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Retro Resonance: The Hauntological Power of Post-Retro Aesthetics in Video Games
- Date
- October 08, 2024
- Time
- 12:00 PM EDT - 1:00 PM EDT
- Location
- https://cdh.rula.info/newsletter/ (external link)
- Open To
- Open to All
- Contact
- Jason Boyd: jason.boyd@torontomu.ca
- Website
- https://cdh.rula.info/newsletter/ (external link)
As the mainstream game industry is starting to collapse under its unsustainable push for ever more hyperrealist graphics and complex gameplay, there has been a boom of smaller games bucking these trends by revisiting the past through the use of ‘retro’ pixel graphics. While the appeal of this aesthetic has been identified as nostalgic, Dr. Patrick R. Dolan (Communication & Culture) argues that there is a more progressive and political force at work: the hauntologic. Using the popular indie game Celeste (Maddy Makes Games, 2018) and the DIY gamemaking platform, Bitsy (Adam LeDoux, 2017) as examples, Dolan applies theories of affect and aesthetics to explore how retro-style games can reach beyond nostalgia to create a better gaming culture.
