Marc Bonner (Ed.)
Game | World | Architectonics
Transdisciplinary Approaches on Structures and Mechanics, Levels and Spaces, Aesthetics and Perception
In its current digital, pictorial and viral ubiquity, architecture no longer has to be bodily present, but has a mediating role. As a medial hinge it folds different disciplines of media and art onto the realm of the everyday. Here, the idea of architectonics can be understood as the architectural implications of computer games in a broader sense to address the matter of architecture in game worlds as well as the architecture of computer games themselves.
This anthology bundles transdisciplinary approaches around the topics of space, architecture, perception of and worldbuilding in computer games and their media-specific properties. The aim is to show how and under which aspects digital game worlds are constituted. The contributions depart from the beaten tracks of media and game studies, focusing on spatial, architectural and world-shaped phenomena within current digital media culture.
Dr. Marc Bonner is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Media Culture and Theatre at University of Cologne. He graduated in art history, history of the modern age and information science and currently leads the five-year research project “Open World Structures: Architecture, City- and Natural Landscape as well as Eco-Critical Implications in Computer Games” funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). His research interests include history and theory of architecture of the 19th, 20th and 21st century as well as spatiotemporal depiction and use of architecture, cityscapes and natural landscapes in computer games and the very architectonics of the game space itself. In addition, he has also done substantial work on filmic space and architecture in and of films, especially science fiction films. Thus, he broaches the issue of transdisciplinary correlations between architecture, film and computer games by including disciplines like spatial theory, philosophy and cultural geography, among others.