Научная статья на тему 'Interactivity of archetype types as an instrument of politicization of modern digital art'

Interactivity of archetype types as an instrument of politicization of modern digital art Текст научной статьи по специальности «СМИ (медиа) и массовые коммуникации»

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Ключевые слова
MASS MEDIA COMMUNICATION / IDEOLOGEME / PROPAGANDA / ARCHETYPAL IMAGES / MEDIA ART / DIGITAL ART / COMPUTER GAMES / POLITICAL CONTROL / SYNTHESIS OF THE ARTS / ЗАСОБИ МАСОВОї КОМУНіКАЦії / іДЕОЛОГЕМА / ПРОПАГАНДА / АРХЕТИПіЧНі ОБРАЗИ / МЕДіАМИСТЕЦТВО / ДИГіТАЛЬНЕ МИСТЕЦТВО / КОМП’ЮТЕРНі іГРИ / ПОЛіТИЧНИЙ КОНТРОЛЬ / СИНТЕЗ МИСТЕЦТВ / СРЕДСТВА МАССОВОЙ КОММУНИКАЦИИ / ИДЕОЛОГЕМА / АРХЕТИПИЧЕСКИЕ ОБРАЗЫ / МЕДИАИСКУССТВО / ДИГИТАЛЬНОЕ ИСКУССТВО / КОМПЬЮТЕРНЫЕ ИГРЫ / ПОЛИТИЧЕСКИЙ КОНТРОЛЬ / СИНТЕЗ ИСКУССТВ

Аннотация научной статьи по СМИ (медиа) и массовым коммуникациям, автор научной работы — Pielievin Ievgen Yurievich

Проаналізовано феномен дигітального медіамис.тецтва як засобу масової комунікації. Визначено взаємозалежність засобів художнього вираження дигітального мистецтва і сучасних технологій передачі і зберігання інформації. Це дає змогу розглядати феномен дигітального медіамистецтва як інтегровану частину системи засобів масової комунікації, що значно посилює потенціал наративного впливу. Розглядаються форми взаємодії мистецтва і політики на прикладі переосмислення архетипів за допомогою засобів художнього вираження. Підкреслюється ключова роль організації процесу самоідентифікації для встановлення політичного контролю і місце засобів масової комунікації в цьому процесі. На прикладі комп’ютерних ігор вивчається процес трансформації засобів масової комунікації в самодостатній об’єкт мистецтва. Проведено класифікацію комп’ютерних ігор залежно від інструментів наративного впливу. За допомогою принципів теорії кодування визначається, що віртуальний простір комп’ютерної гри за допомогою інтерактивності ігрового процесу перетворює будь-які повідомлення користувача, створені в рамках зворотного зв’язку, в с.имулякри, тобто робить їх беззмістовними. Це дає змогу розглядати комп’ютерну гру як ізольований канал комунікації. Наявність ізольованого інформаційного каналу з одностороннім віртуальним моделюванням соціальної реальності, прообразом якого є сучасні комп’ютерні ігри, дають змогу відродити давні практики маніпуляції архетипами, але з можливостями техніки XXI ст. Зазначається, що спроби використання потенціалу феномену медіамис.тецтва як засобу масової комунікації в політичних цілях носять ситуативний характер і пояснюються швидше рекурсивним характером взаємозумовленості мистецтва і політики. Політичні інститути наразі не розглядають віртуальну реальність комп’ютерної гри як ефективний засіб політичного контролю, а саму комп’ютерну гру як окремий засіб масової комунікації.Анализируется феномен дигитального медиаискусства как средства массовой коммуникации. Определяется взаимозависимость средств художественного выражения и современных технологий хранения и передачи информации. Это позволяет рассматривать феномен медиаискусства как интегрированную часть системы средств массовой коммуникации, что значительно усиливает потенциал нарративного воздействия. Рассматриваются формы взаимодействия искусства и политики на примере переосмысления архетипов с помощью средств художественного выражения. Подчеркивается ключевая роль организации процесса самоидентификации для установления политического контроля и место средств массовой коммуникации в этом процессе. На примере компьютерных игр изучается процесс трансформации средств массовой коммуникации в самодостаточный объект искусства. Проводится классификация компьютерных игр в зависимости от инструментов нарративного воздействия. С помощью принципов теории кодирования определяется, что виртуальное пространство компьютерной игры посредством интерактивности игрового процесса, превращает любые сообщение пользователя, созданные в рамках обратной связи, в симулякры, т. е. обессмысливает их. Это позволяет рассматривать компьютерную игру, как изолированный канал коммуникации. Наличие изолированного информационного канала с односторонним виртуальным моделированием социальной действительности, прообразом которого являются современные компьютерные игры, позволяют возродить древние практики манипуляции архетипами, но с возможностями техники XXI века. Попытки использования потенциала такого средства массовой коммуникации, как компьютерная игра в политических целях носят ситуативный характер и объясняются скорее рекурсивным характером взаимообусловленности искусства и политики. Политические институты пока не рассматривают виртуальную реальность компьютерной игры как эффективное средство политического контроля, а саму компьютерную игру как отдельное средство массовой коммуникации и разновидность дигитального медиаискусства.The article analyzes the phenomenon of the digital media art as a mass media communication. The interdependence of the means of artistic expression of the digital art and modern technologies of information transfer and storage is determined. This allows us to consider the phenomenon of the digital media art as an integrated part of the mass media communication system, which greatly enhances the potential of the narrative influence. The forms of interaction between the art and politics are examined on the example of reinterpreting the archetypes by the means of the artistic expression. The key role of the organization of the self-identification process for establishing the political control and the place of mass media communication in this process is emphasized. On the example of the computer games the process of transformation of the mass media communication into a selfsufficient. object of the art is studied. The computer games are classified according to the tools of the narrative influence. Using the principles of coding theory, it is determined that the virtual space of a computer game, through the interactivity of the gameplay, converts any user messages created in the framework of feedback into simulacrum, that is, renders them meaningless. This allows the computer game to be regarded as an isolated channel of communication. The presence of an isolated information channel with one-sided virtual modeling of the social reality, the prototype of which is the modern computer games, allows to revive the ancient practices of the manipulation of the archetypes, but with the capabilities of the 21th century. It is noted that the attempts to use the potential of the phenomenon of the media art as a means of mass media communication for the political purposes are situational in nature and are explained more by the recursive nature of the interconnectedness of the art and politics. At present, the political institutions do not consider the virtual reality of the computer game as an effective means of the political control, and computer game itself as a separate mass media communication.

