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GAME DESIGN AND THE ONTOLOGY OF THE IMPOSSIBLE // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2022. Issue 3 (33). P. 39-52

In modern philosophy, the topic of “ontological turn” and “impossible reality” is relevant. The author considers this situation in a semiotic way. The object of the research is the search for a symbolic environment representing the “Impossible”. The author analyzes the specifics of the presentative language (non-discursive sign systems) and specifically digital imagery. The assumption is substantiated that the desired symbolic mediation with the “Impossible” can be found in this area. The author makes an assumption about the pragmatic effect of this communicative situation. This effect is associated with the possibility of an ontological “update”: the formation of new conditions for the intelligibility of experience. Further, the author discusses the heuristic potential of computer games as a model situation of contact with the “Impossible”. Based on the analysis of 4D Toys and Miegakure, the author proposes a sketch of the ontology of 4D-spatiality. She discusses the possibility of an “open ontology" and the heuristic potential of "building up" transcendental possibilities. At the same time, the author questions the previous understanding of “peculiarity” and “selectivity” in the knowledge of the “beyond”: the experience of a virtuoso gamer allows us to update the idea of our abilities to overcome the boundaries of reality (for a gamer, the physics of a particular game world). This refutes the myth of the “perfect game”, just as glitch art refutes the myth of the “perfect signal”. It is no longer possible to contrast “signal” and “noise”, “game” and “glitches”. Thus, the article draws attention to an important pragmatic aspect of digital images and, as a result, substantiates the possibility of convergence of theoretical philosophical positions and the practice of game design as projects implementing an “open ontology”.

Keywords: ontology, “Impossible”, computer game, four-dimensional space, virtuoso gamer, visual experience, weird effect