Abstract
This essay studies a game called Control, published by Remedy, and the heterotopic space and place in this game based on Foucault’s Six Principles of Heterotopia. Along with the study of Control, this essay talks about the concept of space and place proposed by Yi-Fu Tuan. The concept of space and place mentioned by him is positive, which compares place to a space endowed with meaning and emotion by humans, so people become attached to such a place. The connection and difference heterotopia shares with it is mentioned, which leads to how Control realizes the heterotopic sense of its design on these bases, that is, shuffling the order and defamiliarizing the familiar. This essay then mainly focuses on the connection between Control and Foucault’s six heterotopian principles, how Control physicalizes these principles in games, and how it develops these principles based on the concretization of these principles one by one. Moreover, how it attempts to spread the concept of heterotopia on more than just physical levels is also mentioned. By defamiliarizing existing buildings and disrupting the way they are divided in reality, Control physicalizes the concept of heterotopia. Besides, it incorporated the concept of heterotopia into the plot through mystification and the narrative method that first familiarizes and then defamiliarizes certain characters for the player. It breaks through the broad sense of heterotopia and tries to explore the realm of thought for heterotopic space through storytelling, giving future researchers who study the theory of heterotopia in this field more research directions to explore.
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