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Текст научной работы на тему «Interactivity of archetype types as an instrument of politicization of modern digital art»

UDC: 379.828:004.9:32

DOI: https://doi.org/10.32689/2617-2224-2020-1(21)-221-235

Pielievin Ievgen Yurievich,

PhD / candidate of historical sciences, Senior Lecturer of the Political Science Department, Odessa National Polytechnic University, 65044, Odesa, Prop. Shevchenko, 1, tel.: +38 (066) 453 9116 opu@opu.ua, e-mail of the author: quasicristal@gmail.com

ORCID: 0000-0001-5464-3309

Пелевт €вген Юршович,

кандидат icmopu4Hux наук, старший ви-кладач кафедри полтологи, Одеський на-цюнальний полтехтчний утверситет, 65044, м. Одеса, пр. Шевченка, 1, тел.: +38 (066) 453 91 16, opu@opu.ua, е-mail автора: quasicristal@gmail.com

ORCID: 0000-0001-5464-3309

Пелевин Евгений Юрьевич,

кандидат исторических наук, старший преподаватель кафедры политологии, Одесский национальный политехнический университет, 65044, г. Одесса, пр. Шевченко, 1, тел.: +38 (066) 453 91 16, opu@opu. ua, е-mail автора: quasicristal@gmail.com

ORCID: 0000-0001-5464-3309

INTERACTIVITY OF ARCHETYPE TYPES AS AN INSTRUMENT OF POLITICIZATION OF MODERN DIGITAL ART

Abstract. The article analyzes the phenomenon of the digital media art as a mass media communication. The interdependence of the means of artistic expression of the digital art and modern technologies of information transfer and storage is determined. This allows us to consider the phenomenon of the digital media art as an integrated part of the mass media communication system, which greatly enhances the potential of the narrative influence. The forms of interaction between the art and politics are examined on the example of reinterpreting the archetypes by the means of the artistic expression. The key role of the organization of the self-identification process for establishing the political control and the place of mass media communication in this process is emphasized. On the example of the computer

games the process of transformation of the mass media communication into a self-sufficient object of the art is studied. The computer games are classified according to the tools of the narrative influence. Using the principles of coding theory, it is determined that the virtual space of a computer game, through the interactivity of the gameplay, converts any user messages created in the framework of feedback into simulacrum, that is, renders them meaningless. This allows the computer game to be regarded as an isolated channel of communication. The presence of an isolated information channel with one-sided virtual modeling of the social reality, the prototype of which is the modern computer games, allows to revive the ancient practices of the manipulation of the archetypes, but with the capabilities of the 21th century. It is noted that the attempts to use the potential of the phenomenon of the media art as a means of mass media communication for the political purposes are situational in nature and are explained more by the recursive nature of the in-terconnectedness of the art and politics. At present, the political institutions do not consider the virtual reality of the computer game as an effective means of the political control, and computer game itself as a separate mass media communication.

