This is How You Will Die

Last updated
This is How You Will Die
Author Jason Nelson
LanguageEnglish
Genre Digital poetry, art game, electronic literature
Publication date
2006
Website http://www.digitalcreatures.net

This is How You Will Die is an interactive digital poetry and art game created by Jason Nelson, a new media artist, digital poet, and lecturer. Released in 2005, the game combines elements of poetry, digital art, and chance-based mechanics to explore the concept of death and the unpredictability of life. The work has been praised for its innovative approach to digital poetry and its thought-provoking content.

Contents

The work enacts a slot machine predicting how the reader will die, and has been described as "an aleatoric gambling machine predicting the cause, nature, and aftermath of the player's death." [1] Leonardo Flores writes that the "playful interfaces and darkly humorous tone serve as a kind of sugar coating for serious themes and personal exploration". [2] Scott Rettberg argues that "the combinatory element is effective here because the arbitrary nature of the random element is, in fact, no less arbitrary, and no less absurd, than mortality itself." [3]

Reception

The work has been taught at a number of universities, [4] [5] has been the object of a number of scholarly interpretations, [6] is frequently mentioned in discussions of new media art, [7] and has also received attention from mainstream media. [8] [9]

Awards

The work won the First Panliterary Award for Web Art from the literary journal Drunken Boat. One of the judges, Talan Memmott, described it as "a thorough example of the power of inference through an integrated use of media technologies and methods of signification". [10]

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References

  1. ↑ Ensslin, Astrid (2014). Literary gaming. Cambridge, Mass. p. 129. ISBN   978-0-262-32203-4. OCLC   877868242.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. ↑ Flores, Leonardo (2012-02-27). ""This Is How You Will Die" by Jason Nelson". I ❤️ E-Poetry. Retrieved 2023-03-15.
  3. ↑ Rettberg, Scott (2019). Electronic literature. Cambridge, UK. p. 46. ISBN   978-1-5095-1677-3. OCLC   1028213515.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. ↑ "This is How You Will Die | Digital Rhetoric and New Media". samplereality.com. Retrieved 2023-03-15.
  5. ↑ "Eng. 335-01 Reflection #4 – Cody A. Peters". 3 February 2018. Retrieved 2023-03-15.
  6. ↑ Heckman, Davin (2010). "Inside Out of the Box: Default Settings and Electronic Poetics". Dichtung Digital. Journal für Kunst und Kultur digitaler Medien. 12 (1): 1–17. doi:10.25969/mediarep/17736.
  7. ↑ Ryan, Marie-Laure (2014). "Randomness". The Johns Hopkins guide to digital media. Marie-Laure Ryan, Lori Emerson, Benjamin J. Robertson. Baltimore. p. 420. ISBN   978-1-4214-1225-2. OCLC   875894435.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  8. ↑ "It's All Fun Until Someone Loses: E-lit Plays Games". HuffPost. 2013-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-15.
  9. ↑ Meier, Allison (2013-05-31). "Score! A Game of Hollow Victory Feeds Our Need for Reward". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2023-03-15.
  10. ↑ Memmott, Talan (2006). "Judge's Comment". Drunken Boat. Retrieved 2023-03-15.
  1. ↑ Heckman, Davin (2010-03-12). "This Is How You Will Die | Electronic Literature Directory". Electronic Literature Directory. Retrieved 2023-03-15.
  2. ↑ "This is how you will die | ELMCIP". elmcip.net. Retrieved 2023-03-15.
  3. ↑ "This is How You Will Die - Rhizome Artbase". artbase.rhizome.org. Retrieved 2023-03-15.
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