Final Major Project Proposal
Aim
My aim for the project is to explore the area of video games, more specifically the interaction with the game and between other players.
Interest
What drew my attention to this area is I have always been an avid video game player; it has always been a part of my life as a form of entertainment and as an escape from reality. The common perception of video game players is a teenage boy locked in his room secluded from reality. Although this may be true to an extent it is not true for all gamers, as part of my project I wish to explore the social of gaming and hopefully bring out the truth that it is a social activity. Over the past few months I have been developing there have been a number of newspaper articles on the subject of online gaming and the fact that it is destroying marriages. An example being a wife caught her husband having sex ingame with a virtual prostitute. Although amusing to read because of the stupidity, I know for a fact that online game immersion has caused many social problems in the real world, well that is the perception.
Development
Looking into the area of interaction, as stated in my aim, over the cause of the project so far I have been watching and filming people play a variety of games. The idea of the filming was generated from watching a video created by Robbie Cooper entitled Immersion, for his video he went around a number of schools in London and filmed a selection of children aged 7 – 12 playing a selection of different games. What was interesting about the shot was that the model was looking straight into the lens of the camera as if it was the screen, a technique perfected by Errol Morris.
The first video I created was a ten minute piece of myself sitting in front my PC playing a first person shooter game. Although not a well thought out shot it allowed me to watch myself and to see how actually immersed I become. I then went on developing the shot capturing close-ups of my eyes and hands as I played. From the shot of myself I turned my attention to the Nintendo DS game Brain Training; I asked a selection of people to sit down and perform a number of maths and colour challenges. I filmed eight different people playing the challenges and created a video collage. Inspiration coming from Candice Breitz and her video installation karaoke where she asked a number of different people to sing the same song, in the installation she had a number of televisions were the videos where played simultaneously and they sounded like there were singing together. In my collage I had 2x4 rows of video of all the people performing the same task, looking at the differences of people and the physical characteristics as the challenged the problems.
My latest videos are looking a exogames that make you stand up and get physically involved. What interests me in these games is the strangeness of them to a person say just looking in. A game example being the hula hoop where you stand on a balance board and simulate the action of keeping the hoop up. In this setup of videos I am taking on what I have learnt from my experiments and sticking to tight close ups of the face, as the model moves around the face goes out of frame and adds a type of mystery to what actually the person is doing.
As for sound in the pieces my experimental development has lead me to capture just the soundtrack of the game or in some cases the sound the peripheral or person make as they play the game.
Contextual Essay
In the essay I will explore the fact that sometime actions in the virtual have consequences in the real, and vice versa.
As stated in my aim, a number of media articles have been released that peoples relationships are failing due to actions in the virtual world. Not only will I address the social impact of gaming but the way the virtual is often used to promote things in the real world, an example being Americas Army, and how the
Presentation Strategy
Following the idea of Candice Breitz and numbers of people all performing the same task, I will stick with something similar. My idea is to have a multi television installation comprising of at least eight screens. On each screen will be a different person performing the same action, Different actions as the video progressive maybe included. In the installation will be a couch, inviting the viewer to sit down and make them become apart of the piece. I want a living room type atmosphere because that is the usual place you see game being played. Each television will be slightly different giving the sense of multiple players and living spaces.
Along aside the video will be a set of photographs around the room showing the development of actions throughout the project.
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