b'Video Games as Cyborg Performance Therefore, dolls, wax figures, and robots withgames development involved humans simulating human-likeness are often reported to conjure feel- robots, which were then mediatised into digital Joanna Goldsmith ings of unease, and remain popular topics withincopies, creating a highly complex and multifacet-discourse concerning the uncanny. In particular,ed cyborgean performance. As there was no set, In this dissertation excerpt, Joanna Goldsmith argues that video games are experiences and performances that transform theroboticist Mashihiro Mori published a high- accurate props or costumes which evoke character player into a cyborg through the players live, interactive and uncanny relationship with technology. ly influential essay in 1970, proposingthat inor environments during the recording process, climbing toward the goal of making robots appearthe actors and game developers required extensive human, our affinity for them increases until weimaginations to produce convincing performances. Since the creation of the worlds first videothe cyborgean existence. As a result, cyborgs arecome to a valley, notoriously described as the game, William Higinbothams Tennis for Two atboth entities and metaphors, living beings anduncanny valley (Mori, 2012:2). In order to avoidBenjamin Diebling, the shooting director, high-the Brookhaven National Laboratorys annu- narrative constructions (Santos & Valdivieso,this problem, Mori suggests that it is possiblelights the difficulty of such work as theres noth-al exhibition in 1958 (APS Physics, 2008), the2021:203), and actively defy definitions. Due toto create a safe level of affinity by deliberatelying there, and that objects like a camera would gaming market has become an international,the cultural, political, and scientific significancepursuing a nonhuman design (Mori, 2012:4).actually be a piece of cardboard, which can also multibillion-dollar industry. The digital innova- of the cyborg, its role in theatre and performanceWhilst this may seem counterintuitive, our acutebe a perfume (Diebling, 2020:1:50). As a result, tions of the last few decades have not only madeis also substantial. Attempting to disrupt andperception skills mean that once we discover flawsthe way in which an actor may perform though video games important arenas for technologicalexamine the interface between, the organic/syn- in the facial and physical details of a being wemotion capture is the closest in some ways to the advancement, but have also led to their impor- thetic binary (Parker-Starbuck, 2011:11), is theclassified as human, we begin to question wheth- way you played when you were a child, because tant contribution towards popular cultures acrossprimary role of cyborg theatre, and it is througher that being is actually alive, causing distress andeverything is happening imaginatively (Lambert, the globe, with games being adapted into featureinteraction and immersion that we are able toconfusion. As a result, the uncanny phenomenon2020:2:30). In one way, motion capture can be films and renowned actors donning motion cap- fully engage with the cyborgean truth of our con- is highly recognisable throughout the animation,described as a kind of make-believe performance ture suits to feature in the immersive, branchingtemporary experiences. Video games are a uniquemotion capture, film and video game industry. which maintains a clearly marked boundary narratives of the rapidly evolving gaming indus- example of cyborg performance as they oftenbetween the world of the performance and every-try. As a result of such developments, video gamesinvolve the documentation and curation of record- As the demand for highly immersive and visual- day reality (Schechner, 2013:43), as this recording have become increasingly performative, bothed performance, whether as culture, politics orly stimulating video games proliferates, motionprocess is transparent and does not attempt to intrinsically and relationally, and are now begin- through motion capture, in order to create realis- capture technology has been used to generatemaintain an illusion of reality. However, motion ning to emulate theatre through their powerfultic digital representations of live bodies and envi- increasingly realistic characters. Motion capturecapture can also be considered the bridge be-performative capabilities. The key elements ofronments. The cyborg is important as it can dest- works through cameras collecting physical datatween the make-believe and make-belief, which both video games and performance consist of ac- abilize various binaries: body/technology, able/from markers placed on an actors body and face,in contrast, intentionally blurs this boundary tions, interactions, and relationships (Schechner,disabled, even human/non-human (Parker-Star- which then relay onto a virtual 3D model (Tin- (Schechner, 2013:43). 2013:30), highlighting how the two are inexorablybuck, 2011:6), as modern technology continues towell, 2014:11). Not only is motion capture a form intertwined, and the importance of interactivityinfiltrate civilisations across the globe. In parallelof cyborg performance in itself, but its utilisationIt is through the make-believe performance of in a players engagement and immersion withinto the human/non-human distinction, the cyborgin the context of interactive video games furtherlive bodies in a studio, that a virtual, make-be-a game. I argue that video games are experiencesmay also exploit the familiar/unfamiliar binary ofheightens its uncanny and performative tenden- lief performance is created, consisting of avatars and performances, transforming the user into athe uncanny, which manifests itself through ourcies.which no longer represent a character, but are cyborg through their bodys live, interactive andrelationship with digital technology.their character in the digital world of the vid-uncanny relationship with technology, ultimatelyOne of the most comprehensive examples of howeo game. Not only are the characters simulated challenging modes of classification and what itThe uncanny, a term coined in 1906 by Ernstmotion capture can be involved in interactivethrough the powerful imaginative capabilities of means to be alive and mediatised in contemporaryJentsch, has a fundamental impact on our phys- gameplay is Quantic Dreams 2018 game, Detroit:the actors, but through technology, they are also society.ical and psychological video game experiences.Become Human. With most of the characters be- simulated into a virtual entity on an animators First identified as unheimlich or in English,ing portrayed by live actors in lycra suits, mo- computer, evoking the representation of rep-Described as a hybrid of machine and organism,unhomely by Jentsch, the uncanny was claimedtion capture was highly significant throughoutresentations of cyborg performance. In addition, a creature of social reality as well as a creatureto be conjured through doubt as to whether anthe development process. The game is set in thethe many cameras throughout the studio trans-of fiction (Haraway, 1991:149), cyborgs are tangi- apparently living being is animate and conversely,future, in a society where human-like robots areform the space into an extension of the computer ble and prevalent figures throughout mediatiseddoubt as to whether a lifeless object may not inused to fulfil various tasks and jobs, like that ofscreen, where live bodies wearing sensors are societies. In fact, Haraway argues that we arefact be animate (Jentsch, 1997: 11). Many othera housekeeper, shop assistant or cleaner. As theimmediately captured and transposed into perpet-all already cyborgs (Haraway, 1991:150), demon- theories have also been published, including theplayer switches between three differing androidual mediatised forms. Consequently, the studio strated by our relentless reliance on digital tech- work of Sigmund Freud in 1919, who assertedprotagonists, Kara, Markus and Connor, theycan also be considered a simulated cyborgean nology, such as the computer, where the mousethat the uncanny can be applied to anything thatmake important ethical decisions, such as wheth- stage or a hypersurface, where the real and the acts as an extension of the arm (Giannachi,was intended to remain secret, hidden away, ander or not the robot should deviate from their pro- virtual meet each other (Giannachi, 2004:95), 2004:1). However, it is also true that we are nothas come into the open (Freud, 2003:132). Thegramming, whether they should instigate violentand the actors are both materiality and rep-all literally cyborg: not all people can access andhighly social nature of the human species resultsor peaceful protests regarding the rights of theseresentation, both inside and outside the work of revel in technologies (Parker-Starbuck, 2011:40),in our heightened recognition, awareness andandroids, and whether to develop friendships withart (Giannachi, 2004:103), raising the question as highlighting the ambiguity and conditionality ofsensitivity towards the human face and body.other non-player characters. Consequently, theto when exactly the mediatisation of the actors be-70 71'