The Computer Culture Reader Edited by Judd Ethan Ruggill, Ken S. McAllister and Joseph R. Chaney Cambridge Scholars Publishingwroye QA 769 C66 ‘The Compater Culture Reader ted by hud tan Ruggil Ken S. Messi, andZosphR. Chaney “Tie book fit published 2009 by ‘Cambridge Scholars Publishing 15 Angertoa Gardens, Newest, NES 2JA, UK stih Libary Cataloging in Pbleation Data Acatloge record fr hi book i avilable om the Bits Library Copyright © 2009 by Juda Ethan Rug, Ken S, McAllister, Joseph R. Chaney, tnd contours Allg for this Book reseed. No part ofthis book may be reproduce, stored in areieva stem, or rans, in any form or by any means, eleocig, mechanical, photocopying, recording or teri, without the prior penmision of the opyrigh wer. [SBN (10 1-84718-5568, ISBN (13) 781847185563 Dedication ‘This volume is dedicated t all the people who have presented their work ‘on computer culture atthe Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association American Culture Association Conference. You and your work make the ‘community what itis.Chapter Seven Aesthetic Reproduction in Japanese Computer Culture: The Dialectical Histories of Manga, Anime, and Computer Games Jennifer deWinter Inits October 2004 issue, Playboy published a series of photographs— ‘computer images, actually—under the feature ttle “Gaming Grows Up Unlike Playboy’s typical pictorial spread, this one depicted nude or nearly nude computer game icons suchas BloodRayne (from her eponymous game), Mortal Kombat’s Milena, Tekken's Nina, and meny others. Of course, ‘computer game characters have often left their pixilated environments fand appeared in the pages of gaming and hobbyist magazines, but such Vomes are dedicated to celebrating computer game culture, not purveying digital erotica. Increasingly, however, computer game icons and images are ‘ppearing in mass and computer culture via comic book spin-offs, movies, ‘merchandise, fan-created webpages that include stil frames and fan-fiction, magazines dedicated to single characters, advertisements selling everything from drinks to cars, and yes, even mainstream pornograptty. These icons and ‘mages are but one example ofthe influence and penetration of computer game aesthetics info computer and mass culture. Others include television tar commercials depicting game-like interfaces framing the ads;a Coca Cola commercial parodying the Grand Theft Auto frenchise; and music tracks that reference computer games, such as Lil’ Flip’s “Game Over,” whi ‘pases its beat and some ofits lyrics on Pac-Man, Notably, this a worldwide phenomenon: Lara Croft drinks Lucozade in Germany, while Pikachu flies fon the side of every Nippon Airways’ Bocing 747-400. “The ubiquity of computer geme aesthetics the world over call for grcatsr critical attention; aesthetic representations are slways situationally-bound ‘and culturally value-laden, As Ken S. McAlister argues, “the computer game ‘complex is dislectical, a complicated and ever-changing system constructed Gut of innumerable relationships among people, things, and symbols, all fof which are in tum connected to other vast dialectical systems” (2004, 16), Tracing the dialectical relationships that inform and shape computer ‘Acsthetic Reproduction in Japanese Computer Culture 109 ‘game aesthetics within global markets is a difficult but important task. In researching the rise of computer game aesthetics, scholars must attend to the local histories and cultures that give rise to certain artistic expressions in visual, audio, and linguistic representations of the world. This is not to say that global influences should be ignored in favor of local influences; rather, the production, cieulation, and consumption of texts act simultaneously in local and global contexts, and therefore both contexts demand attention simultaneously. This is especially true in computer cultures where, for example, a person can access websites created in China, linked to those in South Africa, and read in the US with the aid of a webpage translator. ‘As Immanuel Kant notes in Critique of Judgment, aesthetics provide 1 way of artistically rendering and representing the world of ideas and physical objects through general agreement ‘when [a man] putea thing on 2 pedestal and calls it beautft, he demands the same delight from others. He judges not merely for himself, but forall ‘men, and then speaks of beauty as if t wore a propery of things. Thus he ‘says that the hing is beautiful and it is not asi he counts on others agreeing ‘with him in his judgment of liking owing to his baving found them in suet ‘agreement on = number of occasions, but he demands this agreement of them. He blames them if they judge differently, and denies thers taste, hich he stil requires of them as something they ought to have; and o this extent itis not open to men to say: Every one has his own taste. This would be equivalent to saying that there is no Such thing as taste, ie. no aesthetic judgment capable of making a rightful claim upon the assent of all men. (1928, 52) ‘While useful in pointing out the necessity of agreement within an audience, Kant’s definition of aesthetic judgment relies heavily on a universal concept of beauty divorced from cultural differences, a concept presented as ahistorical, Aesthetics are defined when previous concepts of beauty and art are dialectically challenged by new technologies, philosophies, economic systems, class structures, and So on, raising a number of questions about the nature of art (Adorno 1997), As a means of artistic representation, aesthetics ae also mimetic, carrying within their endless resignifications a variety of cultural ideologies, belief systerns, aud institutional power (Taussig 1999). Itis difficult to define a single Japanese popular aesthetic, as each artist and era has @ different look. Scott McCloud (1994) argues that Japanese comic artis abstract and iconic, which allows audiences to identify with the characters and stories, Artistic styles have become synonymous with ‘a manga/anime/eomputer game style, such as large eyes, white skin, large j