Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Role Playing Games As Interactive Fiction, John Miller

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

This chapter compares the experience of gaming and the experience of reading, and explores what that comparison might tell us about each. More specifically, it applies methods of literary analysis to the study of two narrative activities situated near the border of reading and gaming: Electronic hyperfictions and role-playing games. Miller first reviews literary theories of reader response and interactivity and notes how these have informed recent critical discussions of literary hyperfiction. He then critiques these discussions and the claims made for hyperfiction's liberating or empowering effect on readers: Contrary to the claims of some critics, such narratives generally fail …

Imagined Cities, Real Futures: Simcity And The Co-Production Of Urban Dystopias, Samuel Gerald Collins

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

While the author of this chapter agrees with anthropologists who reject an urban studies predicated on postmodern surfaces and insist that we analyze cities in regional, national and global contexts of political economy, he nevertheless suggests that the urban imaginary has never been so important: Movies, television and music have proven all too useful in the continued vilification of an urban underclass. In 2001, in order to explore the role media might play in the structuring and delimitating of the ways we think about cities, Collins assigned SimCity, a computer simulation game combining models of urban development with cellular automata, …

Shooters To The Left Of Us, Shooters To The Right: First Person Arcade Shooter Video Games, The Violence Debate, And The Legacy Of Militarism, Karen J. Hall

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Adult concerns about video games erupted in the 1990s when parents and politicians came forward with claims that Doom, Mortal Kombat, Killer Instinct and games like them were partially responsible for the rash of school shootings in predominantly white, middle class communities. The author of this chapter argues that arcade games serve the national interest by entertaining consumer-citizens and creating a consumer-based demand for military technology. However, when adolescent shooters disrupt the status quo, it is the games rather than militarist social and economic structures that are criticized by the news media, politicians, and parents. The author of …

Digital Extensions And Performed Players: A Theoretical Model For The Video/Computer Game, Ben Fisler

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Despite over twenty years of studies, scholars have yet to identify a productive theoretical model for the video game that does not depend on a fragmentary understanding of its form. Following Pierre Bourdieu's contention that the purpose of criticism is to understand cultural products as distinct scientific objects, and Marshall McLuhan's theory that the message and formative power of media are the media themselves, this study attempts to generate a foundational critical understanding of the video game. Building on the most lucrative intrinsic (such as David Myer's 1991 Computer Game Semiotics) and extrinsic (such as Jeffrey Goldstein's 1998 Immortal …

Allegorical Reductions And Social Reconstructions: An Introduction To Games, Gamers, And Gaming Cultures, Matthew Wolf-Meyer, Davin Heckman

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Games have become a central metaphor in representations of society, and most people are familiar enough with Lewis Carroll's Alice to know that when she passes through the looking glass she finds herself embroiled in a game a Chess which is also much more (Carroll 1992 [1897]). This strange game of Chess is simultaneously a simulation and an enactment of social life in Wonderland, and Carroll plots out Alice 's narrative path as a series of tactical Chess moves, which can be understood as both an attempt to win the game and to navigate through Wonderland and her …

Cold War Games And Postwar Art, Claudia Mesch

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

During the Cold War both “superpowers” used games, particularly chess, in order to construct an ideology of complete conflict and irreconcilable division between East and West. This essay focuses on the broad cultural challenge to divisive Cold War zero-sum mentality issued by a number of artists—André Breton, Marcel Duchamp and Öyvind Fahlström, and Fluxus artists George Maciunas, George Brecht, Robert Watts, Takako Saito and Yoko Ono. These artists, in a second wave of game-focused art, returned to the concerns of surrealist art practice and to earlier cultural game theory. Even conceptual art production was impacted by the predetermined structure of …

When A Killer Body Isn’T Enough: Cross-Gender Identification In Action-Adventure Video Games, Marc Ouellette

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

While sports games try to recreate the atmosphere of a stadium or of television broadcasts of games, role-playing and action-adventure games attempt to duplicate cinematography through animation. For Tomb Raider, the virtual reality created by the cinematic animation of the game produces an environment for male-to-female cross-gender identification, a topic that has received little critical attention. The sense of identification intended in this chapter comes from psychoanalysts Jean Laplanche and Jean-Baptiste Pontalis, who describe identification as a psychological process in which a subject assimilates an aspect, a property, a characteristic of another and transforms himself [or herself] totally or partially …

Owl Usability Report: Appendices, Michael Salvo, H. Allen Brizee, Dana Lynn Driscoll, Morgan Sousa

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Research Reports

This document includes appendices to the OWL Usability Report and contains survey and testing instruments, testing scripts, and testing data. It also includes information about the Creative Commons licensing associated with the OWL Usability documents produced in 2006.