Keywords: mass media communication, ideologeme, propaganda, archetypal images, media art, digital art, computer games, political control, synthesis of the arts.

ШТЕРАКТИВШСТЬ АРХЕТИПНИХ ОБРАЗ1В ЯК 1НСТРУМЕНТ ПОЛ1ТИЗАЦП СУЧАСНОГО ДИГ1ТАЛЬНОГО МИСТЕЦТВА

Анотащя. Проаналiзовано феномен диптального медiамистецтва як за-собу масово! комушкаци. Визначено взаемозалежшсть 3aco6iB художнього вираження диптального мистецтва i сучасних технологш передачi i збер^ гання шформаци. Це дае змогу розглядати феномен диптального медiамис-тецтва як штегровану частину системи засобiв масово! комушкаци, що знач-но посилюе потенщал наративного впливу. Розглядаються форми взаемоди мистецтва i полггики на прикладi переосмислення архетишв за допомогою засобiв художнього вираження. Шдкреслюеться ключова роль оргашзаци процесу самовдентифжаци для встановлення полiтичного контролю i мiсце засобiв масово! комунiкацi! в цьому процесс На прикладi комп'ютерних iгор вивчаеться процес трансформацi! засобiв масово! комунiкацi! в самодостат-нш об'ект мистецтва. Проведено класифiкацiю комп'ютерних ^ор залежно вiд iнструментiв наративного впливу. За допомогою принцишв теори коду-вання визначаеться, що вiртуальний простiр комп'ютерно! гри за допомогою штерактивносп iгрового процесу перетворюе будь-яю повiдомлення корис-тувача, створенi в рамках зворотного зв'язку, в симулякри, тобто робить !х беззмютовними. Це дае змогу розглядати комп'ютерну гру як iзольований канал комунiкацi!. Наявшсть iзольованого iнформацiйного каналу з одно-стороннiм вiртуальним моделюванням соцiально! реальности прообразом якого е сучаснi комп'ютерш iгри, дають змогу вiдродити давш практики манiпуляцi! архетипами, але з можливостями техшки XXI ст. Зазначаеть-ся, що спроби використання потенщалу феномену медiамистецтва як засобу масово! комушкаци в полггичних цiлях носять ситуативний характер i пояс-

нюються швидше рекурсивним характером взаeмозумовленостi мистецтва i полiтики. Полiтичнi iнститути наразi не розглядають вiртуальну реаль-шсть комп'ютерно! гри як ефективний зааб полiтичного контролю, а саму комп'ютерну гру як окремий засiб масово! комушкацп.

Ключовi слова: засоби масово! комушкаци, iдеологема, пропаганда, ар-хетишчш образи, медiамистецтво, дигiтальне мистецтво, комп'ютерш iгри, полiтичний контроль, синтез мистецтв.

