Crudely, a Machine. The Dream Machine Through the Lens of Russian Formalism
Serada, Alesha (2022-08-29)
Serada, Alesha
European Humanities University
29.08.2022
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2022092159818
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2022092159818
Kuvaus
vertaisarvioitu
© 2022 Authors. Published in Topos by European Humanities University This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License. This journal allows the author(s) to hold the copyright without restrictions. Topos Journal uses CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license (license URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
© 2022 Authors. Published in Topos by European Humanities University This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License. This journal allows the author(s) to hold the copyright without restrictions. Topos Journal uses CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license (license URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0)
Tiivistelmä
This article explains how specific aesthetic decisions work in the game The Dream Machine. I analyze it through the lens of Russian Formalism: particular techniques of making a video game are judged through Shklovsky’s Art as a Technique, and the problem of the game genre is presented through Tynianov’s The Literary Fact. Theoretically, I aspire to reclaim the original context for these ideas, which is surprisingly relevant to contemporary horror media. Digital games as an artistic form re-introduce the effect of estrangement into the ongoing experiments with their medium; in The Dream Machine, this effect is created by replacing a digital simulacrum of computer generated imagery with high resolution scans of real life objects, made of modeling clay, cardboard and found objects. I label this technique “scary matter”, and it can be found both in games, animation films and pop music videos, such as Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer. The medium of a digital game suggests it is timeless and infinitely replayable, which intensifies the effect of estrangement in the case of always-already dead ‘scary matter’.
Kokoelmat
- Artikkelit [3113]