I wish to discuss art and video games as a media for art. I fear that this is an inappropriate milieu for this discussion as no one here, myself included, has an acceptable non-biased opinion, so this little essay and debate starter of mine will most likely be "preaching to the choir". I mean that not as a put-down, but a necessary concern and important to note.
The term art is defined in fear when the proposition of video games as art is broached. Artists and art critics act defensively to make the term exclusionary so as to keep art definable. Their logic, I predict, is that if video games can be considered art, then nothing bars other entries in this category. But any society that slings art around in half-measured phrase templates such as "X is an artist with a Y" but balks at video games is fickle. For what did Marcel Duchamp accomplish with his "Fountain" but to cement the term as an object or concept put on a pedestal by society. A further insult is the consideration of murder as art.
If there is a doubt in my mind as to video games rightful place as contenders for art, then it is the collaborative effort required to produce them. But as films have the Auteur theory as their exception, then I would claim it for Video Games' sake.
Roger Ebert and many others claim that video games' soul purpose being that of commercialism denies them access. This is a feeble and hypocritical claim. I denounce it. Even artists in the traditional media have plied their "art" in the hopes of acclaim and monetary gain. With indie games, this claim is weakened even further.
Famous Quotes from Eberts such as this:
are pitiable inexperienced attempts made out of fear to stymie what he must've viewed as a weakening of the word "Art". Critics have pried at this no-doubt horrifying concept with lame and identifiable slander, labeling video games as "camp" and "kitsch" or even "low art"(which I would beg them to better define for the sake of my own amusement)."To my knowledge, no one in or out of the field has ever been able to cite a game worthy of comparison with the great dramatists, poets, filmmakers, novelists and composers. That a game can aspire to artistic importance as a visual experience, I accept. But for most gamers, video games represent a loss of those precious hours we have available to make ourselves more cultured, civilized and empathetic."
Even our own Hideo Kojima denies video games as art. But how would a man who has cannibalized thousands of B action films into his dubious canvases have a claim at art?
There are those who protest that video games operate as constructs within a system of rules that one must abide in order to participate. Chess, they claim is a game, and not considered art, but requires a skill. Do they doubly deny that art is not a participatory undertaking on the part of the viewer? Who looks at an abstract painting and does not see designs from his own mind arise from the chaos? No. Participation is necessary in every work of art. Do they also deny that skill is essential in deciphering or critiquing art? No. Artworks are puzzles to be unlocked by study and interpretation. What are puzzles but games?
If I denied that video games were art, it would only be to posit that they are much more. They require more. They offer more. They give opportunities to learn, to enhance, to inform and alert, to please, to terrify and even to sadden and most certainly enrage. They do this on a level that has never been seen before. They actually tear at reality itself and create realities of their own. What do people consider proper mediums for art? Media like, drawings, media like music, writing/dialogue, symbols, emotions? These are all merely components of video games. So I would posit that video games offer multiple opportunities for art.
It is unfortunate that far in the future quotes like Eberts will most likely be remembered in a mocking subtext. But then, I can't help but feel that was the spirit of his quote when it was made. He claimed that video games might be artistic but never art. I challenge any one man to decide for society what art isn't.
"I think I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree."
-Sin
(EDIT: This was to be a blog post, but I really invite discussion on this topic and would rather have it in a forum)
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks