Bodies, rhythms and digital games

Editor's Notes

• #5: Dionysus looks more like a gamer than apollo Introduced in the Birth of Tragedy Intertwined but separate Not simple, equal, binary opposites Described variously as principles, urges, attitudes not properties
• #6: Not implying that Computer Games or any other form of game is like Greek Tragedy Movement is an intrinsic part of thinking about play, one that is often ignored when discussing computer games. Pathways and patterns in rhythm action games, 2D shooters, platform games, etc. Gaming is the pleasure of figuring out rules, understanding the system, the enjoyment of information and knowledge, the pleasure of mathematical beauty Interestingly narrative is part of the Apollonian element and complex narrative is a new comer to games, really only emerging with computer games. Apollonian is probably most evident in PC based RPGs, especially the turn based RPG where the flow of action is, or can be, interrupted by the player.
• #7: Rhythmic - conversational, dialectic, Fuzzy areas
• #8: His Rhythmanalytical project took a long time to develop Flows/Flux from Marx. Marx is economics/politics, big power Influenced by Bergson, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Marx.
• #9: Rhythm is something that we all get, but it is difficult to put one’s finger on it. Bear in mind that this is French philosophy. So we’re not going to get definitional here. Rhythm is a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." While rhythm most commonly applies to sound, such as music and spoken language, it may also refer to visual presentation, as "timed movement through space. (WIkipedia, 2010)
• #10: Works at a physical and affective level it is musical utilises repetition and difference not simply mechanical but also organic cyclical and linear at once continuous and also discrete unites the quantitative and qualitative Bergson’s duration... goes on to Lefebvre’s moment Waves on the Mediterranean
• #11: Cyclical come from the heavens From the massive scale of galaxies, suns, planets, down to the scale of cells, molecules and atoms Not afraid to bring in some scientific metaphors or similes Linear come from the social (not the internal biologically human) Isorhythmia - in frequency polyrhythmia - many rhythms going on at once Eurhythmia - symphonic rhythms - the body - the rhythms working together Arrhythmia - rhythms breaking down
• #12: A successor to the psychoanalysts Maybe to all social and psychological investigators Sense through using eurhythmia and arrhythmia Data from all the senses Must step outside the experience and evaluate
• #13: Humans break themselves in like animals Again metaphors of organs, to society. The rhythms of dressage are not the totality of rhythms
• #14: Linear and cyclical rhythms in games linking into our cyclical and linear rhythms The game designer is a rhythmanalyst. Tying into our rhythms. Game play is choreographed Controller dances, popular dance form
• #15: The successful pervasive games have a rhythms borrowed from other rites But also explore and play with those rhythms. In many cases they need to inflict dressage to get you to play In other cases they need you to break out of the cultural dressage, cf Garfinkel’s breaching experiments.