Survival Horror and Its Remediations

Ewan Kirkland

Kingston University, London, ekirklanduk@yahoo.co.uk

This article uses Bolter and Grusin's notion of remediation to explore analog media technologies—cinema, photography, cartography, television, and radio—in digital horror videogames. Such moments illustrate what Lister et al. term the "technological imaginary" of both old and new media technological imaginary of both old and new media. Old media technologies contribute a sense of the real perceived as lacking in digital media, yet central to a generically-significant impression of embodiment. Critical theorization of these forms within media studies illuminate their function within digital video game texts; such processes illustrating the cultural, institutional, and aesthetic meanings and mythologies of both analog and digital media, while continuing traditional use of media technologies within discourses of horror and the supernatural.

Key Words: analog • digital • film • horror • remediation

Be sure to check out the accompanying website for Lister et al's book. Worthy of comparison to the Matt Hanson piece previously featured on this blog. Note though that this blog has also featured extensive critique of the "mechanical bride" thesis, and from what I can see in the video produced by the authors, they are more willing than me to play along with that and other cognate "postmodern" work. There may still be some value in the book, but not having yet read it, I'm in no real position to compare it with masterpieces of the sort produced by Frank Webster or Judith Wajcman. So for now at least, I will have to keep my suspicions to myself....