Purdue Online Writing Lab (Owl) Research Report, Michael Salvo, H. Allen Brizee, Dana Lynn Driscoll, Morgan Sousa

Purdue Writing Lab/Purdue OWL Research Reports

This report outlines the history of the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) and details the OWL Usability Project through the summer of 2006. The paper also discusses test methodologies, describes test methods, provides participant demographics, and presents findings and recommendations of the tests. The purpose of this report is to provide researchers, administrators, and pedagogues interested in usability and Writing Labs access to information on the Purdue OWL Usability Project. We hope our findings—and this open source approach to our research—will contribute positively to the corpus on usability and Writing Lab studies.

Julia Thecla: Undiscovered Worlds, Joanna Gardner-Hugget, Louise Lincoln

DePaul Art Museum Publications

No abstract provided.

Theoni V. Alderidge: Broadway And Beyond, Nan Cibula Jenkins, Janet C. Messmer, Louise Lincoln

DePaul Art Museum Publications

No abstract provided.

Untitled, Dana Woodman

Calliope

No abstract provided.

Untitled, Eliana Cetto

Calliope

No abstract provided.

Forging Space, Chance Burdick Liscomb

Theses and Dissertations

I naturally like sculpture. My artistic medium of choice is sculpture because it occupies physical space commands attention and thought. The expressive qualities found in steel are numerous as they are in manipulation of found materials. Both materials involve a process of discovery on an evolving road towards any sculpture's ultimate conclusion. My primary goal is that my sculpture should be personal and capture the viewer's eye, stir his or her subconscious, and serve as a form of communication.

Jimmy Hit His First Home Run, Eileen N. Rafferty

Theses and Dissertations

This document begins with the end of a life and ends with the beginning of hope. It is a brief description of the artist's history, artistic and literary influences, and subsequent works produced during graduate school, specifically Dichotomy, Swan Dive, and Jimmy Hit His First Home Run. Topics discussed include Human Physiology, Transference, Buddhism, and Bubbles. This document was created in Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac, Version 11.2.

Last Stand At Big Thunder Mountain, David Herbert

Theses and Dissertations

I seek to pose questions about what people overlook or don't consider when viewing art in order to interpret what they see. When working on a project, I purposely retain the effect of my hand. The false crudeness is enhanced by my use of seemingly impoverished materials. This is akin to seeing the fishing wire holding up the miniature spaceship as it flies through the sky. This document was created with Microsoft Word XP.

Conceptual Packaging, Thirada Raungpaka

Theses and Dissertations

Packaging and package design is commonly thought of as a tool to attract the consumer to material goods. Packages, however, have other attributes. In Japan, packaging design is very charming because of the delicate selection of materials, images, and interaction. Different kinds of material provide different emotions and appeal to our sense of touch, which can be interpreted in many ways. Packaging lets us directly interact with an object and this experience becomes memorable and intimate. The combination of image and interaction creates another dimension of story telling. My creative project, Conceptual Packaging, is an experiment in using materials and …

21st Century Zen Garden, Allison Parker Andrews

Theses and Dissertations

This paper is a discussion of certain philosophical issues that have informed the progression of my work to date.

Undone, Julie J. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

My art has become rooted in a process of layering. I layer materials to explore technique and to express the concept of inside versus outside. The evidence of multiple layers of materials is symbolically connected to what is happening within my own life. I want the viewer to see an indication of deeper layers of process and materials rather than just the polished surface of an artwork. This layering process can also be seen as a metaphor for human nature, what we see on the outside is not always what is on the inside.

