Phil Solomon, Jameson and L.A. Noire

    I went to the screening of Phil Solomon’s work on Thursday. I’ve been very interested in seeing his work, since I’ve heard mention of him several times over the past few years because of my slight obsession with all things Grand Theft Auto, as well as with Rockstar Games in general. I’ve always been interested in the Grand Theft Auto franchise since GTA 3 came out, because it was the first time anybody had attempted to create a virtual urban space that gave you the freedom to do anything you want in a world that was as close to a representation of “reality” as had ever been possible. Having been a film major, I was interested in the ability to create interactive media, which had the same political potential as film, and which, in my opinion, Rockstar games had come pretty close to achieving with games like Manhunt, Bully, Red Dead Revolver, The Warriors and the GTA series. This youthful optimism, however, became slowly jaded over the years (as the reality of life set in) and I had to focus all of my time on school and work. I was pleasantly surprised, then, to find that GSU had invited Phil Solomon to show his films based on the games that I had wasted so many days of my life playing.
    Unforunately, because of work obligations, I didn’t get to attend any of the panels, but I did stay for the entirety of the screening and the Q&A session. One of the things I found particularly interesting was his comment on memory and its relation to the virtual space. He said that he noticed while playing the Grand Theft Auto games that he was able to memorize the layout of the virtual space (which turns to take, how to get to certain places) the same way that we are able to memorize the layout of actual space, although it was just a series of images being rendered in real time. I found this interesting because I had experienced the same thing, to the point where I knew my way around the game space just as well (if not better) than I knew my way around the streets in the real world.
    Another thing I found interesting was his mention of L.A. Noire (another Rockstar game), which I have read about and have been anticipating for a while. It’s sort of a film noire take on the video game medium and follows the story of a Los Angeles detective in the 1940s. After having read Jameson’s theories on pastiche and nostalgia films, this game fits right in with his assessment. The game, which is supposed to be a photographic recreation of the city of Los Angeles in the 1940s, shows a stylized historical representation of an earlier period in history, for which we have only have the ability represent through the period’s style in reference to our own point in time.