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Philosophical Connotations of the Visual Images of Demonstration Materials of the Witcher Game Series

https://doi.org/10.25281/2072-3156-2023-20-1-75-84

Abstract

The article considers a complex of philosophical connotations, imagery and mythologies demonstrated by promotional materials (trailers) of game projects of the Witcher series. Embodying the concept of myth-making in the space of audio-visualized arts of the information revolution era, they appear as a special form of visualized text and a way of expressing narratives.

Actualizing the problem of positioning promotional materials of game projects, the author focuses on the fact that the trailer and teaser of the game project, as a special cinematic tool (which is demonstrated in the article), have a broad imagery, bearing the “philosophy” of the project, which gives the game action meaningfulness and expediency.

The cinematic trailer, while maintaining its function of product positioning, is not only an independent work, but also a carrier of diverse and numerous archetypal constructions that form the mass consciousness (now once again tending to mythologization in the conditions of rejection of the classical postulates of rationalism). This, in turn, determines the design of the phenomenon of “new mythology”, which actively instrumentalizes “classical plots and imagery”, thereby demonstrating continuity in the spiritual development of human civilization.

Taking into account the fact that the trailer is a kind of quintessence of ideas that characterizes the basic features of a certain cluster of the mass culture information space, they can be interpreted as a techno-artistic phenomenon having a hybrid nature, demonstrating the transformation of cultural production within the framework of historical discourse. Thus, it demonstrates the process of transformation of the complex of stereotypical mental constructions of social organization, which, in the conditions of globalization, takes the form of an international category.

According to the author, this phenomenon manifests itself in a significant increase in the degree of mythologization of the modern multicultural tradition, which, in turn, leads to the formation of a new cultural paradigm based on the concept of providentialism. It, in turn, acts as a tool for analyzing the historical and cultural process based on the instrumentalization of previous experience, which is changing in the global discourse.

About the Author

Vladimir M. Ovchinnikov
Smolensk Regional Institute of Education Development
Russian Federation

20A, Oktyabrskoi Revolutsii Str., Smolensk, 214000, Russia

ORCID 0000-0003-0008-100X; SPIN 4846-6391



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Review

For citations:


Ovchinnikov V.M. Philosophical Connotations of the Visual Images of Demonstration Materials of the Witcher Game Series. Observatory of Culture. 2023;20(1):75-84. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.25281/2072-3156-2023-20-1-75-84

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ISSN 2072-3156 (Print)
ISSN 2588-0047 (Online)