MUAG 4200: Videogames: Behind the Screens
Instructor: David B. Schwarz | reach me at david.schwarz@unt.edu
In the course we do five things:
- 1) we read in psychoanalysis, semiotics, narrative theory, interactivity theory; i have posted videos on these topics and students write in discussion boards daily on these topics as they relate to our focus: the video game Limbo
- 2) we make, download, and sample sounds from a wide variety of sources and edit them in the sound editing software Audacity; we also analyze these sounds using the software Sonic Visualizer
- 3) we work on media-rich criticism in which students' gameplay of Limbo is connected to the readings and suppported with images, videos, and sound clips from the game.
- 4) each student adapts a simple PONG game (in javascript, html, and css) to a specific aesthetic using the sounds they have made, downloaded, and / or sampled for paddle sounds, wall sound, and ambient sound).
- 5) each students makes a website using media-rich assets to introduce a videogame of your choice that means a great deal to you
Here are a few of the PONG games that students have created over the years:
Hello
psychoanalysis
Freud on the Pleasure Principle: pdf:
sound
introducing Audacity
pong
- introduction to pong
- javascript, css, and html files of the game
psychoanalysis
Anzieu, The Skin Ego: "the sonorous envelope": pdf
sound design
introduction to Sonic Visualizer
pong
getting started programming pong on GitHub
psychoanalysis
Barthes, "the Reality Effect": pdf
sound design
concepts in sound
- conscious / unconscious hearing
- decibels: audible and inaudible
- diegetic / non-diegetic
- acousmatic / non-acousmatic
pong
what kinds of auditory sonorous envelopes would be appropriate to express any of the six basic emotions.
psychoanalysis
sound design
background, ambient sound
pong
background image, sound and sound of ball hitting the wall
semiotics
semiotics
Bentham, "the Panopticon": pdf
sound design
white noise
pong
adding white noise to background
semiotics
Louis Althusser "Ideological State Apparatuses": pdf in Lenin and Philosophy
sound design
white noise edited
pong
adding white noise and editions to background
semiotics
Todorov, "The Two Principles of Narrative": pdf
sound design
making sawtooth and squaretooth waves
pong
incorporating sawtooth and squaretooth waves into background, ambient sound
interactivity
Kaja Silverman: "Suture" from The Subject of Semiotics
sound design
consonant intervals (perfect fifths) and dissonant intervals (tritones and minor seconds)
pong
adding edited consonant and dissonant intervals to ambient sound in pong
interactivity
Baudrilliard, "Simulacra and Simulation": pdf
sound design
beats produced by hz discrepancies
pong
incorporation of beats into pong
interactivity
Ariel Rogers, "Taking the Plunge: pdf"
sound design
alterations to downloaded sounds
pong
adjusting the speed of the ball
interactivity
Multi-Media Papers from winter 2021–2022
Available upon request: email me at david.schwarz@unt.edu
Email me at david.schwarz@unt.edu for access to final Pong games
Final Pong + Website Projects Due
bibliography
- Althusser, Louis. "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses" in Lenin and Philosophy. Ben Brewste (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1971).
- Anzieu, Didier. "The Sound Envelope" in The Skin Ego. Chris Turner (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989).
- Barthes, Roland. "The Reality Effect" in The Rustle of Language Richard Howard (Berkeley, CA: UC Press, 1984 (1968)).
- Baudrilliard, Jean. "The Simulacrum" in Simulacra and SImulation (Ann Arbor: U of Michigan Press, 1983).
- Foucault, Michel. "The Panopticon" in Discipline and Punish Alan Sheridan (New York: Vintage, 1995 (1975)).
- Massumi, Brian. "The Autonomy of Affect" in Cultural Critique. number 31. Autumn 1995.
- Freud, Sigmund. Beyond the Pleasure Principle. James Strachey (New York and London: Norton, 1990 (1920)).
- Lacan, Jacques. "The mirror stage" in Ècrits. Alan Sheridan (New York and London: Norton, 1977).
- Lindley, Ernest. "A Study of Puzzles with Special Reference to the Psychology of Mental Adaptation" in The American Journal of Psychology. July 1897. Volume 8 number 4.
- Rogers, Ariel. "Taking the Plunge" in Screen Ideologies (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2019).
- Silverman, Kaja. "Suture" from the Subject of Semiotics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982).
- Smuts, Aaron. "What is Interactivity" in The Journal of Aesthetic Education volume 43. number 4, winter 2009.
- Todorov, Tzvetan. "The Two Principles of Narrative" in Diacritics. volume 1 number 1. autumn 1971.