1. Gestalt
“Gestalt” is German for “unified whole”.
Gestalt Principles are principles/laws of human perception that describe how humans group similar elements,
recognize patterns and simplify complex images when we perceive objects. Designers use the principles to
organize content on websites and other interfaces so it is aesthetically pleasing and easy to understand.
The application of Gestalt thinking to design provides us with insights and new ways of approaching problems
and challenges. By cementing in our own minds the many ways we organize visual information,

2. Aesthetic theory
Formalism - taste - context

3. Over time, "aesthetic" has evolved from an academic word and something utilized by artists and auteurs to something to categorize our own identities by.
It can mean both personal style and a vague stand-in for beauty.[1]
Kaitlin Tiffany from The Atlantic stated:
At this point, the word aesthetic is totally divorced from its academic origins. While Tumblr users mainstreamed it years ago, many teenagers use
aesthetic as an all-purpose adjective—"that’s so aesthetic" as a shorthand for "that’s so aesthetically pleasing to me." But in broader Internet parlance, it
now means a collection of signifiers or, more precisely, a "vibe."[2]
Online aesthetics

4. Genre to subculture
Genre a text that is a part of a category becomes a visual style of expressing oneself
crosses over and it enters your life, become part of your world.

5. Grand narrative - Meta Narrative - Mini Narrative - personal
narrative
John Stephens it "is a global or totalizing cultural narrative schema which orders and explains knowledge and experience".
The prefix meta means "beyond" and is here used to mean "about", and a narrative is a story. Therefore, a meta narrative is
a story about a story, encompassing and explaining other 'little stories' within totalizing schemes.
For Lyotard, examples of grand narratives given are Marxism, Liberalism and all religions. The meaning of the post-modernist characterization of the "name" or concept is to
educate on the observation that authorities in a knowledge society will have less impact, as the individuals may construct their own narratives
postmodern as incredulity toward meta narratives
Narratives which are age old and have chronological sessions of information such as in
1. RELIGION,
2. POLITICAL,
3. SOCIAL DEMARCATIONS,
4. PRACTICES AMONG PEOPLE,
5. CIVILIZATIONS and
6. DYNASTIES etc.,

6. CORE
In the modern internet age, the -core suffix is used to describe shared ideas of culture, genres, or
aesthetics and groups them all into one set category — (which in turn come from the music genre
hardcore, and the tendency of new hardcore-related subgenres to use -core as a suffix, as in "emo-core").

7. Cottagecore is an aesthetic popularised by teenagers and young adults
romanticizing rural life, centering on traditional rural clothing, interior
design, and crafts such as drawing, baking, and pottery. The term for the
aesthetic was coined in 2018 on Tumblr.[22] The aesthetic gained heavy
popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, where economic forces
and other challenges facing these young people may have been a
significant driver of this trend, along with these generations' emphasis on
sustainability, and the recent trend to work from home (initially during the
pandemic).[23]
Goblincore is an aesthetic and subculture inspired by the folklore of
goblins, centered on the celebration of natural ecosystems usually
considered less beautiful by conventional norms, such as soil, animals, and
second-hand objects. Proponents of the subculture have also been noted
to collect shiny objects, similarly to folklore goblins, such as silverware,
small jewelry, and coins. The subculture has been described as connected
to maximalism and escapism. Goblincore is believed to have surfaced in
online communities in the late 2010s, particularly on Tumblr and TikTok,
with Amanda Brennan stating that it "started picking up in spring 2019 and
hit full steam in 2020 as people stumbled upon it during the pandemic."

8. Amateurishly-edited clips of found media, a blisteringly quick editing style, and depressing, melancholic
music. They all share the same hashtag: #corecore
.
Corecore TikToks layer or flicker between clips from viral videos of people admitting loneliness or depression,
nihilistic dialogue scenes from popular films or TV shows, deep-fried memes, and other staples of “chronically
online” web culture in a curated supercut that hits the nail on the head in terms of our collective feeling of
the trend
"plays on the
-core suffix by
making a
'core' out of
the collective
consciousness
of all 'cores.'"
short-form
meme montages

9. Weirdcore is a “Surrealist aesthetic centered around amateur or low-quality photography and/or
visual images that have been constructed or edited to convey feelings of confusion, disorientation,
dread, alienation, and nostalgia or anemoia.”
Dreamcore a surrealist aesthetic that uses motifs associated with dreams, daydreams or
nightmares, portrayed through media such as videos, images.

