ART-TECH DEMO PRESENTATION

Toward a Science of Consciousness 2012

Loews Ventana Canyon Resort

WEDNESDAY APRIL 11, 2012

7:00-9:45 pm

                                   VIDEO GAME PLAY AND CONSCIOUSNESS

How the pervasive and ever growing immersion in video game play affects consciousness is the focus of this session. The presenters are contributors to a forthcoming edited book, Video Game Play and Consciousness.. The presenters, Denise Doyle, Eva Murzyn,     Greg Garvey, and Jeffery Martin, will summarize their work into consciousness and video game play. Preceding these presentations will be a brief overview of the video game studies research by the chair of the session, Jayne Gackenbach. Before implications for consciousness can be considered, the audience needs to understand the state of the field both from a design/development perspective and from a culture/personal effects perspective. Following these 20 minute presentations, there will be posters and information about gaming and consciousness with each presenter.

Jayne GACKENBACH          Denise DOYLE                  Eva MURZYN          Gregory GARVEY              Jeffrey MARTIN

The construction of human reality has been mostly attributed to human consciousness.  However, as suggested by the most recent neurobiological research, human reality appears to be a byproduct that is inextricably related to the human unconscious.  Human consciousness as a projection of the unconscious is especially relevant to the subject of technologically constructed virtual worlds. As these virtual world simulations of reality become more pervasive, they may cast significant light on the enigma of consciousness.  Individual difference variables studied as potentially representative of consciousness include presence and immersion in the virtual reality literature, absorption and flow in the psychological and communication studies literatures, and imagination and magic circle in the game studies literature.  All of which have been investigated as related to video game play. Indeed the idea of consciousness as tied closely to the notion of the construction of reality is oft noted in the field. These ideas are especially relevant to experiences in technologically constructed realms or virtual worlds. The most widely used, interactive and fully immersive experience of such virtual worlds is in video game play. Needless to say video game play has left the sofa in the basement where a teen boy sat and is now front and center in the family living room. Gaming has crossed all demographics, indeed the most rapid growing market is the casual gaming middle aged women. This engagement in interactive virtual worlds is not only limited to video game play, as life online takes various forms. But common to all these are increasing, and at times problematic, play patterns in contemporary society. The idea that such pervasive and ever growing immersion in virtual play affects consciousness seems obvious and is the focus of this workshop. The presenters are contributors to a forthcoming edited book, “Video Game Play and Consciousness”. Each presenter will summarize their work into consciousness and video game play. Preceding these presentations will be a brief overview of the video game studies research. Before consciousness can be considered as applied to gaming, the audience needs to understand the state of the field both from a design/development perspective and from a culture/personal effects perspective.

Interactive video games have become one of the most engaging forms of media today. Although video games are predominantly used as a form of entertainment, they are finding other application areas including education and training (serious games). The interactive and engaging nature of video games also makes them an ideal platform for creating experiences that facilitate personal transformation and psychological well-being (meaningful games). Conditioned behaviors and beliefs have a physiological basis and are related to and accessible through emotional stimulation and awareness. A video game situation engages the player's awareness and mind, while their real-time response, including the decisions they make within the game as well as their physiological reaction to the situation, reveals their conditioned behaviors and beliefs (worldview). By stimulating reflexivity in the player at critical moments, games can illuminate the relationship between thoughts, feelings, sensations in the body, and behavior. As players become increasingly aware of the nature of their underlying beliefs, change occurs. This chapter presents a conceptual overview and framework for developing meaningful games as well as several approaches for designers to use in creating positive psychological change and transformation, including: transformation through narrative, cultivating somatic awareness, medication through gameplay, directly inducing experiences through non-traditional video game technologies, and facilitating introspection.

Session participants will learn about the rapidly growing field of inquiry into video game play and how it applies to their interest in consciousness. College instructors, clinicians and researchers are increasingly being faced with the reality of pervasive time being spent by today’s youth in virtual reality. Some of the implications of this will be addressed herein.

Presenters:

Video Game Play and Consciousness: An Overview

              Jayne GACKENBACH  (Chair/Editor)

               Department of Psychology, Grant MacEwan University, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Transitional Spaces: Consciousness, Imagination and the Avatar-Mediated Experience

               Denise DOYLE  Senior Lecturer Digital Media, School of Art and Design, University of Wolverhampton, West Midlands, UK

Dreams and Video Game Play: Exploratory Research Into World of Warcraft Dreaming

              Eva MURZYN, University of Derby, School of Science, West Midlands, UK

Pushing the Boundary: Dissociation and Virtual Worlds

              Gregory GARVEY,  Director, Game Design Program, Dept. of Visual and Performing Arts, Quinnipiac University, Hamden, CT

Shifting Worldview Using Video Game Technologies                                                                                                                                   

             Jeffrey A.MARTIN, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University & Center for the Study of Non-Symbolic Consciousness HK