Screen Images. In-Game Photography, Screenshot, Screencast
Bibliography
Gerling, Winfried, Sebastian Möring, and Marco Mutiis. 2023. Screen Images. In-Game Photography, Screenshot, Screencast. https://doi.org/10.55309/c3ie61k5.
Abstract
[This book is open access - to read it follow the DOI link: https://doi.org/10.55309/c3ie61k5]
This volume examines historical and contemporary image practices and phenomena, including screenshots, screen photography, screencasts and in-game photography. The individual chapters pose questions relating to the status, ontology and aesthetics of such practices and phenomena and also analyse their cultural and artistic significance. Artistic works explore these questions in the form of various image practices. The authors and artists investigate the potential for a new area of research at the intersection of a range of disciplines, such as media studies, media aesthetics, media history, image studies, photography theory, game studies, media art and game art. As one of the first publications to address these phenomena, this book speaks to a varied audience in the realms of media studies, game studies and cultural studies as well as to members of the general public interested in historical and contemporary practices associated with visual and digital media.
Notes
Notes
-
introducing the need for an analysis of the “aesthetics of in-game photography” (Gerling et al., 2022, p. 264)
-
arguing that Overweg’s work at the limit of a game’s structures reveals in-game photography depending on the source game as conditional cyberimage
-
defining in-game photography
-
the relation between in-game photography its the source game is paradox: the game, gameness or gameplay is mostly absent, but the aesthetics of it are still present in the photo, similar to the machinima format
“If a game is transformed into a film, the gameness or “gameplay” ceases to exist. In other words, “the game loses its rule set completely and ceases to be a game after all”.” (Gerling et al., 2022, p. 268)
-
I had similar thoughts about screenshots and screencasts becoming secondary literature for a game; but, they might as well as be something entirely else
-
game art is a relapse, from ergodic media to the “object of a viewer’s gaze” (Gerling et al., 2022, p. 269)
-
author not happy with omission of discussion of significance of gameplay for in-game photography
“I believe, though, that the way a game is played is inscribed in the making of in-game photographs.” (Gerling et al., 2022, p. 270)
- proposing to look at game research from perspective of visual culture instead
“Game studies’ emphasis on the image” (Gerling et al., 2022, p. 270)
- in-game photography being highly dependent on game design and the game engine
“1,000-person team of game designers and developers of different kinds29 who designed not only a photorealistic but also a socio-realistic world” (Gerling et al., 2022, p. 271)
-
how do visual characteristics relate to gameplay/gameness
-
gameplay vs. aesthetics / gameplay and aesthetics
-
next to game or text, a video game can/should be conceptualized as image
-
the image in game can be static, moving or interactive; the later being a image act (Bildakt)
-
…or as manipulable double image, whereas the latter is image and invisible code (double-sided)
“Thomas Hensel emphasizes this action dimension of game images: Drawing on Kenneth Burke’s theory of action and John L. Austin’s speech act theory as well as from Horst Bredekamp’s work on Image Acts41, he conceptualizes the computer game as an image act (Bildakt). Due to the double-sided nature of digital images as proposed by Frieder Nake42, Hensel suggests regarding a digital image on a computer as a manipulable “double image”.43 Such images simultaneously consist of a visual surface and an invisible underside made up of (machine readable) code. Emphasizing the coded under-side of the image, Hensel goes on to say that computer game images are better understood as performative images and not as representational images. While playing a game, the players do more than merely appreciate the aesthetics of the computer game image; Hensel argues that they also interact with these images during gameplay. In other words, interacting with the game’s images is an essential part of the gameplay performance.” (Gerling et al., 2022, p. 273)
^ this …
“The computer game as a conditional cyberimage” (Gerling et al., 2022, p. 275)
- ergodic as the non-trivial effort on behalf of the player to travers a game
“A cyberimage is then a hybrid of a machine (the computer) and image (all visual signs perceivable by humans involved in computer gaming) where each realized sequence of images depends on the performance of a player with the machine which is in turn evaluated by the machine (Aarseth 1997).” (Gerling et al., 2022, p. 276)
- games having a gameplay condition, a resistance towards the player in what she is able to do in-game
Three conditionalities of in-game photographs
-
dependence on the conditional cyberimage (human condition)
-
requiring gameplay skills (gameplay condition)
-
aesthetic condition
- digital games can be conceptualized as doubly conditional images
Conditionality: Bedingtheit
(1) in einem logischen Sinne die Folge in einer wenn-dann-Beziehung; (2) im Hinblick auf Realverhältnisse die Wirkung einer Ursache. Im weiteren Sinne bedeutet B., dass jede Erscheinung hinsichtlich ihrer Entstehung wie ihrer Existenz in einem unabtrennbaren Bedingungszusammenhang mit den anderen sie umgebenden empirischen Gegebenheiten steht. Von notwendiger B. spricht man, wenn bestimmte Umstände oder Gegebenheiten vorliegen müssen, damit eine empirische Erscheinung gegeben sein kann; von zufälliger, i.S. nicht-notwendiger B. ist die Rede, wenn bestimmte Umstände gegeben sein müssen, damit überhaupt sich etwas vollziehen oder ereignen kann, ohne dass diese Ereignisse durch die Umstände notwendig determiniert wären. z.B. ist jede Handlung insofern bedingt, als sie von bestimmten Umständen, situativen Gegebenheiten, Realisierungsmöglichkeiten u. a.m. auszugehen hat (d.i. notwendige konkrete Voraussetzungen), ohne dass damit die spezifische Handlung eindeutig und notwendig festgelegt wäre. – https://www.spektrum.de/lexikon/philosophie/bedingtheit/276