10. Surrealist cinema is a modernist approach to film theory, criticism, and production with origins in Paris in the 1920s. The movement used
shocking, irrational, or absurd imagery and Freudian dream symbolism to challenge the traditional function of art to represent reality. Related
to Dada cinema, Surrealist cinema is characterized by juxtapositions, the rejection of dramatic psychology, and a frequent use of shocking
imagery
Dada/Surrealism and film
Le Chien Andalou

11. Hitchcock,
Spellbound/
Dali
The artist's participation in the film was centred on the design of the sets for the dream sequence that sets in motion the bringing to light of the principal
plot twist. The creative influence of the artist is also evident in the many characteristically Dalinian motifs that appear throughout the film, including the
recurring emphasis on eyes, seen here through or behind scissors.
Liminality -

12. 1960s psychedelia, Op Art and M.C.
Escher,
Escher created many beautiful
representations of hyperbolic space, as
in the woodcut Circle Limit III. This is one
of the two kinds of non-Euclidean space,
and the model represented in Escher's
work is actually due to the French
mathematician Poincaré.
Two parallel lines are always the same
distance apart in euclidean space.
However, in hyperbolic space, parallel
lines are not equidistant. We can
construct two hyperbolic straight lines
which do not intersect yet are separated
by increasing distance as we move away
from the origin.

13. Monument valley

14. Dark Academy
Dark academia is an internet aesthetic[1] and subculture[2] concerned with higher education, the arts, and literature, or an
idealised version thereof. The aesthetic centres on traditional educational clothing, interior design, activities such as
writing/poetry, ancient art, classic literature, as well as classical Greek and Collegiate Gothic architecture.
Donna Tartt’s The Secret History
The 1992 novel tells the story of a
murder that takes place within a
group of classics students at an
elite New England college. This
set the tone for dark academia in
future novels and media. Stories
like Harry Potter and A Series of
Unfortunate Events
Alongside the visual lifestyle component of dark academia, the genre tends to
idealize a sullen and depressive way of thinking as well as a nostalgia for a life that
a select few can and will ever experience.

15. Adorno aesthetic theory
In Aesthetic Theory, Adorno is concerned not only with such standard aesthetic preoccupations as the function of beauty and sublimity in
art,[2] but with the relations between art and society.
art – unlike entertainment or advertising – should invite one to think; it should allow the possibility of contemplating another
way of seeing the world. True art, they believe, should not automatically be undemanding to consume; we should have to
concentrate hard on it to value its complexity.
Taking the example of ‘rom coms’: there may be unimportant details swapped around within each separate plot, but the
general form of a romantic comedy is a film accomplishing the exact same purpose time and time again. The same idea
pertains to thrillers, sci-fis and horror movies. These are prescribed templates that allow us to know exactly what to expect
from a film and how it is going to turn out, before we even see it at the cinema. We have created a culture of unresisting
consumption where the individual is easily pleased by the sheer abundance of popular culture available to them, not
stopping to consider or contemplate its effects.
videogames by their very nature are more involving and are not prone to a ‘detached consumption’ as a film or radio
programme might be. The player has more options at their disposal and can create their own experience of a videogame,
where “different games require very specific sets of skills and knowledges in order for users to be successful at them”,

16. Sandbox games
sandbox games allows the player to take full control of the game world, ruling over it instead of it ruling them. They can be creative
in terms of what they decide to do in each day they live in their gaming universe, with no two days ever being the same. The world
they manipulate and change becomes the playing environment they create for themselves. In a sandbox game, the world reacts
according to your choices, and moulds to it; the player is not existing in surroundings that only change as you progress through it
from point A to B. The essence of a sandbox games is that these ‘points’ do not exist.

