Posts Tagged ‘space’

by Dario Compagno, Ph.D. in Semiotics at the University of Siena, Italy

This is the introduction of an annex discussion to the Semiotics of Video Games exhibition. It was lead by Dario Compagno on facebook in October 2010. Please visit the discussion page to see the reactions, and don’t hesitate to post yours.

by Gabriele Ferri, PhD student in Semiotics at the University of Bologna, Italy

This is the introduction of an annex discussion to the Semiotics of Video Games exhibition. It was lead by Gabriele Ferri on facebook in September 2010. Please visit the discussion page to see the reactions, and don’t hesitate to post yours.

References:

• “Computer Games, between Text and Practice“, edited by Dario Compagno and Patrick Coppock
• “Gamer Theory” by McKenzie Wark, read few quotations from his book.
• “Persuasive Games” by Ian Bogost, read few quotations from his book
• “Video Game Spaces” by Michael Nitsche, read few quotations from his book.

In this paper, I will analyse some of the videos that were made at the occasion of the Welcome to My Place project, a collective video resource that started in February 2010 and where people can share the places that matter to them. In view of the videos and after some researches, I would like to propose a slightly different approach to the concept of non-place introduced by Marc Augé, and to the way places are appropriated. This paper is also intended to provide a short introduction to the philosophical notion of place and its main themes.

Here is a series of three artistic videos around the theme of verticality. I made them while I was in Hong Kong in May 2010 to complement the Welcome to My Place video collection and my researches on the philosophical concept of place. While I visited many cities in my life, Hong Kong is a particularly striking vertical experience, because of its density and uncompromising modernisation.

• Five conceptual planes for the analysis of game spaces:
  • Rule-based (algorithm, hardware)
  • Mediated (what appears on the screen)
  • Fictional (what is in the head of the player)
  • Play (where the player is)
  • Social (other players).
• On narratives:
  • “A fundamental function of narrative is that of providing a way of comprehending space, time, and causality”.
  • “Narrative can be thought as systems of verbal or visual cues prompting their readers to spatialize storyworlds into evolving configurations of participants, objects and places”.