A Play On Mortality

This project dives into the representation of death in video games and its reflection on real-life deaths. The idea is conveyed through a retro-themed editorial design and holography, highlighting the illusory and inconsequential nature of video game deaths and their censorship. Drawing inspiration from positive cultural attitudes towards death, this project encourages its audience to feel emotions through their experience. It examines death from various perspectives, using typology and censorship.

The outcome consists of a book that serves as an archive, documenting moments of death in over 130 different video games. They're sorted from least to most violent, immersing the audience in the gravity of death. Interspersed are pages of tracing paper with printed color blocks, acting as censorship for these deaths. Accompanying the book is a rationale brochure and a thesis, forming a book set housed in a case, reminiscent of retro cartridge game packaging. A set of glass hologram plates complement the project, enabling the audience to interact and view death-themed objects exposed onto the hologram films, thus completing the installation with the book set.

This project was showcased at the Postgraduate Shows 2023: Show Two at the London College of Communication in December 2023.