An argument that production tools shape the aesthetics and political economy of games as an expressive medium. In Making Games, Stefan Werning considers the role of tools (primarily but not exclusively software), their design affordances, and the role they play as sociotechnical actors. Drawing on a wide variety of case studies, Werning argues that production tools shape the aesthetics and political economy of games as an expressive medium. He frames game-making as a (meta)game in itself and shows that tools, like games, have their own "procedural rhetoric" and should not always be conceived simply in terms of optimization and best practices.
We live in an age where language and screens continue to collide for creative purposes, giving rise to new forms of digital literatures and literary video games. Towards a Digital Poetics explores this relationship between word and computer, querying what it is that makes contemporary fictions like Dear Esther and All the Delicate Duplicates—both ludic and literary—different from their print-based predecessors.
In recent years, poetry and video games have begun talking to – and taking from – one another in earnest. Poets, ever in pursuit of meaning, now draw inspiration from digital-interactive fantasy worlds, while video game developers aim to enrich their creations by imbuing them with poetic depth. This book investigates the phenomena of poem-game hybrids and other forms of poetic-ludic interplay, making use of both a multidisciplinary critical approach and the author’s own experiments in building and testing hybrid artefacts. What emerges is the suggestion of a future where reading and playing are no longer seen as separate endeavours, where the quests for sensory pleasure and philosophic insight are one and the same.
This is an entirely different garden book: a pattern book in which a score of landscapes and gardens are drawn, described, and analyzed not just as a bouquet of pleasures but as sources, lodes to be mined for materials, shapes and relationships, and ideas for transforming our own backyards. There is a universality about the creation of gardens across time and in diverse cultures that has inspired this entirely different garden book: a playful and affectionate typology of gardens; a pattern book in which a score of landscapes and gardens are drawn, described, and analyzed not just as a bouquet of pleasures but as sources, lodes to be mined for materials, shapes and relationships, and ideas for transforming our own backyards. The Poetics of Gardens is a celebration of places and the gardens they can become. Most of the 500 sketches, axonometric drawings, and photographs were created especially for this book. They explore the special qualities of places and the acts that can transform them into gardens. The authors discuss the qualities that create the promise of a garden the shapes of land and water, the established plants, the light and wind, the climate and show how these can be organized to give a place a special meaning. And they pay particular attention to the "rituals of habitation" by which we imaginatively take possession of places on the surface of the earth. The Poetics of Gardens examines great gardens made in other places, with other climates, at other times from ancient Rome to modem England, from Ball to Botany Bay, from the court of Ch'ien Lung to the magic kingdom of Walt Disney to explore their devices and record their images, scents, and sounds. The authors discuss the adaptation of the great garden traditions of the past to North American soil and call together the creators of these gardens to speculate about how their patterns and ideas can be appropriated, transformed, and composed into places that come alive for us.
The family response to the sudden deaths of the speaker's two young nieces is at the center of Catherine Barnett's award-winning first collection. This series of elegies records the transit of grief, observing with an unflinching eye how a singular traumatic event can permanently alter our understanding of time, danger, the material world and family. Marked by clarity and restraint, these lyric poems narrate a suspenseful, wrenching story that explores the depths and limits of empathy. “Living Room Altar” Except for the shirt pulled from the ocean, except for her hands, which keep folding the shirt, except for her body, which once held their bodies, my sister wants everything back now— If there were a god who could out of empty shells carried by waves to shore make amends— If the ocean saved in a jar could keep from turning to salt— She’s hearing things: bird calling to bird, cat outside the door, thorn of the blackberry against the trellis. "These heart-breaking poems of an all-too-human life stay as absolute as the determined craft which made them. There is finally neither irony nor simple despair in what they record. Rather, it is the far deeper response of witness, of recognizing what must be acknowledged and of having the courage and the care to say so." —Robert Creeley
A Game with the Mind to See What You Can Find reveals what is truly in the mind and heart of the reader. Through the exercises and examples carefully sequenced for progressive learning, one will experience both the why and how of the personal poetic experience. The instructive flow of A Game with the Mind leads the reader through the process of learning about one's innermost self. One will find the advantage of dealing with one's own adversities, emotions, or even successes in a way that will lead to solutions, understandings, and even revelations about oneself. The greatest difficultly about understanding the value of poetry lies in its most valued use. It is not to beautify speech as much as it is to learn of one's innermost thoughts pertaining to any situation that is emotionally, spiritually, or physically felt. The beauty of poetry comes through the illuminating voice of the inner self. This book leads one to this objective. The how of poetry seems to be the most elusive for the beginner. How or where does one begin and how does one continue. This book teaches a simple methodology for the beginner. It points the way to extract feelings from your mind and heart that you are unaware of. It creates an aha for the soul in seeing solutions to problems or finding peace through new understanding. In essence, this book is either a self-help book or an English teacher's textbook for poetry. The book progressively works through assignments from the simple basic poetry on toward most styles of poetry of the last two to three hundred years. It shows how these can be used today to express our varied feelings and emotions.
A collection of poems written by student poets for the Ongoing Poetry Game started By Modpo 2016 mentor James Ritter. Each week 10 words are offered to use in an original poem. The winner each week provides the 10 words for the following week, and so it continues. ModPo (Modern and Contemporary American Poetry, a MOOC from University of Pennsylvania offered on the Coursera platform). A MOOC is a Massive Open Online Course. ModPo is a fast-paced introduction to modern and contemporary U.S. poetry, with an emphasis on experimental verse, from Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman to the present.
What are the poetics of everyday life ? What can they teach us about God? Art, music, dance, and writing can certainly be poetic, but so can such diverse pastimes as fishing, skiing, or attending sports events. Any and all activities that satisfy our fundamental need for play, for celebration, and for ritual, says William Dyrness, are inherently poetic and in Poetic Theology he demonstrates that all such activities are places where God is active in the world. All of humanity s creative efforts, Dyrness points out, testify to our intrinsic longing for joy and delight and our deep desire to connect with others, with the created order, and especially with the Creator. This desire is rooted in the presence and calling of God in and through the good creation. With extensive reflection on aesthetics in spirituality, worship, and community development, Dyrness s Poetic Theology will be useful for all who seek fresh and powerful new ways to communicate the gospel in contemporary society. William Dyrness s bold invitation to a poetic theology shaped by Scripture, tradition, and imagination one luring us toward a fuller participation in beauty than argument or concept alone allow reminds us that truth itself is beautiful to behold and poetic to the core. . . . If poetry is in its deepest reflex an intensification of life, then Dyrness s call for a poetic theology is one we ignore at our peril, reminding us that faithful living is not only about proper thinking but also and, perhaps, more properly about the texture of our living and the quality of our loving. Mark S. Burrows Andover Newton Theological School Makes a strong case for aesthetics as one of the avenues used by God to draw human beings near to him and his glory. . . . A wonderful journey through Reformed spirituality and a wake-up call for Reformed theology. Cornelius van der Kooi Free University, Amsterdam
This book was originally submitted to the IT University of Copenhagen as a master's thesis in 2013 under the title of ""Games and Poetry: Player associations with poetic game experiences."" It explores the concept of the poetic videogame, a game that has an imaginative or sensitively emotional style of expression or effect on the player that, as a whole, is different from the kinds of experiences that shape the current videogame landscape. It offers a framework for the creation of poetic videogames by looking at one specific type of poetry; haiku. This is accomplished by applying the forms and conventions of haiku, such as its three elements; when, where, what, or the five-seven-five pattern, to videogames.
