Butler, Jade (2008) As you cannot hear the sound of losing: researching the gambling environment through performance. Research Master thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

This project is an investigation of various gambling environments. I wish to consider how these strategically designed, immersive and seductive sites seem to have an effect on the visitor. Typically the gaming environment offers an adult utopia and an other-worldly experience that is far removed from the everyday. I was attracted to researching the extreme, hyperreal gambling environments analysed by Jean Baudrillard as well as the common, suburban sites examined by Charles Livingstone. Although at first glance the styles of these two environments seem vastly different, what they have in common is they provide a simulacrum of reality where people can engage in the act of gambling. Whether the site is extraordinary or less extreme in style, the misery caused by gambling is a common experience. The performance As you cannot hear the sound of losing grew from this research, into an exploration of the melancholy that can be felt by the individual as a result of engaging with gambling environments. You cannot hear the sound of losing in these places; the reality of losing does not exist there. Within these sites we are likely to hear the cheers of a winner celebrating but, never the misery that can be caused by gambling. By exploring the gambling environment through performance, I intend to present how it works to affect those who visit it.

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