Date of Award
Spring 6-10-2024
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
School
School of Design
First Advisor
Brian Schrank, PhD
Second Advisor
Ali Al-Ani, MFA
Third Advisor
William McNeill, PhD
Abstract
“The Robot on the Hill” is a rogue-like autobattler that procedurally models the state of the individual in the information age. The game abruptly transitions between diverse framings - a hill, a bedroom, a pond, a chessboard, the void - in order to highlight the disjointedness that is present in the informationalizing of self and reality. It dialogues with Byung Chul Han and Heidegger to portray what Han describes as a ‘narrative crisis’ in modernity and the devaluation of experience. When the value of experience diminishes and disintegrates, “all that is left is bare life, a kind of survival.” (Han) This survival state lives from moment to moment - “from one crisis to the next, from one problem to the next…” (Han) Life becomes a series of problems to solve.
Throughout the game, players encounter “axioms”, which are abstract representations of states and ideas such as “anxiety”, “spite”, “ideology”, or “pride”. Each of these axioms serve as a resource to manage or an enemy to confront. Progressing in the game requires players to arrange these axioms on a chess-like board in a strategic way. This strategizing is called “Ordering your Being” within the game, and serves as an ironic misreading of Heidegger’s concept of being where being itself is made out to be manipulable or exploitable.
The journey explores a drama depicting the resulting deterioration from this internal rational game set forth by the propositions of the information age and the poverty of experience flowing from it. It is a projection of the deteriorated individual in the information age, wherein the technic itself invades on the understanding of being.
Recommended Citation
Ryan, James, "The robot on the hill" (2024). College of Computing and Digital Media Dissertations. 59.
https://via.library.depaul.edu/cdm_etd/59