ИНТЕРАКТИВНОСТЬ АРХЕТИПИЧЕСКИХ ОБРАЗОВ КАК ИНСТРУМЕНТ ПОЛИТИЗАЦИИ СОВРЕМЕННОГО ДИГИТАЛЬНОГО ИСКУССТВА

Аннотация. Анализируется феномен дигитального медиаискусства как средства массовой коммуникации. Определяется взаимозависимость средств художественного выражения и современных технологий хранения и передачи информации. Это позволяет рассматривать феномен медиаискус-ства как интегрированную часть системы средств массовой коммуникации, что значительно усиливает потенциал нарративного воздействия. Рассматриваются формы взаимодействия искусства и политики на примере переосмысления архетипов с помощью средств художественного выражения. Подчеркивается ключевая роль организации процесса самоидентификации для установления политического контроля и место средств массовой коммуникации в этом процессе. На примере компьютерных игр изучается процесс трансформации средств массовой коммуникации в самодостаточный объект искусства. Проводится классификация компьютерных игр в зависимости от инструментов нарративного воздействия. С помощью принципов теории кодирования определяется, что виртуальное пространство компьютерной игры посредством интерактивности игрового процесса, превращает любые сообщение пользователя, созданные в рамках обратной связи, в симуля-кры, т. е. обессмысливает их. Это позволяет рассматривать компьютерную игру, как изолированный канал коммуникации. Наличие изолированного информационного канала с односторонним виртуальным моделированием социальной действительности, прообразом которого являются современные компьютерные игры, позволяют возродить древние практики манипуляции архетипами, но с возможностями техники XXI века. Попытки использования потенциала такого средства массовой коммуникации, как компьютерная игра в политических целях носят ситуативный характер и объясняются скорее рекурсивным характером взаимообусловленности искусства и политики. Политические институты пока не рассматривают виртуальную реальность компьютерной игры как эффективное средство политического контроля, а саму компьютерную игру как отдельное средство массовой коммуникации и разновидность дигитального медиаискусства.

Ключевые слова: средства массовой коммуникации, идеологема, пропаганда, архетипические образы, медиаискусство, дигитальное искусство, компьютерные игры, политический контроль, синтез искусств.

Formulation of the problem. In the

political process the art objects are always seen as instruments of the political control and are an effective means of managing the mass consciousness. The main task of using these tools depends on the formation of appropriate (for the political process) evaluation judgments in relation to the social reality on the part of the citizens. The key to achieving this goal is to create markers of the political identity by giving the political meanings of the widespread archetypal images.

Examples of the use in the political reality of the archetypes transformed through the means of artistic expression can be found in any kind of art: from the painting of ceramics, as the oldest variety of decorative and applied art, and ending with the role of architecture in the culture of totalitarianism [1].

However, since the 1970s, we have been observing the process of forming a fundamentally new phenomenon of "art in politics" or "politics in art", which is caused by the transformation of the mass media (hereinafter — the media) into mass media communication (hereinafter — the MMC) and related to the development the computer networks [2]. Unlike the classic communications channels like television, radio, periodicals, New Media exploits a model of engaging the users in the very process of the communication (such as participatory journalism), which fundamentally changes their place and role in the political process.

Analysis of the recent research and publications. These issues have only recently begun to be widely discussed on the pages of the leading internatio-

nal periodicals. Among its active developers are N. Guernham (considering new media as a medium and space for the creative industries), J. Aiello (focusing on the visual communications in the contemporary media culture), L. Kandy and E. Edmonds (exploring the creative potential of the interactive communications), H. Pocheptsov (distinguishes the semiotic aspect in the functioning of the MMC), S. Jones and E. Volp (analyze the mechanisms of identification in the social networks), and others. Developing this theme, Z. Papacharissi in his work "Network Personality: Identity, Community and Culture in the Space of the Social Networks" [3] calls the phenomenon of self-identification a key problem for the effective functioning of the MMC.

However, due to the fact that the technical capabilities of the MMC, as a tool for exercising the political control, have become available only since the 1990s, this phenomenon is still poorly understood: no separate area of knowledge has been formed, all the studies are interdisciplinary, the terminological base is not yet clearly defined. In particular, little attention has been paid to the study of the computer games as a means of mass media communication and tools for influencing the political consciousness.

The purpose of the article. The purpose of this article is to identify the specifics of the computer games as a kind of contemporary art and to determine on this basis the mechanisms of the politicization of the digital space.

Outline of the main research material. Based on the essence of the problem and the given purpose, it is convenient to define the typological structure of

the MMC within the framework of the semiotics and informatics by the following criteria: 1) depending on the form of expression of the essential meaning of the message as a phenomenon on the level of consciousness chosen for perception; 2) by the method of encoding the form of the essence of the phenomenon of the message; 3) by the method of organizing the feedback cycles with the consumer information in accordance with the environment of communication and decoding of the original message. Let us consider each of these criteria separately.

1. In the context of the first criterion (dependence of the form of the essence of the phenomenon of the message on the level of consciousness selected for perception), it can be argued that, as a rule, the symbolic-semantic elements of the public consciousness are used to broadcast the archetypal essence of the message: ideologems — for the political; mythologemes- for the cultural consciousness, etc. (See Table 1).

It should be noted that this aspect of the problem is fairly well understood. Of particular interest, within the scope of this article, is the work of Giorgio Aiello, "Theoretical Achievements of the Critical Visual Analysis: Perception, Ideology, Mythology, and Social Semiotics" [4].

