In what might be one example of the kind of writing that Stewart is asking for, leeroy lewin calls for a low-fi aesthetic divorced from ideas about games a medium driven by technological progress."If video games struggle with meaningful, powerful imagery, it’s probably because our culture has never been able to recognise the form’s unique visual language that’s distinct from a technical visual language. We know video games have a language for telling players what to do, and giving them instructions, but what’s our visual language for communicating relevant ideas, however abstract, and making gamers actually feel things? Where are those lessons and those histories within our shared dialectic?"
"Instead of contrasting Breakout as a relic of time gladly past, I want to see games like it reclaimed and retrofitted with a new kind of meaning, in terms of being compassionate game design that easily fits in a person’s life. To recast “simplicity” as minimalism. To acknowledge that not everything this shambling culture moved away from points to some kind of necessary, futuristic improvement."
The final piece I've selected isn't just addressing visual language, but spatial, sculptural communication as well. Robert Yang calls out the indie games sector for not thinking beyond the screen when it comes to the display of games, and describes some positive examples of festivals and exhibitions that have displayed games thoughtfully."it’s disappointing that it’s been fifteen (fifteen!) years since Harmony of Dissonance’s release and its appearance is still regularly treated as a radioactive object, as if an appreciation of the series about meaty men hitting Dracula to death in a hell-zone for the hundredth time requires a polished, antiseptic sense of Good Taste. Why! I’d never be caught DEAD enjoying such a garish object! Remove it from my sight—at once!"
Critical Distance is a community-supported endeavour aiming to curate, contextualize, and archive insightful writing on games. If you found this article helpful, please check out our website (critical-distance.com) for the full weekly roundups, and consider supporting us on Patreon (patreon.com/critdistance)).Have thoughts? Swing by Waypoint’s forums to share them!"I get it. You don't have money or staffing to spend on your exhibition design, and/or the event is fighting just to survive and exist. But if the whole purpose is to create an elevated mood and space for games, why are aesthetics still so low on our priorities?"