ALCHEMY- Faris Lecture

Alchemy was a transformative process which will change lead into gold, or otherwise, to purify one’s soul through the body and its senses beyond the material world to a spiritual transcendence. During the Renaissance, a new generation of designers emerged as erudite, philosophical, and learned in the form of art and architecture. Art and architecture was proved to be an original science based on Greek philosophy, Christian Faith and Roman ambitions. The soul was greatly valued and medicine evolved into a medium for art. The doctors are also artists who believe that the right medicine for the soul would be to channel heaven’s divine energy through the eye to the soul. The patient’s medicine would then be to study pieces of art related to the divine by sight. How does this relate to DGDD? The artists of the Renaissance age weren’t only learned in the arts, but in science as well. Games have the potential medium to perform “alchemy”. People find enjoyment in games, so can games cure illness or purify our soul? Games may actually be a medicine already. Without the entertainment industry, where would our souls be? We wouldn’t be exposed to the divine and wondrous realm we call the alternate universe, which we can find so easily in entertainment. Games may be the most direct medium with the alternate universe, because of that, we can create games to actually benefit us beyond entertainment. Games can appease our souls to realize the ‘if’ of reality.