The Beginner's Guide to Art Games as Aesthetic Experiences: Examining Davey Wreden's The Beginner's Guide Through John Dewey's Aesthetic Framework
Authors
Nielsen, Marcus Kristian ; Sørensen, Niklas Vinther
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2019
Pages
135
Abstract
Dette speciale undersøger, om videospil forstået som oplevelsesmedier kan skabe en Deweysk æstetisk erfaring og dermed betegnes som kunst, ved at anvende John Deweys Art as Experience som ramme. Specialet udvikler en tværfaglig, egenudviklet tilgang med udgangspunkt i æstetisk filosofi, kultur- og litteraturstudier samt spilvidenskab og opstiller en analytisk skelnen mellem mainstream-spil og art games, hvor sidstnævnte antages at kunne facilitere æstetiske erfaringer. Gennem en fortolkende analyse af Davey Wredens The Beginner's Guide (2015) med fokus på værkets selvrefleksivitet, metareferentialitet og avantgardestrategier vurderes det, hvordan spillet engagerer spilleren i en sammenhængende, immersiv oplevelse, der fremkalder komplekse blandinger af positive og negative følelser, som først kan artikuleres ved efterfølgende refleksion, når oplevelsen er konsummeret. Da The Beginner's Guide samtidig trækker på træk fra postmoderne og højmodernistisk kunst, konkluderer specialet, at spillets stærke iboende æstetiske kvaliteter taler for at betragte det som kunst og understøtter bredere argumenter for, at nogle videospil kan klassificeres som kunst gennem deres evne til at frembringe æstetiske erfaringer.
This master's thesis examines whether video games, understood as experiential media, can produce a Deweyan aesthetic experience and thus be considered art, using John Dewey's Art as Experience as its guiding framework. It develops a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach drawing on aesthetic philosophy, cultural and literary studies, and video game studies, and sets up an analytical distinction between mainstream games and art games, proposing that the latter can facilitate aesthetic experience. Through a close, interpretive analysis of Davey Wreden's The Beginner's Guide (2015), focusing on its self-reflexivity, metareferentiality, and avant-garde strategies, the thesis evaluates how the game engages players in a coherent, immersive experience that elicits complex mixtures of positive and negative emotions which can only be named in retrospect once the experience is consummated. Because The Beginner's Guide also echoes features of postmodern and high modernist art, the thesis concludes that its strong inherent aesthetic qualities warrant considering it as art, thereby supporting the broader claim that some video games can be classified as art by virtue of producing aesthetic experiences.
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