Tobey Crockett, “The Computer as a Dollhouse [Exceprts]”

In Andy Clarke and Grethe Mitchell, eds., Videogames and art (Bristol, UK; Chicago: Intellect, 2007).

Dollhouse metaphor opens an avenue for discussing interactivity, digital media in relation to play, imagination, creativity – conjunction between games and art
Play as a creative, artistic act – aesthetics of play, emphathy
Long history of miniatures, models, enclosed spaces with cultural significance
Prefiguring screen entertainments
Automata, Wunderkammer, dollhouses (virtual)
“cabinet-like housing for complex machines with programmatic functions”
Playing with avatars, building worlds – dolls and blocks
Blurring of subject/object when playing one avatar among many (do something to differentiate oneself)
Identity construction in infants (substitute non-differentiated mother's breast with toy as transitional object)
Avatar/VW as transitional object for embodiment in cyberspace
“We use the avatar, like the baby uses the toy, to understand what is subject and what is object as we create our foundation about how [virtual world/cyberspace] reality works”
Avatar is inseparable from the VW as the place of transformational play
Must take place in a social (ie: multiplayer) context – presence of others (rather than human-computer interactions)
Zimmerman: interface as a (social) activity zone
Meta-gaming (Sims family albums, etc) – social context surrounding single-player games
Sims fan objects – dollhouse/doll furniture crafting (but what about the more sinister side of fan production as a marketing strategy?)
Pearce: “emergent authors”
“Participatory play”
Play in free-form VW as artistic self-expression – craft, decorative arts
Different kinds of VW; different kinds of dolls/toys (Barbie VS home-made ragdoll, etc.)
“lay authors are utilizing digital tools and digitized materials to self-express and, perhaps, coincidentally, subvert the status quo” (de Certeau, Practice of Everyday Life)
Escape/release
New technology prompts “urges towards a type of technologically mediated transendence”
Cyberspace/VW should be seen as practical, contemporary, everyday, “down here” social/public spaces, not “out there”
Computer as dollhouse – identity construction + imaginative empowerment
“Substantial social work” taking place in “seemingly innocuous realms of gameplay, persistent environments, MMOs, VW