Technoculture, Art and Games (TAG) is an interdisciplinary centre for research/ creation in game studies and design, digital culture and interactive art

Events


Apr 27, 2017

5a7 – Zombies, Vaults & Violence: Collective Memory and the Representation of Atomic Fears in Resident Evil & Fallout

TAG is proud to invite you for a series of 5 à 7 showcasing its stellar members’ ongoing research.

Joining us this coming week is Ryan Scheiding, one of our PHD student from the Communications program.His project examines how videogames make use of pre-established discourses of the past in their remediation of historical narratives. It is broken into three distinct parts.

The first is a historiography of World War II in the Pacific theatre with a focus on the narratives of the end of the war and the use of the atomic bombs. The project argues that in the United States there is an established discourse that the bombs were entirely justified because the Americans were fighting a necessary, and above all heroic, war. In contrast, in Japan the established discourse largely downplays Japanese involvement in the war as a way of ignoring war atrocities. When victims are remembered, it is Japanese victims, especially atomic bomb survivors (known as hibakusha).

The second part of the project combines theory in the fields of collective memory, history, and game studies to put forward the idea that there are established discourses of the past which are actively created, maintained, and controlled within society over long periods of time. These discourses of the past encompass collective memory, traditional history, popular culture, and other representations of the past. Media, such as videogames remediate these discourses in the creation of their historical narratives. Finally, the third part of the project examines videogames in the Resident Evil and Fallout series as a case study to display how videogames remediate discourses of the past.

☆ Please join us for this casual presentation. ☆

Attendees are welcomed to bring snacks and drinks to their liking.

WHEN? Thursday, April 27th, 5-7pm
WHERE? TAG Lab (Concordia, EV 11.435, 1515 Ste. Catherine W.)
WHO? Everyone is welcomed!
WHAT? Cutting edge new media research-creation