At Qatar 2022 even when the game begins, the virtual world still seeps in |

 

 

"Something weird has been happening at this World Cup. Of course lots of weird things have been happening at this World Cup but this appears to be a more subtle development, a quiet shift in tone and aesthetic. You can see it in the television coverage, with its deep focuses and swooping aerial shots, a product that feels increasingly cinematic in scope and style. This process, to some extent, has been going on for a while. But perhaps the more startling development is the way the digital world is also beginning to bleed into the live experience.

For most of the last century, football has existed essentially as two parallel games. There was the game of tickets and stadiums and grass and physical seats, a world that you could see and hear and smell and touch.

Then there was the game that came filtered through a screen, a world of buttons and pixels, mediated by commentators and TV producers, theme music and editing. Qatar 2022 is perhaps the first World Cup where the division between these two worlds is no longer clear."

read article by Jonathan Liew

At Qatar 2022 even when the game begins, the virtual world still seeps in | World Cup 2022 | The Guardian: