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Dublin Core
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Title
A name given to the resource
Pesquisa Acadêmica
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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The Algorithmic Experience: Portal as Art
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Journal Article
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Michael BURDEN
Sean GOUGLAS
Date
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December 2012
Language
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English
Contributor
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Letícia Rodrigues
Zotero
Title
The Algorithmic Experience: Portal as Art
Item Type
Journal Article
Author
Michael BURDEN
Sean GOUGLAS
URL
http://gamestudies.org/1202/articles/the_algorithmic_experience
Volume
12
Issue
2
Publication Title
Game Studies: the international journal of computer game research
ISSN
ISSN:1604-7982
Date
December 2012
Language
English
Abstract Note
The videogame Portal is an algorithmic exploration of human struggle against algorithmic processes that have superseded their original intended purpose. The game explores the search for freedom from such computational processes. The freedom presumed in the portal gun - which allows access where there was none - is circumscribed by creating pathways that only open back into the maze of the Aperture Science Facility. The promised reward for completing the algorithm is freedom, but the promise is made by a master chained to the very facility it controls. Both GLaDOS and the player are bound to complete the algorithm. There is no escape.
Portal extends this tension, perverting the traditional relationship between player and protagonist. Each test requires inputs to complete, with the companion cube serving as a necessary but disposable means to that end. What the companion cube is to Chell so Chell is to the player - she reappears after each failed test like a weighted companion cube dropping from a chute.
Harmony between the game mechanic and the story ensures emotional resonance between Chell’s suffocation in the workings of the system and the player’s own frustration in moving through the game. Unlike other artworks, Portal not only communicates emotion but also allows for play to achieve it. Thus when the narrative pushes Chell to complete the tests by being incinerated, the player’s own yearning to escape the confines of GlaDOS’s control reaches its own breaking point, synchronizing the goals of both player and protagonist. This aesthetic of play speaks directly to the relevance artistic videogames hold for {INSERT AUDIENCE HERE}.
Keywords: Portal, Art, Algorithms, Testing, Videogame, Aesthetics
aesthetics
Algorithms
art
computer games
games
Portal
testing
Videogames