MENDONÇA, B.A. The Aesthetic Dimension of Games
ARTICLE
2021
In this article I present an investigative study where I am concerned with characterizing the concept of aesthetics within the universe of games, how it is constructed and how it is perceived both by those who create and by those who play. I allow myself to carry out a critical reflection on what makes the aesthetic experience of playing a game unique, proposing crossings between personal perceptions and theorists' speeches on the subject when dealing with typical aspects of the construction and transmission of ideas through the game. The Aesthetic Dimension of Games is just the opening for the doctoral research that I am currently developing, presenting partial concepts and results, but which indicate horizons to be explored.
MENDONÇA, B.A. The Aesthetic Dimension of Games
ARTICLE
2021
In this article I present an investigative study where I am concerned with characterizing the concept of aesthetics within the universe of games, how it is constructed and how it is perceived both by those who create and by those who play. I allow myself to carry out a critical reflection on what makes the aesthetic experience of playing a game unique, proposing crossings between personal perceptions and theorists' speeches on the subject when dealing with typical aspects of the construction and transmission of ideas through the game. The Aesthetic Dimension of Games is just the opening for the doctoral research that I am currently developing, presenting partial concepts and results, but which indicate horizons to be explored.
MENDONÇA, B.A. The Aesthetic Dimension of Games
ARTICLE
2021
In this article I present an investigative study where I am concerned with characterizing the concept of aesthetics within the universe of games, how it is constructed and how it is perceived both by those who create and by those who play. I allow myself to carry out a critical reflection on what makes the aesthetic experience of playing a game unique, proposing crossings between personal perceptions and theorists' speeches on the subject when dealing with typical aspects of the construction and transmission of ideas through the game. The Aesthetic Dimension of Games is just the opening for the doctoral research that I am currently developing, presenting partial concepts and results, but which indicate horizons to be explored.
MENDONÇA, B.A. The Aesthetic Dimension of Games
ARTICLE
2021
In this article I present an investigative study where I am concerned with characterizing the concept of aesthetics within the universe of games, how it is constructed and how it is perceived both by those who create and by those who play. I allow myself to carry out a critical reflection on what makes the aesthetic experience of playing a game unique, proposing crossings between personal perceptions and theorists' speeches on the subject when dealing with typical aspects of the construction and transmission of ideas through the game. The Aesthetic Dimension of Games is just the opening for the doctoral research that I am currently developing, presenting partial concepts and results, but which indicate horizons to be explored.
MENDONÇA, B.A. The Aesthetic Dimension of Games
ARTICLE
2021
In this article I present an investigative study where I am concerned with characterizing the concept of aesthetics within the universe of games, how it is constructed and how it is perceived both by those who create and by those who play. I allow myself to carry out a critical reflection on what makes the aesthetic experience of playing a game unique, proposing crossings between personal perceptions and theorists' speeches on the subject when dealing with typical aspects of the construction and transmission of ideas through the game. The Aesthetic Dimension of Games is just the opening for the doctoral research that I am currently developing, presenting partial concepts and results, but which indicate horizons to be explored.
MENDONÇA, B.A. Aesthetic Fetishism of Violence
ARTICLE
2019
This text discusses the use of violence as an expressive means in the field of art and games. I divide the reflections into three moments: the presentation of the concerns that led me to discuss this theme; then I add examples of images of violence used in electronic games and; I close by deepening reflections on the use of violence and images of violence as a means of expression and construction of a specific look for spectators of artistic artifacts and video game users. The discussion tries to think about the apparent contemporary need to “consume” and “transmit” violence; a reactive attraction to shock and the grotesque. Starting from theoretical references of Visual Culture and games, I seek to discuss the “intoxicating dazzle” by violence, culminating in the construction of a defining term for this relationship between aversion/adoration.
MENDONÇA, B.A. Anthropological Chess
SUMMARY EXP.
2019
Fruit of a proposal originally planned as a work of game art, Anthropological Chess makes use of the traditional game of Chess to act on metaphors of a racial nature, proposing a discussion about racism, intolerance and cultural dominations through speeches and actions imposed on the player in -game – who chooses, at the beginning of the narrative, to play with the black pieces. This terminology – in-game player – was defined here only for the purpose of declaring the pseudo-agent, the one who represents the element that passes for human in the narrative and who, as a simulacrum, acts as the game’s interactor – even if, in fact, , it is not a game and therefore there is no player.
MENDONÇA, B.A. Atelier Diary: experiments and discoveries
ARTICLE
2019
This diary refers to the production carried out at the Engraving Atelier of the Faculty of Visual Arts of the Federal University of Goiás in the period relating to the first semester of 2019, being monitored and instructed by Prof. doctor José César Climaco – from here on, “Zé César”, as you prefer. I chose here not to order the descriptions temporally, but rather by piece produced.
MENDONÇA, B.A. Game and Representation: an analysis through the work
ARTICLE
2018
Making use of the analysis of the work of gamearte Destroyer, developed between the years 2018 and 2019, this article discusses the studies of representation and interpretative construction that is obtained through the correlation of illustrative and abstract elements. Through the speeches of Stuart Hall, José Luiz Fiorin, Sandra Rey, Silvio Zamboni and others, a connecting axis is established here between two distinct figurative points, where the one who “sees” – in the case of the work, the player – interprets the visuality of one to better understand the other and thus develop their interpretive connection to what is represented.
