Convincing my art teacher that video games are art
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Anytime I argue the games are art point, I always end with the fact that there is at least one game that's made me think something and feel a way no book, movie, or painting ever has, or ever will. It's impossible for a piece of Art that lacks interactivity to make me think "What have I done". Regret is a powerful emotion, and other forms of Art are only able to evoke that through reminding their audience of something they might regret. The vast differences in personal experiences keeps those forms from being able to focus on that emotion and reach anything but a painfully small number of people. Video games aren't so limited in that. Interactivity gives the medium the potential to evoke any emotion in it's audience, which is a huge leg up on any of the accepted artforms.
I found the voices in Okami (you know the endless loop of annoying chattering) a huge turn-off and aggravated me throughout my play time (never finished it).FreakSheet said:
The ability of the user to participate doesn't disqualify Ken Lum's 'MIrror Maze with Twelve Steps of Depression' from being art, or comedic performances with audience interaction, or Rocky Horror Picture show.SaneAmongInsane said:
That line is unmitigated bull honky. It permits the video game genre to communicate in a manner that other medium don't often get to. But notice that: "Don't often." Viewer participation in art is not some new 'video game' concept that was just invented recently... it's been a part of artistic endevours for centuries. Q.V. Pantomime, Improv, and many other forms of theatre.
Picking a game is completely irrelevant. Your teacher didn't ask you to prove that one game is art, your teacher asked you to prove that games are art. The definition of art is by far the most important thing for you to address. Without that, you and whatever skeptic you're trying to convince will never be on the same page, and all the examples in the world won't help you.
I've been told that for a medium to be a type of art, it has to communicate with you in a way that is unique to the medium. Painting, music, etc, none of this has as much of a personal connection as being immersed in a character in a game. It is a step beyond merely writing a story or making a movie.
Planescape: Torment will eternally be my answer to this. Namely the scene... err.
Damnit, it's like halfway through, but there's a scene that completely settles the question for me. Really, the game itself loses some impact if you are not the one playing it and making the decisions.
So I'll tell it to you how I have told someone else asking this question. There's no detail spoilers, as that would require SO MUCH EXPLAINING. But still, spoiler tags:
That scene is the type of scene that makes people have to stop playing the game for a while. It makes people weep. It is an extremely skillfully told scene that does not work NEARLY as well if you are not deeply immersed in your character. And that is something that the game does very well.
Planescape: Torment will eternally be my answer to this. Namely the scene... err.
Damnit, it's like halfway through, but there's a scene that completely settles the question for me. Really, the game itself loses some impact if you are not the one playing it and making the decisions.
So I'll tell it to you how I have told someone else asking this question. There's no detail spoilers, as that would require SO MUCH EXPLAINING. But still, spoiler tags:
You're playing someone with amnesia. It allows you to particularly immerse yourself in the character, as you know as little about your current situation as he does. The choices also allow for you to shape him in any way you like.
You've had intermittent flashbacks to past lives, where you were often a drastically different person. You've found an object that contains a woman's memory. These memories draw you in to the point where you can share their experience exactly.
You knew this woman in a past life. In that life, you were a cold-hearted sociopath who cared only for his own ends. She loved you deeply. You manipulated her to encourage her love.
This breaks the way that the stone works, basically. Because you have a flashback of this exact memory, but as who you were then. You are experiencing her side of things and his side of things. It allows you to also experience how you feel about things now.
Have you ever spoken to a movie screen? Told someone on the screen not to split their group in a horror movie? You start doing this, ingame as well. You feel the rush of her love for the past you. You feel the cold-heartedness of this past you, manipulating her into doing something that will surely get her killed. And your character now... You're screaming at her to see past-you for who he really is.
You've had intermittent flashbacks to past lives, where you were often a drastically different person. You've found an object that contains a woman's memory. These memories draw you in to the point where you can share their experience exactly.
You knew this woman in a past life. In that life, you were a cold-hearted sociopath who cared only for his own ends. She loved you deeply. You manipulated her to encourage her love.
This breaks the way that the stone works, basically. Because you have a flashback of this exact memory, but as who you were then. You are experiencing her side of things and his side of things. It allows you to also experience how you feel about things now.
Have you ever spoken to a movie screen? Told someone on the screen not to split their group in a horror movie? You start doing this, ingame as well. You feel the rush of her love for the past you. You feel the cold-heartedness of this past you, manipulating her into doing something that will surely get her killed. And your character now... You're screaming at her to see past-you for who he really is.