17. Subversion has been identified by several theorists and practitioners as a
powerful means for marginalized groups to have a voice
“radical” because they offer alternative experiences of and in the virtual world. They break with the content, techniques and formal
norms of the game industry and facilitate other modes of immersion and engagement.
Subversive play It’s an inherently defiant concept in that it challenges how a game is intended to be played. The aim of subversive
gaming is to play “within the rules the developer creates, but outside of their intentions,” and, “to redefine the objective of a game
without breaching its boundaries”
The Sims. What happens to your Sims when you take away the game’s life-starter package (i.e., lots of money, basic amenities like
beds, a functional bathroom and kitchen, and a roof over your Sims’ heads)? These are luxuries that some humans in real life don’t
have. So, why not emulate that in a life simulation game?

18. Laura Mulvey - the male gaze-
Female video game characters often illustrate sexist ideologies. Many studies have established that this issue can be explained using Laura
Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze. This research project seeks to understand how Mulvey’s male gaze theory can explain the ways in which three
characters (Princess Zelda, Yennefer of Vengerberg, and Sylvanas Windrunner) are represented within their respective video games. To examine
these video game characters and understand how the male gaze theory has contributed to their portrayal, I will examine key scenes in which
these characters experience loss of power due to male characters. I will code these scenes using the verbs within the scenes. This will help get a
sense of which characters have power (or do not have power) within each scene. The verbs will also help with examining the ways in which these
characters interact with, and are interacted with, regarding their world.

19. The Bechdel test
The Bechdel test (/ˈbɛkdəl/ BEK-dəl)[1] is a measure of the representation of women in film (and, by extension, in fiction in general). The test asks
whether a film features at least two women talking to each other about something other than a man. The measure sometimes is enhanced by adding
that the two female characters be named in the film.[2]
I’m interested in how this could be applied to the context of video games. But in order for it to work I think there needs to be some
changes. So here is my version:
(i)There must be a female character with whom you can interact, (ii) who doesn’t need rescuing, (iii) and isn’t a prostitute.
Such a test comes with the assumption that there are gendered characters within the game. Some games, such as Flow or Space
Invaders, do not have any characters of gender.

20. So in creating a test suitable for video games, I am less concerned about women talking to each other, but rather the
actions performed to, with or by them. As it’s through these actions that we experience the game.

21. Process as Product
The experience of playing, online gaming culture turns the experience into
something to view.. Esports.
Watching the player

22. Fredric Jameson
Postmodernist works are often characterized by a lack of depth, which has been replaced by a surfeit of surface. Also
distinctive of the late capitalist age is its focus on the recycling of old images and commodities. Using examples from
cinema,
historicism —the random cannibalization of various past styles

23. ● Irony
● Pastiche
● Hyperreality
● Intertextuality
● Magical realism
● Unpredictability
● Distortion of time
● Themes of paranoia

24. Run Lola RUn
The system of allusion and quotation such as that found in Run Lola Run —which mixes both "high" art and "low" popular
cutlture from various time periods and cultures—is a typical feature of postmodern cinema, and is often referred to as
pastiche .

25. William Gibson
Neuromancer
his early works were noir, near-future stories that explored the
effects of technology, cybernetics, and computer networks on
humans—a "combination of lowlife and high tech"[4]—and helped
to create an iconography for the information age before the
ubiquity of the Internet in the 1990s.[5] Gibson coined the term
"cyberspace" for "widespread, interconnected digital technology"
in his short story "Burning Chrome" (1982), and later popularized
the concept in his acclaimed debut novel Neuromancer (1984).
These early works of Gibson's have been credited with
"renovating" science fiction literature in the 1980s.

26. Cyber Punk
Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that
tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech",[1] featuring futuristic
technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and
cybernetics, juxtaposed with societal collapse, dystopia or decay.[2] Much of
cyberpunk is rooted in the New Wave science fiction movement of the 1960s and
1970s, when writers like Philip K. Dick, Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny, John
Brunner, J. G. Ballard, Philip José Farmer and Harlan Ellison examined the impact
of drug culture, technology, and the sexual revolution while avoiding the utopian
tendencies of earlier science fiction.
drawing influence from punk subculture and early hacker culture.

