Dublin Core
Título
The Algorithmic Experience: Portal as Art
Autor
Michael BURDEN
Sean GOUGLAS
Data
December 2012
Colaborador
Letícia Rodrigues
Idioma
English
Tipo
Journal Article
Zotero
Tipo de Item
Journal Article
ISSN
ISSN:1604-7982
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The videogame Portal is an algorithmic exploration of human struggle against algorithmic processes that have superseded their original intended purpose.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
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
Data
December 2012
Issue
2
Idioma
English
Publication Title
Game Studies: the international journal of computer game research
Título
The Algorithmic Experience: Portal as Art
URL
http://gamestudies.org/1202/articles/the_algorithmic_experience
Volume
12