That scene is the type of scene that makes people have to stop playing the game for a while. It makes people weep. It is an extremely skillfully told scene that does not work NEARLY as well if you are not deeply immersed in your character. And that is something that the game does very well.
They combine story, visual art, music, voice acting (and motion acting), level design, 3D modeling etc etc. You could call those the elements that you'll arrange to affect ones senses and emotion, like in visual arts you'll arrange colours to do it, or in music it's instruments.
You won't need to explain it any further than that to your teacher.
You won't need to explain it any further than that to your teacher.
Silent Hill 2 is my favourite example of a game that is art.
It uses texture, colour, form, lighting, sound and character to build a convincing and compelling story of tormented souls living out their worst nightmares and memories. It's not for the feint of heart, but it is the prime example of a game that works as a piece of art.
It uses texture, colour, form, lighting, sound and character to build a convincing and compelling story of tormented souls living out their worst nightmares and memories. It's not for the feint of heart, but it is the prime example of a game that works as a piece of art.
Point out the fact that Salvadore Dali shit into jars and sold them to art museums. Point out that a video game takes an idea and puts it into medium for a person to interact with and explore. It could be a simple idea: Deconstruct your anger in the various ways you can kill dudes. It could be a complex idea: Take the ancient beauty and power of a reality and kill it for the sake of a loved one. It can be a look into the idea of horror, despair, and why some ideas go wrong. It can be about surrounding yourself by beauty and still feeling nothing.
It isn't a matter of is it art. That is an inhibiting question that denies the basic truth we already accept for other media. We don't say Transformers isn't art. We call it Bad Art or Lazy Art or Militaristic Masturbation Art. The same is done with books, paintings, drawings, etc.
So are video games art? Yes. Is it a sea of mediocre to bad art with a few small islands of good art? Yes, just like every single other media... Including shit in a jar.
It isn't a matter of is it art. That is an inhibiting question that denies the basic truth we already accept for other media. We don't say Transformers isn't art. We call it Bad Art or Lazy Art or Militaristic Masturbation Art. The same is done with books, paintings, drawings, etc.
So are video games art? Yes. Is it a sea of mediocre to bad art with a few small islands of good art? Yes, just like every single other media... Including shit in a jar.
Wouldn't necessarily use that one for your case.Yoav Kozenyuk said:
Games like Assassin's Creed 2, and the use of Renaissance visuals, show that video games can contain art. Video games also contain music, inarguably an art, but they are not central to what makes it a video game.
Aesthetic features, graphics, music, even story and characters show that video games are a fantastic vehicle for art... but those aren't what make a game itself art. The important thing to admit is that not all games are art, just like not all pictures are art.
There are several aspects of games that can be used to make a game artistic, though:
1. When players are offered non-linear paths, with choices that go beyond "right path, wrong path." This provides players the tools through which to express themselves while participating in an existing work. This can be as dramatic as providing a blank canvas and some paint (where the participant has complete freedom for expression), or as simple as karaoke (where the participant can choose to just go along with the existing work... or maybe make a few changes here and there).
2. When players are driven toward emotional experiences by the game itself. For instance, in a horror game, a lot of thought goes into the camera--first person? third? close or far? They are controlling what the player can and can't see at any given moment (but not telling the player what to look at). The fact that the player must choose, but has limited information with which to make the choice, creates an emotional response--tension, maybe fear.
Notice that it's not the fear created by the scary monsters. That's visual art. Not the sound effects, either. Those all add to what the game is doing. It's the way the game allows the player to interact with that environment (or sometimes more importantly, the ways in which the player is not allowed to interact).
There are other sorts of emotional experiences shaped by video games, but this would be a good start for consideration.
Games are not art as they are made for entertainment. Yes some of the art in it looks nice, pictures used to show what they wanted to make in a game. But art is created through feeling to communicate a feeling, a mood or a thought on a subject. Games dont do that, its just a pretty game. Yes the sketches and idea look nice but thats all they are.
For instance, a zombie movie or game isnt art. But using the zombie concept to communicate something like the degredation of society...is art. Mostly its in the label i think.
For instance, a zombie movie or game isnt art. But using the zombie concept to communicate something like the degredation of society...is art. Mostly its in the label i think.