27. Cyber punk

28. BLADERUNNER - you are never sure who is real
Ambiguity non essentialism - no real self - no core.

29. Neal Stephenson’s cyberpunktilious novel “Snow Crash,” where he invented his own online jargon. He
called his virtual world “the Metaverse” and its digital inhabitants “avatars.”

30. William Burroughs
You write down a paragraph or two describing several different subjects, creating a kind of “story ingredients” list, I
suppose, and then cut the sentences into four or five-word sections; mix ’em up and reconnect them. You can get some
pretty interesting idea combinations like this. You can use them as is or, if you have a craven need to not lose control,
bounce off these ideas and write whole new sections.”
The cutting together of pre-existing material into radical juxtapositions

31. Cut Up
Essentially a
dizzying
montage of
quirky shots of
legendary Beat
Generation
writer William S.
Burroughs and
noted surrealist
artist Brion
Gysin,

32. Jorge Luis Borges
His best-known books, Ficciones (Fictions) and El
Aleph (The Aleph), published in the 1940s, are
collections of short stories exploring themes of
dreams, labyrinths, chance, infinity, archives,
mirrors, fictional writers and mythology.[3] Borges'
works have contributed to philosophical literature
and the fantasy genre, and majorly influenced the
magic realist movement in 20th century Latin
American literature.[4]

33. Borges is closer to what games are. His stories are often systems--rules, puzzles, and riddles--and concepts as much as
they are narratives, all supporting each other. And, like the best games, his stories end once they've satisfactorily explored
their ideas.
“Two aesthetics exist: the passive aesthetic of mirrors and the active aesthetic of prisms.
Guided by the former, art turns into a copy of the environment's objectivity or the
individual's psychic history. Guided by the latter, art is redeemed, makes the world into
its instrument, and forges, beyond spatial and temporal prisons, a personal vision.”
The forking path - labyrinths and mazes.

34. J. L. Borges’ Book of Imaginary Beings
as a vector for the cultural transfer of
folkloric, mythological, religious, and
literary motifs from foreign cultures to
Japanese video games and collectible
card games.

35. Liminal
Liminal space refers to the place a person is in during a
transitional period. It's a gap, and can be physical (like a
doorway), emotional (like a divorce) or metaphorical (like a
decision).
Liminal spaces are the subject of an internet aesthetic portraying empty or
abandoned places that appear eerie, forlorn, and often surreal. Liminal spaces are
common places of transition (about the concept of liminality) or of nostalgic appeal.
Research from the Journal of Environmental Psychology has indicated that liminal
spaces may appear eerie or strange because they fall into an uncanny valley of
architecture and physical places. The aesthetic gained popularity in 2019 after a
post on 4chan depicting a liminal space called the Backrooms went viral. Since then,
liminal space images have been posted across the internet, including on Reddit,
Twitter, and TikTok.

36. Participatory Culture
Many video games let you create (your own levels in a first-person shooter, your own creatures in an adventure,
for example) and upload these creations so you can share them with other players. It's called participatory
culture, where consumers are not couch potatoes but rather active participants and creators themselves.
participatory cultures on social media platforms

37. Steam Punk
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by 19th-century industrial
steam-powered machinery.[1][2][3] Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era or the American "Wild
West", where steam power remains in mainstream use, or in a fantasy world that similarly employs steam power.
Steampunk most recognizably features anachronistic technologies or retrofuturistic inventions as people in the 19th century might have
envisioned them — distinguishing it from Neo-Victorianism[4] — and is likewise rooted in the era's perspective on fashion, culture,
architectural style, and art.[5] Such technologies may include fictional machines like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules
Verne.[6] Other examples of steampunk contain alternative-history-style presentations of such technology as steam cannons, lighter-than-
air airships, analog computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine.[7][8]

