Date of Award
Spring 5-15-2015
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Visual Art
Degree Type
Thesis
Abstract
In retelling multiple stories of my research, this document serves as a quest to archive my interest in games as evolved systems of play that continue to manipulate the way we view literacy. In describing the subtly of these terms while examining the folkloric histories that contextualize the language of this media, I have doubly manipulated the form of my paper to be like a choose-your-own-adventure tale, reflecting the estrangement of time and authorship unique to the narrative space in games. Unlike the formal structures found in literature or cinema, games animate collaborative and nonlinear systems that return the craft of storytelling to its oral traditions, reciting old texts through new media. In this paper, the reader is urged to tread the demanding and twisted paths that I have created. However, given the limitations of my authorship and the freewill of the reader, like an open world sandbox game, I welcome deviations from the path, knowing that any sequence will eventually lead the reader to my conclusion that games are strange because of how they continue to revamp the path to higher education.
Language
English (en)
Program Director
Patricia Olynyk
Program Director's Department
Graduate School of Art
Committee Member
Heather Bennett
Committee Member
Heather Bennett
Committee Member
Jonathan Navy
Committee Member
Patricia Olynyk
Committee Member
Buzz Spector
Recommended Citation
Shipley, Jeremy, "Clairvoyant Learning: The Strangeness of Playing Games" (2015). Graduate School of Art Theses. ETD 47. https://doi.org/10.7936/K7JQ0Z6Q.
https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/samfox_art_etds/47
Included in
Art Practice Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, Creative Writing Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, Game Design Commons, Interactive Arts Commons, Interdisciplinary Arts and Media Commons
Artist's Statement
"When I reach for the edge of the universe, I do so knowing that along some paths of cosmic discovery there are times when, at least for now, one must be content to love the questions themselves." -Neil deGrasse Tyson
... wandering, waiting, and watching for others. I meander these uncanny corridors as an apparition haunted by this theater of imagination. Returning uninvited to terrorize youthful minds, I reanimate decadent oral traditions like Orson Welles bathing in the tears for our degenerate future. Ever broadcasting my quest to unveil a reason for our death-defying existence, I have excavated such carnivalesque narratives from the musty catacombs of history that, in a world where there is no future, possess little room to breathe in the current cultural expanse. In offering these stories new life, the taste of metal pools in my mouth as I puncture this new media with the dirge of Gothic lore that serves to open our minds to the potential of evolving technologies. Eyes watering and nearly choking on the warm river rushing to the back of my mouth, in a flash, a chill rolls over my entire body. My bloodletting companion and I have breached the icy threshold that once separated fiction from reality, becoming one as we explore this new virtual landscape, discovering our origin together. With the virus of computer language and media culture coursing through our veins, these narrative spaces remain the only way to characterize and archive our being. The blood is the life...
Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/K7JQ0Z6Q