As an art student you already know this but
ALWAYS KEEP THE MESSAGE IN MIND
The Path sprung to mind straight away, a couple of people have also suggested it I see. Making a game just for the sake of it being fun is hard to justify as art as then it becomes more just entertainment.
Find something you want to express through the videogame medium and show your teacher why that medium's the best way to go about it.
ALWAYS KEEP THE MESSAGE IN MIND
The Path sprung to mind straight away, a couple of people have also suggested it I see. Making a game just for the sake of it being fun is hard to justify as art as then it becomes more just entertainment.
Find something you want to express through the videogame medium and show your teacher why that medium's the best way to go about it.
My advice would be to show her something like the intro to fallout new vegas as it shows the massive divide between rich and poor even after the end of the world. Or perhaps show her the minecraft middle earth thing as that is someone elses visual interpretation of a piece literature which is considered an art form.
I'm going to rebuke this argument with a game that is ten years old. The game in question? Silent Hill 2. That game tells one of the most emotional, deep, philosophical, and overall amazing stories I have ever experienced. However, it owes very little of that to the writing itself, which with a few exceptions ranges from decent to rather bad. The fanfiction <url=http://www.equestriadaily.com/2011/06/story-silent-ponyville.html>Silent Ponyville (yes, that is MLP:FiM crossed with Silent Hill, and it is amazing) is much better written than any of the games. Even then, it tells the story in a significantly different fashion than any of the games.Stall said:
The visuals in the game aren't anything special on their own either, and the Silent Hill movies aren't really any good, even though they tell the same story as the games. Again, because the story is told in a significantly different manner, and a lot of the story is lost from the games. The creature design does stand out on its own, but what really makes the creatures special is not just what they look like, but how they interact with the player during gameplay to elicit emotion from the player, specifically emotions like fear and dread. Which, again, is significantly different than just looking at some concept art of the monsters.
As for the music, while <url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBYsdw4Vwx8>some of it does certainly stand out on its own, but even that music is strengthened by the feeling of isolation the gameplay creates. However, that particular piece of music doesn't play during gameplay, the music that does play during gameplay is of much greater interest to this debate. Listen to <url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGUi6spQ9M0>this. Taken on its own merits, this piece of music is a mess of strange disquieting noise. Without the game as a reference, it is little more than something that is unpleasant to listen to. During gameplay, however, a piece like the one I gave as an example (for there are many like it) will elicit sheer terror. Most of the game is eerily silent, so when something like that comes on, you want to get the frick out of wherever you are even if it's obvious it's a place you need to be with no threats in the area. Another aspect to the audio design that is specific to the games is the radio static that plays whenever a monster is near. Radio static does not normally create an emotional response, but through the gameplay of Silent Hill 2, it creates a deep seated feeling of dread.
And now I come to the gameplay itself. I have already described how the other elements of the game mean much less without the gameplay to frame themselves around, and now I will discuss how the gameplay was designed to allow the other parts of the game to fill their roles. The gameplay aspect of this game is much deeper than than the fact that it is a game and you play it. The gameplay itself is designed to elicit an emotional response form players. If this game was given fluid hack n' slash or shooter gameplay, the game would lose much of its impact and value. The gameplay is intentionally designed to feel cumbersome and inefficient, and that is used to further characterize the player character. Yes, the gameplay control is actually a significant part of the main character's characterization. James Sunderland, the main character of Silent Hill 2, is not a very adept fighter nor is he particularly agile. The gameplay is also designed to make you feel alone, and to make you connect with James on a deeper level, to make you feel for him and what he's going through. It makes the imagery all the more disturbing, and the fear all the more real. It creates an atmosphere that makes the story told all the more deeper and meaningful. The gameplay itself is used as a vital tool to tell a story. That is significantly different than books or movies or anything else. That is what makes Silent Hill 2 a work of art.
Exactly this. The best way to succeed in school is to ask your teacher/professor exactly what they want, then give it to them.Zhukov said:
If she says it's a display that evokes emotion, tell her about the emotional sequences in Assassin's Creed II (since you're using that), and use other examples like Heavy Rain and this brilliant trailer for Deus Ex 3:
On the other hand, if she says that art is something that makes you think about moral/ethical/the world/etc. issues, then focus on the moral dilemmas and any questions raised about the ethical ramifications raised by the assassins, etc. Bring up games like Fallout or STALKER or The Sims or the above Deus Ex 3 trailer (seriously, what an awesome trailer).Catchy Slogan said: