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Department of Information Science and Media Studies
Games and Transgressive Aesthetics

Games and Transgressive Aesthetics

The project "Games and Transgressive Aesthetics" explores controversial game content theoretically and through qualitative empirical studies that stress how such content is experienced by players while playing games.

Games and Transgressive Aesthetics
Photo:
Montasje: Kristine Jørgensen

Main content

Central to the project is finding an explanatory framework that
focuses on the player’s experiences of controversial content in digital
games, and that takes into account that different players may have
radically different viewpoints of what they find controversial. How does
playing transform the experience of controversial game content? When is
game content perceived as unproblematic for players, and when does it
transgress the border into the uncomfortable, speculative or repulsive?
And in what situations is such content seen as challenging and critical,
and able to make players reflect? Questions such as these connect the
project to debates about subjective perceptions of aesthetics and taste,
games as art and medium, and about ethics and freedom of expression.

The project is led by Kristine Jørgensen, and aims to create new
knowledge of computer games as a medium and art form in a broader
cultural perspective. The project has relevance for the public debate on
games and for censorship and regulation of games and game content. The
project period is 2015-2018.