This thesis sets out to explore some of the ways in which videogames use space as a means of expression. This expression takes place in two registers: representation and embodiment. Representation is understood as a form of expression in which messages and ideas are communicated. Embodiment is understood as a form of expression in which the player is encouraged to take up a particular position in relation to the game. This distinction between representation and embodiment is useful analytically but the thesis attempts to synthesise these modes in order to account for the experience of playing videogames, where representation and embodiment are constantly happening and constantly influencing and shaping each other. Several methods are developed to analyse games in a way that brings these two modes to the fore. The thesis attempts to arrive at a number of spatial aesthetics of videogames by adapting methods from game studies, literary criticism, phenomenology, onomastics (the study of names), cartographic theory, choreography and architectural and urban formation analysis.

Magistro baigiamojo darbo tyrimo objektas yra didžiųjų Lietuvos prekybos centrų viešųjų erdvių estetika. Darbe tiriami šį objektą formuojantys veiksniai, vertinimo ir analizės kriterijai, istorinės, sociokultūrinės ir politinės aplinkybės, filosofinis, psichologinis ir menotyrinis jo vertinimas, santykis su šiandieninės globalios vaizdų kultūros tendencijomis. Didžiausias dėmesys darbe skiriamas septyniems didžiausiems Lietuvos prekybos centrams, kuriuos analizuojant išskiriami Lietuvos didžiųjų prekybos centrų viešosioms erdvėms būdingi estetiniai dėsningumai ir savybės. Estetikos tyrimo metodas paremtas trimis pagrindiniais erdvės vaizdinio elementais: prasme, struktūra ir identitetu. Prasminis kontekstas darbe akcentuojamas pirmajame skyriuje, perteikiant viešųjų erdvių prasmės pasikeitimą istoriniame raidos kontekste. Daroma išvada, jog prekybos centras – tai ekonominės galios estetinės reprezentacijos laukas. Antrame skyriuje nagrinėjama erdvės struktūra. Keliant hipotezę, jog prekybos centro viešosios erdvės imituoja miesto viešųjų erdvių struktūrinius modelius, taikomas miesto ir prekybos centrų viešųjų erdvių struktūrų palyginimo metodas. Išskiriami pagrindiniai prekybos centrams būdingi miesto viešųjų erdvių elementai, paaiškinamos jų transformacijos bei ryšys su formuojamu vartotojiškumo imperatyvu. Trečiajame skyriuje nagrinėjamas identitetas. Jis analizuojamas tiriant prekybos centruose naudojamas interjero dizaino temas ir motyvus, taip pat lyginant su... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The object of master thesis’ research is the aesthetics of public space in shopping malls in Lithuanian cities. The paper researches the object-forming factors, evaluation criteria and analysis, historical, socio-cultural and political context, philosophical, psychological and art research findings, the ratio of the global image culture. The thesis of the paper analyses seven major shopping malls in Lithuania, rendering the most common aesthetic patterns and inherent aesthetic qualities, that are peculiar in Lithuanian largest shopping centres. The method of research is based on three key elements of visual space: meaning, structure and identity. The context of meaning is presented in the first chapter, overviewing historical development of the concept of public space. Its conclusion is that a shopping mall is a field for aesthetic representations of economic power. The second chapter examines the structure of space. It is suggested that shopping malls are simulating urban public spaces for the consumer-oriented reasons. Therefore, the method of comparison between urban and shopping mall spaces is applied. As a result, the most specific elements and their transformations common both to the shopping mall and urban public spaces are distinguished and analysed. The third chapter examines identity. It analyzes themes and motives of interior design, also comparing aesthetics of shopping malls with the global image culture. It is concluded that the shopping mall is an inherent... [to full text]

This master thesis comprizes of a comparative study between two neighborhoods in two different cities: Nezu-Tokyo and Ortakoy-Istanbul. Although two cities that have been chosen seem incomparable in many respects, the study scale &ndash / neighborhoodsprovide a deeper apprehension to understand the differences or similarities that the two cultures and their architecture share. In the master thesis, the main factors that form, constitute, and limit the neighborhoods, with the help of the photographical medium, will be analyzed. Japanese and Turkish Culture, despite the fact that they belong to different geographies, share a certain closeness and intimacy. In the two cultures, it is possible to observe that, there exists (at least within certain cultural areas) an attempt to protect internal harmonies against the effects of globalizarion. After experiencing the similar characteristics of urban space in these two neighborhoods, this study has focused on the creation of space, within the help of atmoshere and boundary concepts, within a theoretical frame drawn by an aesthetical approach. Although the cities that were chosen are very large in scale, the neighborhoods which were chosen still carry a local character, where citizens spend most of their time and closely affect their surroundings. It could also be claimed that, positioned between v architectural and urban scale, neighborhoods constitute the different faces of a city. In a neighborhood that posseses both traditional characters and effects of urbanization at the same time, we can observe the social habits and individual diversities, rules of a city planning and flux of different ingredients that form the metropolitan and daily life, and neighbor relations. In this regard, my intention, with the close-scope study of two neighborhoods, is to make a research to indicate the very distinct ways to create space and the ways in which everyday life is conveyed, within the context of two different cultures.