The zone of "becoming": game, text and technicity in videogame narratives

Videogames have emerged as arguably the most prominent form of entertainment in recent years. Their versatility has made them key contributory factors in social, literary, cultural and philosophical discourse; however, critics also tend to see videogames as posing a threat to established cultural parameters. This thesis argues that videogames are firmly grounded in older media and they are important for the development of the notions of textuality, technicity and identity that literary and cultural theories have been debating in recent years. As its point of departure, the thesis takes the contested role of videogames as storytelling media. Challenging the opposition between games and narratives that is posited in earlier research, the framework of the Derridean concept of supplementarity has been adopted to illustrate how the ludic and the narrative inform each other's core, and yet retain their media-specific identities. It is also vital to consider how the technicity and narrative of games inform their perception as texts. Videogames provide a direct illustration of this but they develop on similar principles in earlier media instead of doing something entirely 'new'. The multitelic structure of videogames tends to be looked upon as symptomatic of novelty; in reality, however, they illustrate more clearly the inherent nature of telos in all narrative media

Machine Performers: Agents in a Multiple Ontological State

In this thesis, the author explores and develops new attributes for machine performers and merges the trans-disciplinary fields of the performing arts and artificial intelligence. The main aim is to redefine the term “embodiment” for robots on the stage and to demonstrate that this term requires broadening in various fields of research. This redefining has required a multifaceted theoretical analysis of embodiment in the field of artificial intelligence (e.g. the uncanny valley), as well as the construction of new robots for the stage by the author. It is hoped that these practical experimental examples will generate more research by others in similar fields. Even though the historical lineage of robotics is engraved with theatrical strategies and dramaturgy, further application of constructive principles from the performing arts and evidence from psychology and neurology can shift the perception of robotic agents both on stage and in other cultural environments. In this light, the relation between representation, movement and behaviour of bodies has been further explored to establish links between constructed bodies (as in artificial intelligence) and perceived bodies (as performers on the theatrical stage). In the course of this research, several practical works have been designed and built, and subsequently presented to live audiences and research communities. Audience reactions have been analysed with surveys and discussions. Interviews have also been conducted with choreographers, curators and scientists about the value of machine performers. The main conclusions from this study are that fakery and mystification can be used as persuasive elements to enhance agency. Morphologies can also be applied that tightly couple brain and sensorimotor actions and lead to a stronger stage presence. In fact, if this lack of presence is left out of human replicants, it causes an “uncanny” lack of agency. Furthermore, the addition of stage presence leads to stronger identification from audiences, even for bodies dissimilar to their own. The author demonstrates that audience reactions are enhanced by building these effects into machine body structures: rather than identification through mimicry, this causes them to have more unambiguously biological associations. Alongside these traits, atmospheres such as those created by a cast of machine performers tend to cause even more intensely visceral responses. In this thesis, “embodiment” has emerged as a paradigm shift – as well as within this shift – and morphological computing has been explored as a method to deepen this visceral immersion. Therefore, this dissertation considers and builds machine performers as “true” performers for the stage, rather than mere objects with an aura. Their singular and customized embodiment can enable the development of non-anthropocentric performances that encompass the abstract and conceptual patterns in motion and generate – as from human performers – empathy, identification and experiential reactions in live audiences

Space Between Lines: Diagrammatic Architecture and 3D Printing

All forms of communication require a medium to translate abstract thoughts from the mind to an observable and measurable artifact. Whether it is through body movement, vocalization, drawing, making, or multimedia, all ideas rely on some form of medium to leap from the mind and into physical reality. 3D printing is an emerging technology being investigated and developed in many different areas such as medical, aeronautical, as well as in architectural fields. Using 3D printers, digital models can be physically fabricated quickly, giving the maker tactile feedback which can reinform the digital model for further iterations and variations. In this thesis, an extrusion-based 3D printer is utilized as a sketching tool for the mind. Just as a pen and paper allow the architect to explore conceptual and abstract architecture and space through representations, the 3D printer and its software are used as a medium between ideas and its material reification. Six interconnected exercises range from establishing an intuitive workflow with the 3D printer to exploring 3D printed diagrammatic architecture

Off the pedestal, on the stage: Animation and de-animation in art and theatre

Whereas most genealogies of the puppet invariably conclude with robots and androids, this dissertation explores an alternative narrative. Here the inanimate object, first perceived either miraculously or idolatrously to come to life, is then observed as something that the live actor can aspire to, not necessarily the end-result of an ever evolving technological accomplishment. This research project examines a fundamental oscillation between the perception of inanimate images as coming alive, and the converse experience of human actors becoming inanimate images, whilst interrogating how this might articulate, substantiate or defy belief. Chapters 1 and 2 consider the literary documentation of objects miraculously coming to life, informed by the theology of incarnation and resurrection in Early Christianity, Byzantium and the Middle Ages. This includes examinations of icons, relics, incorrupt cadavers, and articulated crucifixes. Their use in ritual gradually leads on to the birth of a Christian theatre, its use of inanimate figures intermingling with live actors, and the practice of tableaux vivants, live human figures emulating the stillness of a statue. The remaining chapters focus on cultural phenomena that internalise the inanimate object's immobility or strange movement quality. Chapter 3 studies secular tableaux vivants from the late eighteenth century onwards. Chapter 4 explores puppets-automata, with particular emphasis on Kempelen's Chess-player and the physical relation between object-manipulator and manipulated-object. The main emphasis is a choreographic one, on the ways in which live movement can translate into inanimate hardness, and how this form of movement can then be appropriated. In chapter 5 I relate puppets and prostheses using texts such as Kleist's "On the Marionette Theatre", Pinocchio, Coppelia, Bergson on mechanical movement, and Jentsch on the Uncanny. In the context of theatrical practise, chapter 6 examines key texts and theories on puppet-like acting, concentrating primarily on Edward Gordon Craig's concept of the Uber-marionette

More than a game: The computer game as fictional form

Whether you love them or loathe them, look back with wistful nostalgia to the days of Pong and Space Invaders, or regard the whole phenomenon with blank incomprehension, there is no doubt that computer and video games now occupy a significant place in contemporary popular culture. The economics alone are staggering, with unit sales counted in the millions. The frequency of assertions in the popular press about the dangerous influence of their violent subject matter and 'immersive' potential imply a startling level of influence. To disregard the computer game is to refuse to engage fully with contemporary popular culture. This is the first academic work dedicated to the study of computer games in terms of the stories they tell and the manner of their telling. Taking its cue from practices of reading texts in literary and cultural studies, it considers the computer game as a new and emerging mode of contemporary storytelling in a fashion that is accessible and readable, recognising the excitement and pleasure that has made the computer game such a massive global phenomenon. In a carefully organised study Barry Atkins discusses in detail questions of narrative and realism in four of the most significant games of the last decade: Tomb Raider, Half-Life, Close Combat and SimCity. This is a work for both the student of contemporary culture and those game-players who are interested in how computer games tell their stories

History of Computer Art

A large text presents the history of Computer Art. The history of the artistic uses of computers and computing processes is reconstructed from its beginnings in the fifties to its present state. It points out hypertextual, modular and generative modes to use computing processes in Computer Art and features examples of early developments in media like cybernetic sculptures, video tools, computer graphics and animation (including music videos and demos), video and computer games, pervasive games, reactive installations, virtual reality, evolutionary art and net art. The functions of relevant art works are explained more detailed than is usual in such histories. From October 2011 to December 2012 the chapters have been published successively in German (The English translation started in August 2013 and was completed in June 2014)