MENDONÇA, B.A. Research and Creation Methodology: an approach
ARTICLE
2018
Resulting from the concerns of doctoral research, this work presents a new proposal for a methodological process regarding the apprehension of data during artistic making. Through three key points, it is possible to analyze works in an integrated way to the creative process, generating greater use of the analytical data obtained. Interpretive-Creative Analysis, as a methodological proposal for research in the arts, aims to present an additional vision of the field without restricting its subjectivities. Within its structure, the methodological process seeks to bring a logical system of approximation between creating and artistic theorizing by concatenating actions, in addition to defining criteria for the application of this approach to allow obtaining and revisiting data. Passing through the studies of Elliot Eisner, Stuart Hall, Shaun Macniff and Sandra Rey, a structure was developed divided into three key points that act as guides for obtaining data: the viewer apprehends signs through language (description), generates representations that specify the element through these signs (singularization) to allow the creation of a meaning (expression). The description encompasses the development of the work: the idealization, the choice of execution method, the technique to be used and the project. Singularization, on the other hand, addresses practice and reflective pauses on the choices that will make the work art. Finally, the expression defines the poetic framework of the work, where questions related to the artist's own subtlety and emotion must be presented.
MENDONÇA, B.A. From Game to Art: creative process in gameart
DISSERTATION
2014
The research presented here seeks, through investigation of the molds and characteristics of so-called games – electronic games – to analyze their possibilities as an art object, and this form of artistic expression is called gameart. Through exploratory research that permeates the origins of electronic games, their relationships, motivations and evolution, it is intended to develop a deeper understanding of the structuring and definition of the term game in order to develop a gameart object that can reflect, deconstruct and/or criticize characteristics of the universe of games. After presenting the definition, genres and formats of games, the research turns to the definition and analysis of the concept of gameart, revisiting the origins of this recent creative possibility and reflecting on the possibilities of treating an electronic game as an art object. The theoretical analyzes developed here served as a basis for experimentation and construction of aesthetic and conceptual reasoning aimed at the creative process of two gameart works, the first of which is more generalist and created as an introduction to the universe of gameart and the second is more detailed, aiming at a deepening of the elements that define it. Both works then served as the basis for the construction of a third – and last – object of gameart, which presents concepts acquired through experience with the previous works: Labirinto da Mente.
MENDONÇA, B.A. Slippery Labyrinth: an experimentation in gameart
ARTICLE
2013
The following article describes and discusses one of the objects created as a practical-theoretical basis for the research project under development within the master's degree in Art and Visual Culture at the Faculty of Visual Arts at the Federal University of Goiás. The current research seeks, through investigation into the molds and characteristics of so-called games – electronic games – to develop and relate their possibility as an object of art, and such a form of artistic expression is already defined under the nickname of gameart, still making up the analysis of the creative process of the gamearte work Labirinto Escorregadio. The discussion here, which runs through positions and thoughts on the theme of “gameart” – such as the speeches of Rosangella Leote, Shiralee Saul, Helen Stuckey, Silvia Laurentiz and Lucia Leão – also makes up a brief elucidation of the concept of gameart for then, together with the perspective of the modern approach of the so-called glitchart and the approximation of both, to propose the experimental object Labyrinth Escorregadio. Labyrinth Slippery arises from the exploration of error. The term glitch in English – derived from the German glitschige, which means “slippery”, “unreliable” – refers directly to failure in systems, normally used in the areas of computing and electronic games when something occurs outside of what was expected by the construction and/or or original programming. And it is from an execution error within the classic game Doom that the possibility of ingame and outgame artistic creation is explored, with abstract results derived from the player's own interaction with the object, making artistic creation also through experimentation and interaction with the object. constructions. Labirinto Escorregadio takes possession of the meaning of the term in its composition, giving the user the opportunity to “create” abstract pieces without allowing control over the final result.
MENDONÇA, B.A. In-Game Ethnography: possibilities of social study in virtual environments
ARTICLE
2013
This article encourages ethnographic study as an anthropological research method within virtual culture. The speeches of Luís Henrique Sacchi dos Santos, Maria de Nazareth Agra Hassen and Alzira Simões and Janet Murray are explored. The correlation between the “real” and virtual world, their facets and similarities, underpin the possibility of ethnographic study in the virtual context, considered here as a universe apart from the “physical”, with particular behaviors and customs. By appropriating these concepts, one arrives at the conclusion of the possibility, if not the necessity, of studies of the virtual cultural universe and, more specifically, of this giant that has become the games industry in the contemporary world.
FRANCO, Edgar; MENDONÇA, B.A. Gameart Project: Posthuman Ms. Pac Man
ARTICLE
2012
Discussing creative artistic possibilities of the broad universe of games was the motivation that led to the work described below. A prototype for the final master's project in Art and Visual Culture, studied at FAV/UFG, the creation of a gameart work is thought-provoking and shows different perspectives of interpreting reality and criticizing it, adding or changing game concepts , already inserted in modern culture and proposing an artistic object beyond the function of entertainment. The posthuman Ms. Pacman proposes a questioning of the contemporary values of the universe of games – violence, focus on realistic graphics – as well as a critique of the techno-scientific advances that current society is going through. To this end, the gameart object created joins the fictional theme of Edgar Franco's fantastic universe: the "Post-Human Dawn". This alternate reality portrays a future universe in which science and technology have reached very advanced levels, where genetic engineering, robotics and telematics have modified the traditional concept of human. An apocalyptic universe, which unveils and raises discussions on the contemporary imbrications between man and technology. This transmedia fictional universe served as a structure for the development of Posthuman Ms. Pacman, created from the concepts of maze games and based on the classic game of the 1980s, Ms. Pacman – a female-oriented spinoff of the smash hit Pacman. Posthuman Ms. Pacman breaks the expectations of innocence and modesty of the moderate game of origin and shows the player that the game should not be played as expected, much less “beaten” as usual. It is a challenge and, above all, a break with paradigms that are already ingrained in the broad spectrum of games.