> wrote:
----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
dear all
hopefully it is not distracting (after the long and semi biographical
post by Joseph Delappe which took me by surprise - the way the
narrative progressed in its turns and outcomes, and i wondered of course
how narratively creative it was?)
to come back to the reference to Augusto Boal and the somewhat
misleading, i suggest, heading of "videogames of the orppressed" -
perhaps the earlier discussion on video/games (Paolo, with all others
involved, and thanks for your reply Ana!) was far from exhaustive, and
once you introduced the correlation between a theatre of the oppressed
and what you call video of the oppressed, i could not help asking myself
whom you mean by the game-oppressed? and why would you posit a desire,
on the part of the gamers, to have their games changed ("God of War" out
soon in Playstation 3, ready to be changed in the outcomes?) and have
them changed, as Boal and Freire would argue, so the political
conditions of oppression can be discussed, then resistances or
alternates be rehearsed and experienced as possible within the context
of the rehearsal with others --- ("After one representation, anybody in
the audience can take over the role of the protagonist and suggest,
through her acting, a solution that she thinks would break the
oppression. Since the problems are complex, the solutions are generally
incomplete. This is why the process is repeated several times, always
offering a new perspective on the subject. In Boal's (1992) own words:
"It is more important to achieve a good debate than a good solution." It
is central to stress that Boal uses theater as a tool......."
This is from Gonzalo Frasca, i tried to go back and read his texts and
also found it interesting –– and here i will come back at later point
perhaps to Joseph's fascinating narrative– that Frasca distinguishes
between "Aristotelian" plot design for games, and the notion he prefer,
of simulation, and then mentions the Boalian approach suggesting that
for him "simulation" is "imaginary dynamic system (the Mario world),
understood as the modeling of a dynamic system through another system..."
http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/firstperson/Boalian
Gonzalo Frasca / Videogames of the Oppressed (2004)
Is it possible to design videogames that deal with social and
political issues?
Could videogames be used as a tool for encouraging critical thinking?
Do videogames offer an alternative way of understanding reality?
<< (opening lines of Frasca)
Brecht's techniques, however, were not exclusively targeted at the
audience. He also encouraged performers to be completely aware of their
actions. Instead of being "inside the skin" of the character, he
encouraged having a critical distance that would let them understand
their role.
Brazilian dramatist Augusto Boal (1971) took Brecht's ideas even further
by creating a set of techniques, known as the "Theater of the Oppressed"
(TO), that tear down the stage's "fourth wall." Boal's main goal is to
foster critical thinking and break the actor/spectator dichotomy by
creating the "spect-actor," a new category that integrates both by
giving them active participation in the play. The repertoire of
techniques of TO is extremely large and includes, among others, the
"invisible theater" -- where actors work "undercover" in public spaces
-- and the "Forum Theater." >>
(from further inside the Frasca text).
Thus, i am not sure, do you wish to correlate something like hacking or
machinima'ing to the theatrical rehearsal for political participation?
Frasca's idealism is to be appreciated, his wish to give the user the
power to add/modify behaviors in a game character in order to and take
on and discuss/critique/rehearse/change and affect human
relationships,political and social issues......
But as we tend to know, the process of changing behaviors is not an easy
task.. and I am not talking about hacking.
How do other feel about games and revolt? games of the revolution,
games of rebellion?
respectfully
Johannes Birringer
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--
james
Anything that can be made, can be made black.
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