Paper short abstract:

This paper explores drawing as a tool for examining the construction of virtual game worlds. By translating dynamic game spaces into static works, I argue the draughtsman becomes similar to Flusser's 'black box,' distancing oneself from a virtual space while simultaneously transcribing it manually.

Paper long abstract:

The role of drawing in transcribing and codifying the world around us possesses a long history, yet our conception of the world increasingly intermingles with all the various digital infrastructures and virtual spaces we inhabit daily. This paper will demonstrate my research into the use of hand drawing as a method for understanding and examining the composition of virtual video game worlds, to elucidate the logics that structure them. Despite the size and popularity of video games as a medium, the vast majority of cartographic and transcriptive drawing practice tends to reside in fan-made works rather than academic studies. As I will argue, this means that studying game spaces through drawing encompasses both the morphology of the game world, and a form of ethnographic recording of the marks made in digital worlds by players. I will draw from games theorist John Sharp's studies into games-based arts practice to argue that hand drawing constitutes a 'distancing' process that allows us to shed new light on the composition of virtual spaces by reframing them through new aesthetic regimes and working practices. I will also explore Vilém Flusser's notion of the 'black box' to compare my practice as a draughtsman in the production of drawings to the continuous rendering of frames by a virtual camera. I will conclude that my transcriptive drawings of virtual game spaces show traditional methods and protocols of architectural representation can create new insights into the spaces and communities that underpin the digital worlds that millions regularly dive into.