38. Babbage Difference engine

39. Jules Verne - H G wells

41. Manga - Anime
Animecore - otaku
Light novels
Japanese culture
Manga and Anime-Like Realism” and the “I” as Character

43. Meme-Giff

44. Sludge

45. Heterotopia Of Other Spaces,” Foucault
The term “heterotopia” is sometimes used to refer to strange or ambivalent places – places
that defy the normal logic of ordering. Routinely, many spaces and places in a given culture
or society tend to be understood as ordered by a certain overarching logic.
Heterotopia is a concept elaborated by philosopher Michel Foucault to describe certain cultural, institutional and discursive spaces that are
somehow 'other': disturbing, intense, incompatible, contradictory or transforming. Heterotopias are worlds within worlds, mirroring and yet
upsetting what is outside.
The heterotopia has the power of juxtaposing in a single real place different spaces and locations that are incompatible with
each other (example: theatre). Heterotopias are linked for the most part to bits and pieces of time (example: museum).16 Nov 2017
Prisons - ships

47. Found footage
ou’ve heard the familiar song and dance about found footage: it isn’t scary, it’s too prevalent, and you
can’t see anything through the shaky camera. But to see found footage as just a collection of tired
tropes is to dismiss a revolutionary style of filmmaking that is quick to adapt to the changing
technological landscape. Filmmakers are able to creatively tell unique stories through handheld
cameras, security footage, and webcams. They create fear not with CGI or elaborate effects, but with
lingering shots of darkened doorways and quiet bedrooms. Found footage is all about tension and
changing how the viewer watches a film, making the experience an active rather than passive one.
Blink and you may just miss something.
In the time of COVID-19 and social distancing, the creativity of found footage is more liberating than
ever. The style is easily tailored for solo filmmakers, or even remote filming, as seen with Michael
Varrati’s short Unusual Attachment or Rob Savage’s Host.

49. Digital Dystopian
Digital dystopia, cyber dystopia or algorithmic dystopia refers to an alternate future or present in which digitized technologies or also
algorithms have caused major societal disruption.[1][2][3] It refers to narratives of technologies influencing social, economic, and political
structures, and its diverse set of components includes virtual reality, artificial intelligence, ubiquitous connectivity, ubiquitous surveillance, and
social networks.[4] In popular culture, technological dystopias often are about or depict mass loss of privacy due to technological innovation
and/or social control. They feature heightened socio-political issues like social fragmentation, intensified consumerism, dehumanization, and
mass human migrations.
In August 2007, David Nye presented the idea of cyber-dystopia, which envisions a world made worse
by technological advancements.[8] Cyber-dystopian principles focus on the individual losing control,
becoming dependent and being unable to stop change.
Nancy Baym shows a cyber-dystopia negatively effect of a cyber-dystopia in social interactions as it
says new media will take people away from their intimate relationships, as they substitute mediated
relationships or even media use itself for face to face engagement".[9]:36

51. Doom Scrolling
Doomscrolling describes the habitual act of scanning social media with the goal of
seeking out bad news for multiple hours at a time.
Though the earliest known usage of the term can be traced back to a tweet in 2018,
it wasn’t until 2020 that it took off, according to Johnson. People, isolated from
friends and family, surfed social media compulsively looking for the latest bits of
news on the pandemic, developing a new habit in the process.

52. Exercise

53. Epistemology
What is knowledge?
Epistemology is the theory of knowledge. It is concerned with the mind’s relation to reality. What is it for this
relation to be one of knowledge? Do we know things? And if we do, how and when do we know things
different processes of reasoning – logical and scientific – introspection, perception, memory, testimony and
intuition.

54. Question and Answer Model
CONNECTIONS each card consists of up to four words and one link connecting the
answers. For example, if the John, Paul, George and Ringo, the link would be The
Beatles.
IDENTITY have to guess the identity of a person, place or thing. Each card has a list of
descriptive statements in descending order from obscure to obvious. The first person to
shout out the right answer wins.
PUB QUIZ Multiple choice, one question and up to four options. Write down on card,
answers at end.
Mastermind One questions fastest person to answer.