2. According to the second criterion (the method of encoding the form of the essence of the phenomenon of the

message), which closely matches the basic principles of the semiotics and coding theory, the art is a tool for solving a number of problems:

a) transforms, by the means of differentiation, complex semantic constructions into accessible artistic images;

b) creates a single structure of the semantic codes that guarantee the uniqueness of the decoding of the artistic images by the recipient of the message;

c) provides encryption of the semantic codes to make it impossible to decode a message to a "stranger", which, for example, is the basis of the various subcultures. (This "inverse" function of the art will not be considered in this article.).

This coding process can be seen from the example of the Hubert Lan-singer's famous artwork "The Standard Bearer", which became the aesthetic and ideological manifesto of the Nazi Germany. The archetypal image of the "messiah" is a leader with a flag indicating the direction or purpose shrouded in the armor of the European mythologeme of the "Teutonic Knight" and actualized, in the contemporary for the artist, in the national political discourse, through the mediation of the political person — Adolf Hitler. And the NSDAP flag, ruling in Germany since 1933 as a political symbol, serves as the identity marker for the recipient of the message. (See Fig. 1).

Table 1

Broadcast trajectories of the archetypal essence of the information message

ideologeme

<

archetype

mythologeme

Fig. 1. Hubert Lansinger's "The Standard Beare", 1935

The encoding of the meanings is carried out by the means and techniques of the artistic expression, which are classified according to their belonging to certain types of arts: fine, spectacular, expressive. The synthesis of the arts allows you to extend the variability of the unambiguous meaning coding. The synthesis of the arts in this case should be understood as a means of compiling the means and techniques of the expression of the artistic image. (For example, literature, music, painting and graphics all give us theatrical art). Hence, the higher the degree of the interpenetration of the means of the artistic expression in the object of art, the greater the opportunities for influencing the formation of the evaluative judgments in relation to the social reality by the recipient of the message.

Thus, the pinnacle of the synthesis of the classical arts is circus, theater and silent cinema, which still belongs to the art of fine arts. The release of Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator", the first fully-fledged soundtrack

to usher in a new era of the mass art, is indicative in this regard.

From the mid-20th century to the advent of the computer networks, the cinema was the dominant type of the art synthesis. The further development of the technical means of delivering messages has led to the emergence of new ways of syncretic unity of the means of the artistic expression, nowadays called the media art (New Media Art) or digital art.

In the Table 2. the evolution of the classical forms of the art under the influence of the modern media technologies is presented.

The key influence of the process of the development of the means of communication for the effective exercise of the political control was formulated successfully by H. Pocheptsov: "Every time the arrival of new media is accompanied by the efforts of the state to "conquer" them, returning to the existing distribution of the power in the society and the state. Social media (primarily Twitter) is creating a new version of the mass media — the so-called public journalism. Among the founders of Facebook, in particular, is the CIA Venture Fund" [5].

3. According to the third criterion (a method of organizing the customer feedback cycles), the communication environment is formed and the original message is decoded.

A key feature of media art is the interactivity of the objects of the latter. This makes it possible to use the feedback cycles themselves as artistic means, sometimes turning them into independent objects of the mass culture (for example Instagram). The communication of the "author" of the

The evolution of the classical forms of the art influenced by the modern media technologies

Table 2

main classical forms of the synthetic art: theater, variety, circus.

Motivational functions of the art Modern forms of the media art:

main modern forms of the synthetic art: cinema, video games, media.

Classification of classical forms of art by F. Hegel:

poetry music painting sculpture architecture

digital literature. hypertext audiobook. electronic music track and procedural art computer graphics digital photography animation rendering 3D computer modeling. light art 3D printing digital architecture virtual reality system architecture: "smart city"

message and its recipient is understood in the context of the phenomenon of self-identification, which makes the art an integral part of the MMC.

For the arts as a whole, the problem of identification is solved in the categories of archetype that take appropriate forms depending on the function required. Thus, to influence the religious consciousness, the archetypes in the message structure take the form of a mythologemes. In this case, the feedback cycles are organized as mysteries, carnivals, the sacrament of the Eucharist and others.

In the political consciousness, the archetype is consumed as an ide-ologeme: leader, freedom, revolution and so on. Coronation, inauguration, elections, demonstrations are examples

of the organization of the feedback cycles in the political reality (See Fig. 2).

