Chat With Sharon

On Friday I had an excellent, unplanned tutorial with Sharon, who was of great help last year. Discussing time management and my priorities for this year was very reassuring, yet we talked most about the exhibition I want to hold towards the end of the academic year. It was nice to experience another perspective on my work, and such a positive one from a non-gamer - something I am striving trying to achieve.

Sharon and I talked about building fictional worlds, and how personal they become. I am a great believer in this and want to work towards capturing this effect in my work. We mentioned how authors express themselves through their work and it can become very personal to them, but they must allow room for the audience to make an interpretation of what they see, which in turn becomes very individual and special to them. One way it can be explained is like Plato's allegory of the cave - that when observing something someone has created, you see a projection of them and their creation. Then you interpret what you see however you want, usually enhancing the projection. This is a process which can be applied to all sorts of art forms, and reinforces the need for space (or mystery) for the audience to fill in themselves.

This whole idea of personal connections with games is synonymous with hand-held gaming for me, if you can literally hold the world in your hands it becomes yours. This effect was strongest for me when I was younger, but I still feel that way about some new games now. I think it is possible with iPhone games, but rare at the moment. I have yet to find a game I feel connected too like that...