Death to Realism! 007
Death to Realism! 007
Hello! How have your past two weeks been? Honestly I'm very into the inevitable passage of time right now because I'm already ready for it to be autumn... for those of you who'd like more of an intro to what precisely is going on here, you can check out the first issue before reading on.
What’s New?
After a long mental block fallow period I’ve completed a new piece for my main blog! There might not be much new there for people who have been reading the newsletter because I talked about many of the main ideas I put into it here already as a part of my process updates, however I hope you still get something out of it! It’s trying to put a finger on both what I find so formally “active” about VNs, which are usually framed as rather “passive” in typical games related discussions, and also how extensible I find Erkki Huhtamo’s ideas of media pre-histories as applicable to the historical study & understanding of videogames. Some bits I consider companion pieces and building blocks of these ideas would be my thoughts on perspective and modernism, and my previous look at the formal qualities of VNs.
An interview I did for Uses This also went up today! My setup is, admittedly, pretty chaotic and to-hand, and it was interesting to reflect on why it’s like that, what’s still interesting about that, and what I would try to do if I get a chance to go about it more deliberately. My current laptop, which saw me through writing my dissertation, building my current website, and writing up tons of personal writing and fanfic alike, was basically an emergency purchase and has held up surprisingly well, but it’s also one of those things where as soon as one part stops working it might not even be worth it or possible to fix the whole thing, which I’d like to avoid in the future.
Coming Soon
This is a bit of a secret but because you pay for the newsletter I’ll just give you the scoop. I’m currently working on something for another anonymous game jam similar to the 1Jam I did earlier this year. I won’t reveal anything more until it’s out and my identity is revealed, except that I’m using candle’s new bitsy-like with some streamlined features and extended drawing tools, bipsi. Once I adjusted to the slightly different work flow, it’s extremely fun, even when I have to take breaks for collaborative bug-squashing.
The Rec Room
- This dungeon synthy OST for BAD GOBLET is great working music.
- I usually don’t like puzzle games in themselves but sometimes when I come across a puzzlescript game in the right mindset they are an addictive delight. That’s exactly how I felt about paint everything everywhere!
- capsule living is a zine I found comfort and food for thought in as ostensible regulations lift but people also still try to maintain their own distance and levels of safety independently. In some ways life feels more constrained and modular as I wait for my second vaccine dose…
- theprintshop.club lets you use old-school Print Shop in the browser, and then see your design output in a PDF file. It’s so fun to experiment with!
- Wednesday’s Zone programming was a selection of art critic and nun Sister Wendy’s television based work, for which friend of the zone Katy made an incredible Sister Wendy Fancam
I’ve Been Reading
If visual novels count as reading (to me they do!) I have mostly spent my time since the last update re-reading The Silver Case and starting on The 25th Ward. They definitely stand up to a re-read and the complex character relationships and institutions of the wards systems are a bit more coherent (and you can take away more in depth information from them) the second time around. I’ve also been idly re-reading The Dialectic of Enlightenment… yes the old Frankfurt School crit crown jewel, just because it always seems to help knock something loose in my brain.
This oral history of the GIF is really interesting, and a good window to how the flashy, looping gif associated with retro “geocities aesthetic” was only one of many approaches to animated web design at the time. I also enjoyed this piece about the memeification of the awkward Indian guy DM slide, and what it reveals about both the stratified roll out and gender politics of internet and mobile phone use in India, as well as how class and caste politics influence romance even in the “disembodied” online space.
I think that’s all I have this bi-week! For new subscribers who have signed on since the last newsletter, you can check out the archive of past issues at any time!
Thank you again for your support,
Emilie