Research

Through the development of growing technology, games have become more realistic. AAA game companies create realistic graphics that almost mimic real-life objects and entities. Even the graphic of a fantasy world conveniences the audience to believe it as a real-world. This opens the possibilities to simulate ‘unreal’ spaces and breaks the boundary of imagination. For example, dreams are different territories for humans and only process through the unconscious mind. Whatsoever, now it is possible to simulate dreams through gears and as the generation goes, the simulation of the dream becomes more ‘real’ than ever.

In the course of the research, I was particularly attracted to 'the unreal world' and 'fantasy,' which tied to the idea of surrealism of a dreamlike world. Surrealism seeks a subconscious and unconscious mind and expresses through dreamlike imagery and unexpected juxtaposition of familiar objects and unfamiliar objects. This idea has developed through a devastating time of history that began in literature in 1924 through Andre Breton, who was a French writer, poet, and anti-fascist. He experienced world war one which questions one might think his theory came from the escapism of real life, however, surrealism conveyed anti-social attitude and the subconscious as the medium of nothing less than changing the world. 

Surrealism was influenced by many different art movements such as Dadaism, Symbolism, and Automatism. Firstly, Dadaism is an avant-garde movement reacting against the corrupt, hypocritical society responsible for sending millions to their death in WW1. Both movements had similarities to shock the establishment and shared illogic and attracted towards absurdity.

Symbolism expresses an intangible by the means of symbolic images or representations which reference entirely different meanings that convey deeper significance. The iconic painting The Scream(1895) by Edvard Munch is a famous example of symbolism in which Munch expresses his inner feeling of anxiety. Surrealism and symbolism both have underlying meaning on the objects. In surrealism painting Eclipse by Toyen depicts the dark blue background with two shadow human figures that embrace fishes inside. Since the title is Eclipse, the shadow represents the inner self of hidden unconscious emotions, in addition to this, fish represent fertility. The painting indirectly reflects the female figure in such a way that shows the fear of her femininity, since she “refused… to use the feminine ending.”

Surrealist artists explore to liberate the subconscious mind by depicting dreamlike images through the randomness and serendipitous techniques, which was influenced by Automatism; a means of creating expressive images without engaging the rational mind. The iconic Automatism artist, Jackson Pollock uses slashing paints on the canvas, which is called drip painting techniques. This creates the randomness effect that shows the unconscious movement of Pollock while he was painting. French artist Andre Masson adapted this technique and shows on Automatic Drawing.

Since the movement was derived from different movements, the approach of surrealism is diverse and free from constraints. Nevertheless, games are produced by the highly controlled and matriculated calculations of coding and graphics that developers plan out ahead of players, in this sense, the ‘game’ goes against the idea of surrealism of absurdities. However, if the game is created purely based on the player's choice or randomness, would it raise the player’s expression of unconsciousness? Or the game that directs the player to think subconsciously? For example, from the article, Automatism and La Foret by Leeroy Lewin explained the game as, “... sympathy in the potential of simple gestures spiraling out of control. How it feels for an unexpected mistake to press and choke out substantial time. Sometimes processing is letting the spiral happen.” The game La Foret is an artistic game that was inspired by the painting Forest and Sun (1927). The player plants a tree and the screen distorts as the material of the tree blends to the world space. Players are given agency to plant where they want, although the situation becomes overwhelming due to the unexpected smudge of the tree texture on the world. This out-of-control effect perhaps reflects the expression of the artist as well as the player's inner raw emotion.

Through research on surrealism, the depiction of dreamlike and unconsciousness could create interesting mechanics and aesthetics. These are the following ideas for the game:

1. The game starts in the coma state of the player. The player will be unconscious and endlessly follow a child. During the journey, the player will experience the circumstances of the child’s life. The child’s situation will be portrayed in symbolic representations of child abuse. I was inspired by the movie The Cell of the surreal depiction of the world and its aesthetic film techniques. 
2. The escape room game, yet the player has to think irrationally to figure out how to get out of the room. For example, if the player places the drawing of the landscape over an empty frame of the window, the landscape becomes real and the player can escape the room through the window.
3. The game, which associates with mirrors and lights. I was inspired by surrealist photographer Francesca Woodman, who often adds a mirror in her art that has strong associations with surrealism. I was interested in the use of a mirror to symbolize the reflection of herself or surrealism as the mirror that reflects the world of unconsciousness. Since light has a powerful symbol of wisdom, mirrors will reflect light and create unexpected shadows. 
4. Exquisite corpse game: players can add random shapes to a creature to create a surreal shape. 

The prototype follows the forth idea of exquisite corpses. At first, I would like to add the randomness of the shapes and possibilities for the players to reflect their individuality. The player will have a choice of shapes, yet they will have an unexpected base as the body. Once they complete the shape, it will bring to life and walk around the space. The purpose of this game is to reflect the juxtaposition of real and unreal objects that have been formed through the player's unconscious behavior.

Bibliography:

The scream painting : https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1305?locale=en

La forte article: https://vextroforever.wordpress.com/2016/09/17/automatism-and-la-foret/

Jackson Pollock: https://www.moma.org/artists/4675

Eclipse: https://www.wikiart.org/en/toyen/eclipse

Toyen: https://www.moma.org/artists/5916

Jackson Pollock: https://www.moma.org/artists/4675

Andre Masson automatic drawing: https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/andre-masson-automatic-drawing/

Surrealism: https://www.britannica.com/art/Surrealism