Presentation - Video Game: Are they art?

What is the definition of "Art"?

Accroding to Adams, he said that" literary arts: writing and drama, which are characterized by the presence of narrative. Film and television also belong to the literary arts. Then there are the fine arts: sculpture and painting, music and dance. There are also the decorative arts: wallpaper, fabrics and furnishings. Architecture is regarded by some as a form of art, and industrial design, is not really art so much as it is an aesthetic applied to utilitarian objects. The boundaries between art and non-art are not hard and fast; there is a grey area."


- literary arts: writing and drama; film and television
- fine arts: sculpture and painting, music and dance
- decorative arts: wallpaper, fabrics and furnishings
- form of art: Architecture
- industrial design: aesthetic applied to utilitarian objects

Art has an Aesthetic
-There must be variety of aesthetic for games and gameplay.
-Judging all elements of the gameplay itself according to the variety of aesthetic : is it smooth ?natural?
Art has content
-The videogames must has some message and content to say.
-It can have the capacity to express ideas.
-Not only provide fun.
-Game developers express something through gameplay

Art challenges the Viewer
-challenge the viewer to see and hear things in different way.
-Achieve a new kind of understanding.
-The game force the player to experience new ideas ,to see things in new way.

Art need critics
-Need critics to recognize artistic merit
-Critics brings discussion of the game context
-Critics also brings judgment, maturity, understanding, wisdom.

Case studies - Quake 4 U

-Created by Feng Meng bo
-Feng Meng bo is a China's leading new media artists
-He changed and modified the version of Quake 3 to create his own “Quake 4 U”
- Released in 2002
-It is a popular Internet game
-First person shooting game
- The plot of this game is talking about killing people or killed by other people.
- Feng Meng bo use his self-portrait into this game.

-This is a shooting game and make people exciting during the game.
-Although I have not try this game ,I try some similar game before, though that this kind of game make people relax and vent their emotion during the game. People will forget the real world at that moment
- It is quite interesting that Feng Meng bo use his self-portrait to be the character of this game. I never heard that before!QUATE 4U IS A GAME OF Art

1. Exploration of formal and aesthetic possibilities eg perspective, line, colour, rhythm
-Quake 4U takes a perspective from slightly behind the character, allowing the player to control the direction in which the character looks and moves.
-The line and colur are sharp
-It contain music in the game

2. QUAKE 4U has content and make people feel something
-According to
-He inform the viewers on an ironic version of his self-portrait into the game.
-his self-portrait is a new languages on the creation of media. Not one use this character before. So that we can regards this game as an art.

4. Quake 4 U challenges the viewer:-According to Lucien King, The History And Culture Of Videogames (New York: Universe Publishing, 2002), 85
Lucien King stated, “Videogame character design is potentially a very deep and difficult art.”

-It is a unique figure that he is taking a video recorder and some weapon.
-using the self-portrait of artist as the character is rare in the digital games history.
-Thus, Feng Mengbo has challenged the viewers to see NEW things that have not been seen before ,that is introducing a new idea of forming character.

Video games=art?

Puzzle---Tetris
•Without content, message,aesthetic……

•Formulaic game

•Without role in this game,players are pure mind, engaged in a purely symbolic struggle

Pong(1972)
 •This game was modeled on simple physics: the way the ball bounced off the bat obeyed the basic law “angle of incidence equals angle of reflection”.
 

•Although, there are some games that have been calculate as art(like those introduced by my

group mates)

•Video game actually is an art from but not equal to art(just like photography)

•Some video games are totally not related to art that they just simulating the reality, not only

character, but also the laws/some video games just show the science, the law……without

aesthetic or message

•Therefore, video games are not necessary a work of art

•But it could be an art form

•Just like the nature of film, it can be both art or entertainment, or either one.

Technologised Bodies

Which artist’s work do you find the most interesting?

I think Stelarc’s work in the most interesting.

