The Aesthetics of Nier: Automata
November 26 @ 11:45 - 13:15
TeWi-Kolloquium
Tuesday, November 26, 2024 | 11:45 a.m. – 01:15 p.m. (CET) | Room: HS 10 | Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt
Ass.-Prof. Dr. Mirt Komel | Department of Cultural Sciences
Faculty of Social Sciences l | University of Ljubljana
Abstract: The lecture will present the aesthetics of Yoko Taro’s Nier : Automata (Square Enix, 2017), the culmination of the legendary DrakeNier series (encompassing the three Drakengard titles plus Nier : Replicant, Nier : Automata, and the mobile »gacha« game Nier : Reincarnation).If contemporary »quality art video-games«—by analogy to »quality art television«—are to be understood as artworks, than one most show how they inherited not only the modern but also the classical art-forms in developing their own aesthetical language in the function of interactivity, thus allowing us to baptize them as a veritable Ottava Arte. Thus, by taking as our starting-point the understanding of video-games as Gesamtkunstwerk (»total work of art«), encompassing all the previous classic and modern art-forms (architecture, sculpture, painting, music, dance, literature, film), we will focus on these aesthetical aspects of Nier : Automata, broken down into the technical elements of its: world-building (»architecture«), character-design (»sculpture«), level-design (»painting«), soundtrack (»music«), gameplay (»dance«), story-telling (»literature«) and, last but not least, the role of cut-scenes (»film«). The main underlining idea of this analytical endeavor is that Nier : Automata managed to attain not only a devoted cult status among its followers but also to make a name for itself in the pantheon of contemporary quality art video-games precisely because it managed to develop at its fullest all of the mentioned elements in order to provide an immersive interactive experience like no other, thus embodying the aesthetical ideal of a video-game Gesamtkunstwerk.
Bio: Mirt Komel, philosopher and writer, professor of modern philosophy and literature at the Faculty of Social Studies of the University of Ljubljana, currently also Head of the Department of Cultural Studies. Studied at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana, graduated at the Faculty of Social Sciences in 2005, and in 2010 obtained a PhD in philosophy at the Department of Philosophy of the Faculty of Arts. Researcher at the Centre for Cultural and Religious Studies (2006-), teaching assistant (2006-2012) docent-professor (2012-2024), now assistant-professor (2014-) at the Department of Cultural Studies. Also, been researcher at the Peace Institute of Ljubljana (2005-2023), member of the editorial board of the Časopis za kritiko znanosti (2007-2014), co-founder of the International Hegelian Association Aufhebung. Author of several scientific articles and scientific monographs (Twin Peaks and Postmodernism, An Attempt of a Touch, Socratic Touches, Discourse and Violence, Guillotine of the Spirit: Hegel and the French Revolution, The Language of Touch (ed.), etc.). Lately also author of The Eight Art: Aesthetics of Video-games (Osma umetnost : estetika videoiger).
Main areas of research is the study of political and social philosophy—especially Heglo-Marxism—Lacanian psychoanalysis and structural linguistics, but also specialized in haptic studies, balkan studies, comparative literature, and cultural studies of video games.
Proficient in Slovenian, English, Italian and French (acquired international certificates), passively in Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian, moderate in modern and ancient Greek.