By analogy with the synthesis of the arts, the synthesis of the archetypes allows us to improve the perception of the essence of the phenomenon of a particular message.

The main tools of such synthesis, and hence the organization of self-identification, were, until the advent of radio and television, as the first means of media art exclusively, an administrative resource and a holiday [6]. In both cases the individual was regarded as homo ludens.

In this regard, the work of Roy Ascot "Interaction: Art, Research and Creative Practices" [7], in which the author examines in detail the process of deepening the integration of the art

Fig. 2. November 7, 1941, Kuibyshev. Demonstration after the parade

into the technical infrastructure that supports the consumption of the culture, is noteworthy. Based on his observations, we conclude that the technical means of demonstrating the objects of the art and consumption of the mass culture have come a long evolutionary path: from bonfires and amphitheaters to television and the Internet. This leads to compulsory publicity and total de-identity of the individual. The social networks related to telephone numbers, personal and banking information require the modern man to be homo ludens constantly, transforming the behaviour not only of his virtual personality, but also of the real one. This, in turn, leads to the fact that the modern society no longer makes a distinction between them (C. Jones, E. Volp [8]).

The phenomenon of escapism, an episodic flight into another reality with the overflowing information of the social reality, is also being carried out today through the digital means. The inoreality takes the form of virtual

reality. And its most complete digital form is a computer game (hereinafter referred to as CG). Paradoxically, this type of media art, as a channel of communication, has the greatest potential to influence the consumer of information, and at the same time, is the least used means of the political control. The analysis of the CG as a MMC suggests that the politicization of the archetypal images and the use of ideologemes in it is sporadic. In our view, this is explained by the recursive nature of the interdependence of the politics and art.

Let us consider the CG communication tools as a digital model of the semantic space.

Firstly, as a result of the synthesis of all the types of media art, the computer games allow the use of any artistic instruments of the narrative influence.

Secondly, the computer game distinguishes the saturation of the consumption process. The user spends from tens to tens of thousands of hours in the virtual space of the CG. This allows the CG to be regarded as an isolated MMC. The key role of isolation of the communication channels for the political control is shown, for example, by H. Pocheptsov [9].

Thirdly, the close connection with the social infrastructure (education, subculture, work) causes the relaying of a computer-generated political-ethical paradigm into the real world.

To analyze the ways of the narrative influence, let us consider the typology of the video games by the main genres. There are types of the CG, such as: adventure; action; strategy.

The Adventure CG is based on a story. Most successful projects in this genre are built around a finished li-

terary work that makes the gameplay interactive. A classic example is the Witcher series from the Polish studio CD Project, based on the A. Sapkovsky saga "The Witcher". The game, following the writer's books, exploits the archetypes in the form of mythologemes, but without taking into account the actual political reality. Thus, in contrast to the general policy of tolerance in the political space of the European Union, the user is promptly invited to associate himself with the mutually contradictory archetypes of the "mercenary" and the "hero". Having learned from a biological mutation as a child, the protagonist is endowed with supermasculine qualities — not only corporeal but also behavioural, which is the basis for the concept of supremasism as the ideological foundation of the semi-sectarian organization to which the hero belongs. In the virtual space of this CG is the fantasy world, outlined by the aesthetics of the Middle Ages, is filled with scenes of domestic violence, mass executions, and destruction as a result of the political intrigues. And this world order should be taken as a given by the user. Perhaps the only ta-

boo opportunity to turn the world into the "worse side" that a player has taken away from is the killing of children (although in the late 1990s such functionality could be observed in a number of computer games (see Fig. 3).

The user, deprived of the opportunity to adapt the character behaviour of his "avatar" to the modern categories of the ethics, remains to conclude: the main "monster" — this is not a monster of the Slavic mythology, which constantly have to fight in the virtual space, but the man, the player.