Stelarc,(Stelios Arkadiou) is a Greek-Australian performance artist whose works focuses on extending the capabilities of human body.
Stelarc's idiosyncratic performances often involve robotics or other relatively modern technology integrated with his body somehow. In 25 different performances he has suspended himself in flesh hook suspension, often with one of his robotic inventions integrated. In another performance he allowed his body to be controlled remotely by electronic muscle stimulators connected to the internet. He has also performed with a robotic third arm, and a pneumatic spider-like six-legged walking machine which sits the user in the centre of the legs and allows them to control the machine through arm gestures. His works have been heralded for their abilities to embrace a wider audience, the best example of this was his allowance for the worldwide audience to log into the exhibition and thus access or control the electrodes his own body was hooked up to.

Why I think this work is most interested?

The man with three hears

Stelarc's work change the traditional concept of human bodies. As we may think our body may only replace by prosthetics arms or legs. Now we can replace them by wires, wheels or other materials. It encourages medicine improvements of human bodies and gives new approach for us to think of what is human body.

In the first sight to the documentary video of Stelare's work, it is only a kind of "shocking oriented" work. Indeed, it is really awful that the body become distorted in an unnatural way,
esp, he implanted a third ear into his arm, what is the big mean to do such thing?

However, after watched the video and having a deep thought, I understanding Stelare's motivation, he is reacting and inventing.
In his work we can have a reflection that how is technologies used, if human still have their free will?

I think his works are creative and thoughtful.
(Though they are awful and a bit not humane)

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stelarc

Gamer Revolution(CBC documentary,2007)

a) According to the film, what are some pros and cons of playing videogames for individuals and societies?

For individuals, it gives another platform for people to perform theirself. They can earn money and have great achievements by playing videogames as a career. Maybe those players can have more confidence by playing videogames as they can perform theirself through videogames and finish those missions that they can never do in the reality. I think this is fair to offer a chance for players to gain a sense of superiority that maybe effective to raise their confident in the real life. However, I said "it maybe". Those career players have to give up many other elements in their life to exchange their "achievements". And for individuals, it may leads players to addict in the games as they can only find those pleasure and sense of superiority in videogames. It may cause players try to avoid the reality that full of failure and dangerous.

For the societies, it shows videogames can bring training of soldier in the film. The army designed a game that related to the knowledge of military affairs.It can make people gain more information and understanding of military affairs.And it can encourage people to join the army.In the other side,videogame do bring negative influence to societies.For example,the addicted -teen- player who has been mentioned in the film,killed people with a gun in school. Videogames' themes always involved violent.It turns into an encouragement of violent as players have to win via using violent,like killing.

b) According the film, is there any evidence that digital games can encourage aggressive values and anti-social actions in the real world? Do you agree?
Yes, there are some evidence that digital games can encourage aggressive values and anti-social actions in the real world.
For example, there were some career-players introduced in the film. There work is playing computer game and their responsibilities are winning the games. This would make them isolated with the real world as their purpose of playing digital games is earning money and gaining achievements.Their life just have their jobs-playing games and barley nothing else.
Also, the film talks about some players killed people without reason. The only reason that can explain this is: games that they play express negative messages to them-people who kill other is hero and it is nothing to be violent.Therefore,some players murdered others to achieve success.
In the film, there was a game called "Postal" which experimented by laboratory.It showed that players who play it would have violent impulsion inside their brain. In this evidence, we can see that digital games contain elements which can bring aggressive message,feeling to players.

Certainly that I agree with this. People who are digital games players always addict to the games.They even don't have any feeling while they playing games.My brother is an great example! He just can't hear other's noise,even we just talk to him next after him. He just ignores any things that outside the game.Also,he tried to give up his study because of addiction of games.Therefore,I really agree about digital games encourage anti-social actions.

c) Should governments have the right to ban certain games? Why or why not?
Although I think some digital games bring negative affects, I think the government should not ban certain games.

It is because the people should have human right to play/develop the game, and I think the government have no permission to stop or avoid it. Also, it is so difficult to prove that playing video games is the main reason of causing violent crime (e.g. murdering), maybe it happens because of other reasons.

However, I think the government should set some limitations of playing certain games because it really affect the growth of children. For example, the government can set up the age limitation, to avoid the child play or be touch with those video games. To avoid the violate crime, the government also can have more promotion and education on public.

Is it reasonable to consider computer games as art?

1)How does Adams define art? Do you agree with his definition?

