Death; a minor annoyance or an invitation to play?
Apollo and Dionysus at Play
1. Apollo and Dionysus at Play
Dan Dixon
Digital Cultures Research Centre | Pervasive Media Studio
University of the West of England
Thursday, 25 February 2010
2. • Where Caillois went wrong
• Nietzsche, Dionysus and Apollo
• New phenomenological approach
• Conclusions
Thursday, 25 February 2010
4. ludus
ilinx mimicry alea agon
paidia
Thursday, 25 February 2010
5. For it is only as an aesthetic phenomena that
existence and the world are externally justified.
- Nietzsche - The Birth of Tragedy
Thursday, 25 February 2010
14. movement systems/rhizome
rhythm understanding
Lego
Twirling
Pervasive
gaming RPGs
PnP RPG
sensation rhythm-action
play FPS
MMORPGs gamic
Dancing
Dionysian Apollonian
Thursday, 25 February 2010
15. Mature manhood; that means to have found the
seriousness one had as a child at play.
- Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil
Play is less the opposite of seriousness than the vital
ground of spirit as nature, a form of restraint and
freedom at one and the same time.
- Gadamer - The Relevance of the Beautiful
Thursday, 25 February 2010
16. autotelic
play gamic
Dionysian earnest Apollonian
Thursday, 25 February 2010
17. movement systems/rhizome
rhythm understanding
autotelic
Lego
Twirling
Pervasive
gaming RPGs
PnP RPG
sensation rhythm-action
play FPS
MMORPGs gamic
navigation
Dancing
Gambling
Ballroom
Stockmarket
Dancing Sports
Dionysian earnest Apollonian
Gadamer de Certeau
Thursday, 25 February 2010
18. Conclusions
• Not everything is Flow
• The Dionysian is intoxicating => addictive
• New physical interfaces hold promise
• Narrative is not the only route to ‘art’
Thursday, 25 February 2010
19. Summary
• No essentialist ontology/taxonomy
• Focus on the aesthetic experience
• Gaming and Playing as separate but intertwined principles
• Apollo and Dionysus are merely starting points
• Experiences are not privileged
Thursday, 25 February 2010
20. So tremendous is the power of the Apolline
epic that it enchants the most terrible events
before us with delightful illusion.
- Nietzsche - The Birth of Tragedy
Thursday, 25 February 2010
21. To be beautiful, everything must first be
intelligible.
- Nietzsche paraphrasing Socrates
- The Birth of Tragedy
Thursday, 25 February 2010