In the Mass Effect series of BioWare Studio games the actual ethics are not ignored, but rather used to actualize the literary archetypes. The personification of the protagonist is related solely to the behavioural aspects, and the archetypes of "the hero", "the chosen", "the warrior" stated in the plot are purely formal. The main focus of the story is the image of the antagonist as an ancient, depersonalized evil, archetyped as "precursor", "titanium". The integration of the user in the designated narrative is achieved by the immersion in a rich gameplay. Therefore, the key archetypes are abstract

Fig. 3. "Kill Counter" category and description of character "Features" in the Fallout 2 computer game (developed by Black Isle Studio)

symbols. For example, the "dome" is represented by the "Normandy" spacecraft, which is a haven for the player and his team. The latter should be seen as a "family", where the establishment of the romantic relationships, imitation of the active social interaction between the crew members is a significant part of the gameplay and influences the development of the story. The plot is built around a confrontation between the collective "David" and the cosmo-gonic "Goliath" that cannot be defeated without the help of the procedural-ly generated comrades. The gameplay details of the space travel between the star systems form an important part of the gameplay that exploits the "road-to-home" archetype. "The Last Battle" takes place on the ruins of a "lost paradise" — on Earth, the cradle of the human civilization. These archetypes are actualized through the contemporary social and ethical issues such as gender identification, racism, confrontation of the science and religion, forced migration, human rights, the threat of the artificial intelligence, and more.

Using a different typological structure of the archetypes, the adventure

computer games are interactive animated literature that can hold a user's attention to a broadcast narrative for hundreds of hours.

Another kind of CG is the action. The action is a CG genre with a distinctly entertaining function. Endowed with a limited plot, requiring active participation in a rich gameplay, the games of this genre are interactive cinema that appeals to the aesthetic level of the consciousness of the user. The problem of identification of the player is solved without complicated work with the archetypes, but at the expense of interactivity of the secondary references to their forms. Thus, Activision's Call of Duty series puts us in the ready-made paradigms of World War II, where we grapple with the established perceptions of the Japanese, German, assuming the role of "typical" American or Soviet homeland defenders (See Figure 4).

In another part of Call of Duty: Black Ops dedicated to the Cold War the player is offered to eliminate Fidel Castro during a landing in the Bay of Pigs, try to disrupt North Vietnam's "TET Offensive" and participate in

Fig. 4. Call of Duty: World at War. The Vendetta storyline in detail mimics the aesthetics of the Jean-Jacques Anno's movie "The Enemy at the Gate"

a Space Race by blowing up a Union rocket-2 at the Baikonur launch pad. The aesthetic merits of the CG in this series make the users return to the same storylines and characters over and over again.

Created by the fans of Half-life (developer and publisher of Valve) in 1999, the modification of the cult game has not lost popularity in 20 years. Counter-Strike has evolved into a sub-culture of eSports, and Valve has become the world leader in the cyberentertainment industry with its digital gaming service Steam and billiondollar eSports (The International CG Dota 2 Tournament).

Strategies: CG genre with the greatest relative freedom of the action of the player. It is in the space of the programs in this genre that the neural network (Dota 2) is trained [10]. Technically, the computer programs of this genre were the first, representing a system of mathematical puzzles — "game mechanics". The user, in such a game, takes the place of a "demiurge" or "spirit of the history", the power of which is limited only by the laws of the procedural generation of the virtual world. The main means of ensuring the gameplay of this type of the CG is the most interactive display of the conditions of the mathematical problems, the course of their solution and the result of the operations. This is achieved through animation, visualization, widespread implementation of the hypertext in the interface. All this eventually led to the design of interfaces in a separate field of art.

The plot of the game is to describe the archetypal conflict. As a rule, these are eternal literary subjects: "the death

of the gods" (Tiberium Sun), "the end of the history" (Total War: Warhammer, StarCraft), "coming back home" (Homeworld). Some computer games offer the user the ability to rewrite the history where the plot defines only the historical entourage of the gameplay (Europa Universalis, Civilization). The process of the self-identification consists of choosing the side of the conflict, and then the player himself becomes the author of a fascinating story.

The competition in solving math puzzles in a single-player (human-computer) game is usually a pre-race training session with the other users. It is in multiplayer mode that the game gives the deepest possible degree of immersion in the virtual environment of the game program of this genre, turning each match into a "battle of the titans".

Let us consider the self-identification methods for the computer games, depending on the genre:

The competitive character of the gameplay is a key factor in the process of identification of the user in the virtual space, and narration algorithms have the greatest influence. The latter are a message sequence related to the results of the user operations within the game mechanics, expressed in a form that corresponds to the visualization of the aesthetic paradigm of the CG. Combining all the above methods of organizing the user self-identification allows to maximize the impact on the player's consciousness.

