Tag Archives: Artgames

Exhibition Review: The Art of Videogames

Today, I took a trip to the American Art Museum to check out The Art of Videogames, and here is what I found:

I was expecting a somewhat larger exhibit than what I ended up finding, but overall it was still interesting. The first of the three rooms gives an overview of the history of videogames. In the second, one finds 4 iconic titles to play as well as a fifth game called Flower, which is more art than game. Finally, the last room has every major console from Atari to Playstation 3, each with clips from four games.

My recommendation for the first room is to go slowly and watch the videos. There’s not a whole lot of text, so that’s where you learn the most about the exhibit. Here, they break the history of videogames into 5 major eras: Start, 8-bit, Bitwars, Transition, and Next Generation. This is also perhaps the most interesting feature of the exhibit. There are five screens side-by-side which show specific game-play elements have changed across the eras. It is striking to see how jumping, for example, has changed in 40 years, and a clip from each era plays simultaneously to highlight that progression. There are also interviews with luminaries in field about how they see videogames maturing as a medium for artistic and narrative expression.

The second room is the interactive one, with a game from each era that visitors can play. Four are classics: Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros, Myst, and The Secret of Monkey Island. However, the fifth was one I had never seen: Flower. It came out in 2009 and is more of a pleasant, relaxation activity than a game. In it, the player is a gust of wind that goes around picking up flowers in a pleasant 3D world with soothing music that responds to the player’s activity. For me, this is the epitome of an art game.

The largest portion of the exhibit was the final room. Here, twenty game consoles are presented in chronological order and each has its most popular game in the genres of Target, Action, Adventure, and Tactics (full list here). For those who have been gaming for a while, the room provides a walk down memory lane with classics such as Sonic, Zelda, Tomb Raider, SimCity, Mario, and others. Take as long as you want in this room, there is a lot to take in. Then, just before the exit is a video discussing more of how videogames are coming to be a more important cultural force.

Overall, I enjoyed the exhibit, and the most interesting takeaway was seeing the progression of videogames all at once (specifically the 5-era display at the beginning). In fact, I wish I had spent more time in that first room watching the videos there. I especially recommend the exhibit for those in our class as an opportunity to see many of the games and consoles we discussed earlier in the semester when we went through an early history of vidoegames.

Finally, here are some pictures I took of the exhibit.

Art History’s Newest Chapter

Concerning the chapter on videogames as art, Bogost talks about proceduralism as a method of making videogames that are art, but this is not the only way they can be considered as art. Rather, I think he severely limits his discussion of art by merely focusing on the art of the last two centuries: the modern rejection of realism and beauty, attempting to make the artefact the purpose of art itself. However, he does not give fair attention to the other 6000 years of Art History. Ancient civilizations used art as a way of telling stories and teaching their mythology (Egyptian hieroglyphics, European cave paintings). Then, with the rise of Classical art (Greece and Rome) this religious/mythical aspect became imbued with an attempt at representing beauty and reality (some would argue they are the same). With the rise of Chrisitanity and the loss of Classical methods, art shifted its primary aim toward teaching the beliefs of the Christian faith. But in the Renaissance, there is a renewed attempt at capturing beauty and realism in art (Botticelli, Caravaggio). This later led to art bringing up other, non-religious themes (e.g. the plight of the proletariat with the Realist movement in the 19th century). Taken together, the Classical movement (400 BC – 300AD) and its rebirth (1400-1900 AD) represent over a millennium of art seeking beauty and a representation of reality. So, then, why does Bogost totally neglect the art of the beautiful? If one were to look at the current trend of videogames, this would appear to be the direction it is taking (think Skyrim). And, if we think of literature as the art of storytelling, videogames have taken an impressive step in that direction with epic series such as Mass Effect or Uncharted (both in their third installments).

While I agree with Bogost that videogames deserve a place in the world of art, I think he oversimplifies art and limits the place of videogames in that realm. “Artgames” notwithstanding, the Smithsonian American Art Museum has an exhibit devoted to “Video Games as Art” and is largely a history of the medium. Like Duchamp’s toilet, if for no other reason than being in an art gallery, videogames per se have become a legitimate form of artistic expression.

Undermining the Multi-use of Videogames

It did not really sink in to me that videogames have such a wide variety of uses until Ian Bogost introduced specific examples of how videogames can portray art, empathy, reverence, music and prank. I had the same assumption as many people that videogames are only a source of entertainment. I believe it is a medium that provides temporal distraction from real life and therefore my perception and importance of videogames do not compare to that of film, art, and literature. To me, videogames do not belong to the same rank as the three mentioned above and saying it has the same reverence to film seems comical. However, my perception has changed and I realize my belief that videogames are only for entertainment is plain stereotypical

While playing “Passage” created Jason Rohrer, I was confused of what to do. I start out as a young man who soon picks up a lady companion to begin my journey. As I continue to walk to the right, the landscape changes and time progresses. The vibrant blond hair my character dons begins to change to a muter brunette color, and soon after a grey color. The fast walking movement progresses to slower paces and finally I see the old couple feebly walk with crooked backs. Towards the end, my wife dies and I continue the journey alone until I pass away too. A 5 minute game play of “Passage” shows more than the simple goal of moving towards the right hand side, it also evokes deep emotions. The reflection that time does not stop, and everyone will inevitably age and die is really what struck me in the game. It mirrors the scene from the Disney Movie “Up”, when the main character Carl and his wife Ellie began as children who grew up, fell in love, and married. As the female character in the game, Ellie dies due to an illness and Carl continues to live alone. I was extremely sad when I saw this scene and had the same emotion as I played the game. Bogost mentions that theses artgames simply do not provide a decorative visual depiction, but allow the audience to reflect on a theme or two. Some themes I see in “Passage” are life, death, marriage, time and making decisions. I soon realize that the game is a complete metaphor that life is a journey. The characters start at the left hand side and ends at the right, which symbolizes birth and death. Unlike the game “Braid” where one can go back in time, time in Passage is linear and does not stop, which reflects the reality the man cannot control time. After seeing the powerful effect of such a simple game, I realize that videogames do not have the credit that they deserve because they are infants compared to veterans such as film, literature and music. I am sure that the uses of videogames in society will be diverse as those of film.