Mastery (“Sonic c’est moi”)
Abstract
Computer video games (Sonic, Super Mario 64 and Taurok) have become one of the major cultural phenomena of our time. Weinbren reflects on an obsessive compulsion to play games, immanent in the phenomenon. Although we are not able to defeat the computer opponent, we wish to take control of the apparatus, and the wish becomes an obsession. Similarly, the use of word processors turns a process of writing into editing where the concept of „the final version of text” disappears. The author examines what influence video games have on the player, taking into account a special form of the player’s identification with the character, the so-called „avatar”, that is different from the one that unites the viewer or the reader with film or book characters. However, the player identifies with the virtual character he/she animates but the main task is to technically master the apparatus.
- The text is a translation of the chapter Mastery (“Sonic c’est moi”) by Grahame Weinbren from edited volume Transluminations: New Screen Media, ed. Martin Reiser, Andrea Zapp, British Film Institute, London 2001. © 2001 by BFI Publishers.
Keywords:
video games, avatar, compulsion to play games, identificationReferences
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Authors
Grahame Weinbrenkwartalnik.filmowy@ispan.pl
Harvard University United States
Jeden z pierwszych artystów, który włączył w ruchomy obraz element interaktywności. Jego filmowe instalacje interaktywne były prezentowane od 1984 r. Jego ostatnie prace to TUNNEL (2000), instalacja architektoniczna na wielką skalę wykonana we współpracy z Jamesem Cathcartem w nieczynnej kopalni węgla w zagłębiu Ruhry, oraz pełnometrażowy film dokumentalny George (we współpracy z Henrym Corrą). Jest wydawcą „Millenium Film Journal”, a jego teksty na temat kina, nowych technologii i sztuki mediów były publikowane w wielu językach. Wykładał w School of Visual Arts w Nowym Jorku na wydziale Fotografii i Sztuki Komputerowej. Obecnie pracuje na Uniwersytecie Harvarda.
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