[-empyre-] Re: gaps and shifts

["Melinda Rackham" <melinda@subtle.net>]

Rafael  wrote:
 I've come to understand that the
> games, any games that attempt to deal with the real, will be incomplete.
The
> map is not the territory, the stakes are not life and death, and a player
> can walk away when the thrill is gone. Rather, I have come to understand
> Crosser and La Migra as poems, where the absences and silences are as
> important as that which is stated. As a maker I -- and my collaborators --
> have attempted to attend to these silences, so that they will be as
> meaningful as that which is expressed.

 i was struck by these thoughts of absence .. and related it to an earlier
post from Regina who was saying  do you really portray emotional violence,
fear of being shot, the insecurity which people in war zones ( of many
sorts ) live with every day.. unable to turn the experience off..

well i guess you don't , and cant portray that except in a small way,  and
that's the absence.. the gap that the user fills in themselves is what gives
the users the sense of it . if there isn't a gap to fill then what happens..

one  thing that comes to mind is the immersive  scenarios of  one of my
favourite movies.. "strange days" the s.f millennial movie (  Director:
Kathryn Bigelow, with Ralph Fiennes, Angela  Basset and Juliette Lewis,
Produced: Lightstorm Entertainment, USA, 1995. 145 mins.) where immersion
has evolved to  tapp into brain waves via a small cap like interface, to
actually  live other peopels experiences.. ie you wanted to knwo what it was
liek to rob a store - you just buy the experience.its illegal of course but
all sorts of porn, violence, thrill,  romance,  etc scenarios are available
.

the pinnacle of the experiences..( and a great illustration of the
subject-subject identification  which Rebecca was talking about before.. )
is to be hooked up to another person to experience their emotions in elation
to yourself as it happens.. in real time..not as a playback..  and the
ultimate example of this in the movies was to watch and feel yourself rape
and kill yourself , ie to be inside the killers head as it happens..
 pretty interesting  shift there.. no gaps to fill .. real-time immersion ..
the spaces and intervals seem to be  removed.. so you are trapped inside
another scenario with two sets of conflicting emotions .. unable to act
outside the immersion.

but back to the topic.. can games do games do that..well i think so but in a
different way.. ...
aren't  the gaps and intervals of net communication what makes it
emotionally powerful..  the stripped down sensory input that allows fantasy
to become stronger..?
isn't the low res pixelated game environment more conducive to immersion ,
rather than the other  way around..?
when everything is spelled out  what room does that leave..?
 isn't the gap our portal into difference.

 Melinda