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Tracing the Shape of Despair: Video Game Aesthetics and Actor-Network Theory in An Elephant Sitting Still

  • Xiaochu Wu

    Xiaochu Wu is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Film and New Media, School of Culture and Creativity, Beijing Normal University – Hong Kong Baptist University United International College. With an academic background in phenomenology, sociology, and film, her research bridges a networked approach to film studies and digital visual culture, with a keen interest in the formal analysis of affect in cinema. Her DPhil thesis Becoming Indie: The Making of Chinese Indie Cinema 2009–2019 examines the infrastructure and affective impact of Chinese indie cinema via the lens of actor-network theory. Currently, she is excited to explore the unique narrative capacities of video games as a separate visual medium.

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Published/Copyright: November 20, 2024
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Abstract

By positioning the camera as a central non-human actant, this study invites a comparison between the cinematic space in An Elephant Sitting Still and game space in video games. It argues that the video game experience and research on game world-building provides a novel perspective to re-examine the conventional relationship between spectators and characters in films as resembling the interactivity between players and avatars in video games. This study shows how the film’s use of depth of field isolates its human protagonists from the antagonists, and then how the camera’s movement, namely close tracking shots, alters both the portrayal of antagonists and, more crucially, reshapes the protagonists into “figureless avatars.” Ultimately, the article explores the potential for convergence between film and video game aesthetics, proposing an alternate video game ideology to allow an expanded theoretical framework that transcends the social realism often applied in Chinese film studies.


Corresponding author: Xiaochu Wu, Department of Film and New Media, School of Culture and Creativity, Beijing Normal University – Hong Kong Baptist University United International College, Zhuhai, China, E-mail:

About the author

Xiaochu Wu

Xiaochu Wu is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Film and New Media, School of Culture and Creativity, Beijing Normal University – Hong Kong Baptist University United International College. With an academic background in phenomenology, sociology, and film, her research bridges a networked approach to film studies and digital visual culture, with a keen interest in the formal analysis of affect in cinema. Her DPhil thesis Becoming Indie: The Making of Chinese Indie Cinema 2009–2019 examines the infrastructure and affective impact of Chinese indie cinema via the lens of actor-network theory. Currently, she is excited to explore the unique narrative capacities of video games as a separate visual medium.

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Received: 2024-02-23
Accepted: 2024-10-06
Published Online: 2024-11-20
Published in Print: 2024-12-17

© 2024 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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