The Long Road Behind, John Paul

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

Faith, Omar Lopez

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

Untitled, Michael Marrow

Digressions: Literary & Art Journal

No abstract provided.

Meaning Maker, Kent Manske, Nanette Wilde, Preneo Press, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

volumes. "This is Art." Title from glassine envelope and each brochure. Seven single sheets (11 x 8 ¹/₂ inches), tri-folded, text on both sides, each sheet printed on a different color paper. Each folded sheet has a copyright date. Academic Conference Edition -- American Citizen Edition -- Art Viewing Edition -- Family Gathering Edition -- Higher Education Edition -- Periodic Personal Evaluation Edition -- Relationship to Nature Edition. "'Meaning Maker' is a guided interactive response structure tailored to specific styles of experience."--website. "PreNeo Press is the conceptual and collaborative space of Kent Manske and Nanette Wylde."--Press website. Gift of Laurie …

Thrift Store: The Past & Future Secret Lives Of Things, Emily Larned, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

case bound in hard cover; cover; interior spreads. The relative value of things is brought to mind when looking at objects in thrift stores. Discarded or recycled "treasures" reflect the life of their former owners. Interesting juxtapositions create found visual narratives.

Time Square, Buzz Spector, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

screw post binding with mylar front cover, and paper wrapper; cover; detail. Results from a Google search of phrases relating to the concept of "time" were quantified and arranged in decreasing order and printed on 60 pages. When bound, the pages were then hand torn in decreasing amounts, revealing an altered version of the original. Curated title for Fleet Library Special Collections exhibition Stacked & Altered, summer 2022.

State Of The Union: Live, Evil, Vile, Scott Mccarney, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

stab bound with soft cover and duct tape reinforced spine; cover; interior pages and spreads. President George W. Bush's televised 2003 State of the Union speech is captured in full screen head shots. The overlaying text, similar to close captioning, reveals nonsensical phrases made from the letters in the book's subtitle.

A Dictionary Story, Sam Winston, Special Collections, Fleet Library

Artists' Books

accordion fold with hard cover, housed in cloth covered slipcase. Slipcase cover; title page; interior pages; colophon. A dictionary longs to be a book of stories, not just a list of words and definitions. She gets into trouble when she lets her words run about, creating meaningless havoc. The alphabet comes to the rescue and restores order.

Designing Healthy Spaces: Physical And Emotional Response To Color In Built Environments, Megan A. Smith

Honors Program Theses

The purpose of this study is to provide evidence that color, as an environmental factor, reaches far beyond mere aesthetics, and has very real effects on human beings. Furthermore, based upon a literature review, I will provide a framework for healthcare designers to aid in their color and finish selection in order to be the most beneficial to the captive and non-ambulatory populations in healthcare settings.

Body Matters In Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games, C. Jason Smith

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

The virtual body is already here. Though not as “seamless” as the virtual body envisioned in cyberpunk literature and made popular in films like The Lawnmower Man (1992), hundreds of thousands of people in over 114 countries (“Visitor Center”) daily log into massively multiplayer online role-playing games like Everquest, Ultima Online, Anarchy Online, and Earth and Beyond. These massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs or MMOs for short) [1] combine the extensive rule systems of traditional role-playing games (or RPGs) such as Advanced Dungeons & Dragons with computer graphic technology and online chat. In these computer …

Visionaire 50: Artist Toys, Stephen Gan, Cecilia Dean, James Kaliardos, Alex Katz

Visionaire

1 volume (unpaged) : color illustrations. Ten plastic nesting toys, each designed by a different artist, designer, writer. Each cube consists of six pieces. Artists: Alex Katz, R. Crumb, Chiho Aoshima, Rita Ackerman, Chip Kidd, Rob Pruitt, Kehinde Wiley, Tim Noble & Sue Webster, Kurt Vonnegut and Joe Petro III, Tony Oursler. Toys are housed in a triangular shaped container. Container has a clear plastic lid with the title in silver. Library has no. 1132 of an edition of 4000. "For 50 ARTIST TOYS, Visionaire imagined a set of toys as animal companions to the designer figurines from 44 TOYS …