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Becoming Digital - Luke Pearson - From Superstudio to Super Mario

e-flux.com · 347 words · saved by 1 readers

Many contemporary videogames are inherently architectural, dealing with the depiction of constructed space and actions that take place within it. Beyond often-referenced titles like Minecraft (2009), SimCity (1989), or Cities: Skylines (2015), architectural space regularly operates as both backdrop and protagonist. One of the most recent gaming phenomena, Fortnite (2017)—ostensibly a “last player standing” shooter game—has players recycling building materials with a giant pickaxe and rapidly fabricating structures in the landscape to hide themselves or access new areas while holding architectural blueprints in their hands. Players become commandos-cum-architects where the rapid and precise building of enclosure is as potent a weapon as the crosshairs of the virtual gun. No Man’s Sky (2016) has pushed the boundaries of “procedural” systems, where unique game worlds and the architecture that resides within it are assembled through an algorithm. The generative meets the narrative and symb

e - flux Architecture Subscribe From Superstudio to Super Mario Luke Caspar Pearson Epic Games, Fortnite: Battle Royale , 2017. Becoming Digital February 2019 ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ Notes 1 McKenzie Wark, Gamer Theory (Cambridge MA, London: Harvard University Press, 2007), Note 199. 2 Bernard Tschumi, Architecture and Disjunction (Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 1996), 122. 3 Michael Nitsche, Video Game Spaces: Image, Play, and Structure in 3D Worlds (Cambridge and London: MIT Press, 2008). 4 Mark Wigley, Constant’s New Babylon: The Hyper-Architecture of Desire , (Rotterdam: Witte de With Center

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