Arcade-techture: the arcade, gaming, bodies and space.

Jason Wilson, Film, Media & Communication, Griffith University

Like the beach, the gaming arcade is a space inscribed with the tension between hedonism and regulation. My paper will look at the ways arcade space functions, and the relationships between this 'arcade-techture', the media and bodies it mixes and contains, and the other pleasurable spaces that generally adjoin arcades. Specifically, I will look at the arcades in and around Brisbane's Queen Street Mall and the giant arcade that is SegaWorld, in Sydney's Darling Harbour precinct. I will argue that the function and uses of arcades are surprising and various, and that they play a prominent role both in regulating the semi-public spaces around them, and, conversely, in helping to articulate pleasurable performance.