Christopher Noël
ABSTRACT:
This article aims to describe a new framework to think about the feelings of having a body in the context of digital games. By understanding how abstract thoughts stem from embodied experiences through phenomenology, the importance of the aesthetic experience of the body is highlighted as a source of meaning-making. From there, a delve into somaesthetics regarding the experience of being a specific body (or hexis) is used as a focal point both for thinking about existing games and to picture new types of interactions, in an effort to express more diverse and detailed somatic experiences. Subsequently, a brief analysis of two existing games: the virtual reality title Broken Edge, as well as Hand Simulator. Finally, we conclude with an explanation of our own design process, by demonstrating how the somaesthetics framework was used first analytically and how its insight informed practical applications in the context of our research-creation process.
KEY WORDS:
body, digital games, embodiment, estheme, somaesthemes, somaesthetics.
DOI:
10.34135/actaludologica.2025-8-1.98-116
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