"This House is Not a Home: Fear, Loss, and Archival Memory in Layers of Fear, What Remains of Edith Finch, and Subliminal"

This paper investigates how affect and cultural memory haunt architecture and archival material in Layers of Fear, What Remains of Edith Finch, and Subliminal. In these videogames, nothing is as it seems, and the spaces drip with painful memories of broken families, childhood nostalgia, and death. Collectible items such as scrawled letters and old photographs entrench the player in sensations of disequilibrium, trapping memories in spaces that no longer house its long-lost inhabitants but still exude unresolved affect. In fact, these places exist more as physical obfuscations, representing a fascination of the human mind – that glorious, occult and horrific thing.