The first attempts to unlock the potential of the competitive self-identification were the publication of the updated "ladder tables of the players" where the users competed with each other in absentia. Today, this mecha-

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Table 3

Mechanisms of organizing the process of the self-identification in a computer game, depending on the genre

adventure

action

strategy

story algorithm: animation and visualization of the narrative influence

organization of the aesthetic perception: integration into the gameplay of the semantic code of the mass culture accessible to deciphering

competitive nature of the gameplay, that assumes that there are parties to the conflict whose choice triggers the process of the self-identification

nism has become the cornerstone of the video game industry, where it has taken the form of a multiplayer online game.

This article will not address the problem of expanding the target audience of the game by increasing the number of the game mechanics, which is the primary concern of the developers from a marketing point of view. In spite of this, the given data is sufficient to establish the dependence: the more variations of the self-identification, the more hours a person spends in the game, and the higher the replayability of the latter.

The concept of the "perfect game" technically implements the phenomenon of the self-identification as follows: a) competitive moment — obliges the game to be multiplayer, all the player information is stored on the server of the game developer / publisher and fully controlled by the latter; b) problems of the aesthetic perception — require the contemporary CG elements of at least augmented reality; c) storytelling algorithm — must be integrated into the competitive element, so that everyone has the opportunity to interfere with the "history" of the other players (from PvP to the open world of Death-Standing).

Another important characteristic of the CG as a mass media communication is the saturation of the consumption process. The longest adventure computer games may require up to 40 hours of the game time to study the story. What is more, you can find Steam accounts running thousands of hours in a single game.

However, in our opinion, it is precisely the third specific trait of the CG as a MMC that includes it in the arsenal of the political influence. The close connection with the social infrastructure allows us to relay the existing political and ethical paradigm into the real world.

At the forefront of the social aspect of the CG phenomenon are phenomena such as targeted advertising, various social networking services, marginal public organizations and political movements [11]. In general, the novelty of this type of art explains the lack of sectoral legal regulation of this media industry. The consequence is the possibility of the existence in the virtual world of the CG archetypal, non-codified elements of morality, as for the developers and publishers of the CG self-censorship, embedded in the recursive nature of the art, plays a decisive

role in the choice of the storytelling algorithm.

In this regard, it is important to note that the CG, as a MMC, is an isolated channel of communication. That is, the message received by the user may be retransmitted beyond the game reality (screenshots, streams, tournaments), but the virtual reality management functionality available to the user has clear limitations in the gameplay procedures aimed at receiving messages by the user himself. Therefore, while in the virtual world, the user can only receive messages, rebroadcast, but not synthesize their own. That is, the user receives the message, decodes it, but his response-message is a simulator.

We believe that such a structure of communication is an ideal channel for propaganda and, accordingly, an effective tool for the political control that allows the users to be socially perceived in isolation.

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of the emergence of such a technical infrastructure in the policy information space. This becomes especially apparent when comparing the CG to the other next generation media. So, today, the space of the social networks is not an isolated channel of communication, even considering the determining influence of the network filters on the content of the displayed information. This toolkit allows the political entities to track and then analyze the nature of the online user activity. The ultimate goal is to determine the nature of the message, which will be deliberately uniquely decoded and endorsed by the latter, as could be seen in the run-up to the US (2016) and Ukraine (2019) election campaigns.

The presence of an isolated information channel with one-sided virtual modeling of the social reality, the prototype of which is the modern video games, allow to revive the ancient practices of manipulation of the archetypes, but with the capabilities of the 21th century.

Conclusions and prospects for further research. The analysis of the evolution of the modern political control means, from the standpoint of the possibility of using artistic images of the digital media art to encode essential values and their unambiguous decoding, will allow us to confirm the following.

In its means of the artistic expression, the media art is inseparable from the modern technical means of transmitting the information and becomes an integrated part of the mass media communication, which greatly enhances the potential of its narrative influence.

This leads to situations where the mass media communications become independent objects of art. The computer game, the most ambitious variant of implementation of this principle, is at the same time both a branch of art and a means of mass media communication.

As a result of the synthesis of the arts, the computer games have all the available means of the narrative influence that accumulate in the properties of replayability. From here, the user spends thousands of hours in the virtual reality, which is organized by just one digital art object.

Unlike mass media communication such as the social networks, the computer gaming is an isolated channel of

communication that gives the undeniable benefits of using its space as a propaganda tool.

Attempts to harness the potential of this mass media communication for political purposes are situational in nature and are explained more by the recursive nature of the interdependence of the art and politics. The political institutions have not yet considered the virtual reality of the computer game as an effective means of the political control, and the computer game itself as a separate mass media communication.

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