Gaming Cultures - Games Art

◦       Gaming Cultures

Gaming Culture has arguably made its way into the art scene. The famous journalist and pop culture critic Roger Ebert made the argument expressing ‘video games can never be art’ which he posted on his blog. His definition of art was questionable and there was uproar from ‘gamers’ all over the internet expressing their strong opinions over the matter.

“One obvious difference between art and games is that you can win a game. It has rules, points, objectives, and an outcome. Santiago might cite an immersive game without points or rules, but I would say then it ceases to be a game and becomes a representation of a story, a novel, a play, dance, a film. Those are things you cannot win; you can only experience them.” – (Roger Ebert, 2010)

This suggested that art can only be experienced and not taken part in, obviously there are many contemporary forms of art in which it requires an audience or viewer to take control or take part in order to get the full experience. To rule out the idea that games are art, to rule out that games will never be art is outrageous. Considering that games are in such an early stage, consoles started arriving in homes only 30 years ago. Looking at the spectrum of time in which other forms of art took to develop like writing, speech and painting. Painting started with cave drawings , where aesthetics were probably the last thing on the artist’s mind and painting took thousands of years to turn into Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling and other ‘masterpieces’ .

Museums in America have started opening exhibitions dedicated completely to video games. Both the Museum Of Modern Art in New York and the Smithsonian American Art Museum have displayed a wide range of games, presenting them as an art form.

 “The Smithsonian American art museum has always been open to exploring new and significant forms of visual culture” – (Elizabeth Broun 2012)

This suggests games are being recognised as a new art form by prestigious gallery owners.

‘A work of art is one person's reaction to life.’ – Jonathon Jones as he compares games as an art form to Picasso and Jackson Pollock. But arguably gaming is a more modern form of expressing ones reaction to life, taking advantage of new mediums and technology to do so. An act of personal imagination wherever it is created. Arguing that games are not a form of art is like arguing that pop music isn’t music because it’s ‘bad’ or uses technology, whereas as opera would be a conventional form of art and music in its time doesn’t mean it cannot be appreciated now nor does it mean modern music cannot be called music through comparison. Vincent Van Gogh’s work was not considered art in his contemporary society but todays his pieces are masterpieces. The same idea goes for games, just because as a medium it is in early stages or whether a certain audience cannot appreciate it yet does not rule it out as an art form.

Keith Stuart(2010) Roger Ebert: games *may* be art. One day. The Guardian [WWW] July. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2010/jul/01/roger-ebert-games-art [09/04/2013]

Roger Ebert (2010) Video Games Can Never Be Art. Roger Eberts Journal( April 2010) Available From: http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/video-games-can-never-be-art [09/04/2013]

Jonathon Jones(2012) Sorry MoMA, video games are not art . The Guardian. Jonathon Jones Blog(November 2012) Available From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/nov/30/moma-video-games-art [09/04/2013]

Chris Melissinos & Patrick O’Rourke (2012) The Art of Video Games. New York: Welcome books