         According to the article, Adam defines art in different ways as follows:Firstly, he made classifications.---- Sort by it’s content: representational, expressional…--- Sort by art forms: paintings, sculptures… Literary art V.S. Fine art

He also believes that as a piece of art,it is important to deliver messages.I think Duchamp's fountain is a typical examples to this definition.

Furthermore, he makes an advanced definition on good art; he thinks that good art must last for eras, even though there are different perspectives to define art referring different periods.

It is crucial for a piece of good art (we usually call "masterpiece) passing through the challenges of times, or even spaces.

Overall, Adam has come across many ways of art-defending, those he covered is fairy agreed by the generals.

2. According to Adams, what is needed for videogames to be considered as art?

Adam thinks that to be an art, here are some features:

- Content to give people a new idea or messages

- Aesthetic qualities to give people sense of pleasure

- To make people feel things- to outweigh its consideration of utility and salability

- To do something that other art forms will do

- To have an artist who has received adequate public recognition

- to do something to persuade people to believe it is an art form Computer games is art as it creates new depiction of images, new meaning to us.

A work of art by Cory Arcangel

The original videogame: Super Mario


Features of the game:
-The clouds and the eyes-catching blue sky are came from the Mario Brothers
-Clouds slowly move from right to the left / left to right
-All the main characters in the Super Mario have been removed,
although they are the significant subject leading players to play the game
-The background music,which is supposed
to make player more filing into the game, is removed too
- The audience/players can only imagine they are playing the Super Mario videogame when looking at the slow motion of the clouds which illustrating you are moving in that digital world

Art or not?Why?
I think it can be called as an art.
Appearence:
There are some formal elements of being a art work. The forms, colors,composition is attractive, the image is still appealling after adjusted, like the nice contrast of the white and blue, although most of the character used to appear in the Super Mario is missing
Sustains:
It makes me think when I can JUST look at the moving clouds in such a slow motion. It is which could also allow me to have enough space and time to remind my memories and emotion when I am playing the Super Mario. This is the new idea and perspective for me to look at a videogame.

Cory Arcangel: Super-Mario Clouds, 2002
http://www.zunta.org/blog/archives/cloudsscroll.gif

Some other viewpoint on vediogames aesthetics or not :As Ernst Gom- rich asks in Art and Illusion:

'The rope hanging from the pulley- where does it lead?

How is the drawbridge tied up? What is the angle of the bannister near the lower edge?'

The artist used his illusionistic craft to create agnawing sense of uneasw in the viewer. In videogames so far, on the other hand, verything is fanastically, obsessively "ture" in three dimensions. There is no room for interesting fuzziness or spatial ambiguity.

Presentation

Mouchette

http://www.mouchette.org/index.html

"In 1996, a Web site that purports to be the work of an adolescent girl appeared at http://mouchette.org/. Visitors to the site are greeted with a lurid close-up of a flower, its petals crawling with ants and flies, accompanied by a portrait of a sad-looking girl and the following text: "My name is Mouchette/I live in Amsterdam/I am nearly 13 years old/I am an artist." "

My impression of this webstie is embrassing and strange.No matter the web page design, the theme or the "message" that the artist wants to express are weird.It is barely possible that the artist was only 13 years-old.And  this reminds me that fake idenity is usual on Internet.

Besides, I feel embrassed while surfing this web page. It disturbs me to have a deeper and deeper look even I was alone.

https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/MarkTribe/Mouchette

Online identity

1)I have 6 or more online identities,such as facebook,hotmail,xanga......
2)And some of those online identities' would contain some fake personal data and information of mine.And I think those online identities can show characters that different to my "in person" identities,for example I am quite emotional in daily life,but when I use my online identities,I can control my mood,as I don't need to react immediately,I can wait and think then just react emotionally.It brings different character to me.

3)It can bring us bravery to express our own viewpoint,as sometimes we may afraid to talk about our feeling towards some people,situations or issues happened in our daily life.Also,it is convenient for us to communicate to others because not eveyone use the same server with me.There are many different severs that people can construct online identities,so we can communicate with people all over the world easily through different severs.

4)Maybe it is easy to expose our personal data online,or even stolen by someome.It will be dangerous for our safty!Or it may bring kind of incomvenient to us as we may forget and mess up our use IDs in different severs that will lead us to lose some important accounts~