SymphonicX
14-Nov-2009, 12:49 PM
Good question, especially when asked about video games.
Is it art?
Defining art to begin with is difficult, and for many it's a personal definition. I define art as "skillful representation"...ie it has to represent something, have a context, and that needs to be done skilfully.
In context, a child's drawing of a house isn't art...it's just a shitty drawing. A well done drawing of a house, is art, because it represents the artist's skill, and also represents a house. (sorry little Jonny, your drawing sucks)
A urinal cut in half and turned on it's side is not art. Because it represents nothing, and required no skill except cynicism (and if that was considered a skill, I'd be on the top ten rich list).
Seems simple in my head, but many counter-arguments to those points exist. But for my post I'm going to assume "art" as defined by "skillful representation".
So are video games art? I'm finding this one hard...if applying my definition of art to video games, they are indeed! They require creative skills like design, writing, acting, musicianship...all coherrantly related to create a story. They also use the basic rules of creating story strands (such as Act 1,2,3), and take influences from other art forms...
I enjoy games, love them in fact, but there's a part of me that can't accept games as art because they are games - and a game doesn't really marry up to an art form. For instance, scrabble isn't art...if the scrabble board was designed in a way that included beautiful illustrations of a dragon on it, that wouldn't be art - it would be art within the game. Therefore a level's design and physics might not really be art, that is just the "design" element...the illustrated dragon on a scrabble board. Could the same game be achieved using wireframe graphics and no embelishments? Yes it could, it would just look stupid, but the core of the game would still be there...where is the art in the wireframe version?
So is the "art" the graphics, the story, the acting, music, or everything put together?
The "story" to most games are, let's be totally honest, rubbish. Grand Theft Auto stories? as Brooker said, are just rehashed ideas from Scarface, and the like. Cod's story? bah, no one knows whats happening with that now. The story to most games simply gets you from here, to there, and lets you do something contextually in between...The closest I can find a story in a game to becoming art is The Darkness, which was based on a comic and quite well written...But most stories in games are testosterone filled man-bags...do they raise questions? Cause you to think about the story at other times? Do you ever find yourself suitably inspired by a game story?
Looking at Halo series for instance, it's like a mish-mash of different sci-fi films and mythos...did anyone really care for the story, relationships, trials and tribulations? Was the story there considered "art"? Or is it like the weeping pianist who writes muzak...? (loooong ass metaphor there)
Graphics as art, seems a bit wish washy...if we considered everything that looks nice to be a form or art, then really everything and nothing is art. Is a sainsbury's logo art, because it's designed well?
I'm just raising the debate...video games: art or not?
I go for art, but I don't really know why. I'm struggling to find a proper definition and I fear my pure love for gaming is simply me clutching at straws. I love games, I want them to be taken seriously, but unless I can personally justify why they should be taken seriously and not with a pinch of salt, I fear I'm without argument. Really I know that when all is said and done, I simply just get kicks out of seeing things blow up...but do I find deeper contextual meaning in games?
I'm not sure...
Your thoughts?
Is it art?
Defining art to begin with is difficult, and for many it's a personal definition. I define art as "skillful representation"...ie it has to represent something, have a context, and that needs to be done skilfully.
In context, a child's drawing of a house isn't art...it's just a shitty drawing. A well done drawing of a house, is art, because it represents the artist's skill, and also represents a house. (sorry little Jonny, your drawing sucks)
A urinal cut in half and turned on it's side is not art. Because it represents nothing, and required no skill except cynicism (and if that was considered a skill, I'd be on the top ten rich list).
Seems simple in my head, but many counter-arguments to those points exist. But for my post I'm going to assume "art" as defined by "skillful representation".
So are video games art? I'm finding this one hard...if applying my definition of art to video games, they are indeed! They require creative skills like design, writing, acting, musicianship...all coherrantly related to create a story. They also use the basic rules of creating story strands (such as Act 1,2,3), and take influences from other art forms...
I enjoy games, love them in fact, but there's a part of me that can't accept games as art because they are games - and a game doesn't really marry up to an art form. For instance, scrabble isn't art...if the scrabble board was designed in a way that included beautiful illustrations of a dragon on it, that wouldn't be art - it would be art within the game. Therefore a level's design and physics might not really be art, that is just the "design" element...the illustrated dragon on a scrabble board. Could the same game be achieved using wireframe graphics and no embelishments? Yes it could, it would just look stupid, but the core of the game would still be there...where is the art in the wireframe version?
So is the "art" the graphics, the story, the acting, music, or everything put together?
The "story" to most games are, let's be totally honest, rubbish. Grand Theft Auto stories? as Brooker said, are just rehashed ideas from Scarface, and the like. Cod's story? bah, no one knows whats happening with that now. The story to most games simply gets you from here, to there, and lets you do something contextually in between...The closest I can find a story in a game to becoming art is The Darkness, which was based on a comic and quite well written...But most stories in games are testosterone filled man-bags...do they raise questions? Cause you to think about the story at other times? Do you ever find yourself suitably inspired by a game story?
Looking at Halo series for instance, it's like a mish-mash of different sci-fi films and mythos...did anyone really care for the story, relationships, trials and tribulations? Was the story there considered "art"? Or is it like the weeping pianist who writes muzak...? (loooong ass metaphor there)
Graphics as art, seems a bit wish washy...if we considered everything that looks nice to be a form or art, then really everything and nothing is art. Is a sainsbury's logo art, because it's designed well?
I'm just raising the debate...video games: art or not?
I go for art, but I don't really know why. I'm struggling to find a proper definition and I fear my pure love for gaming is simply me clutching at straws. I love games, I want them to be taken seriously, but unless I can personally justify why they should be taken seriously and not with a pinch of salt, I fear I'm without argument. Really I know that when all is said and done, I simply just get kicks out of seeing things blow up...but do I find deeper contextual meaning in games?
I'm not sure...
Your thoughts?