Friday 13th February 2015
At first blush, many of you are probably reacting with horror at the very idea. Video games? Art? You can't be serious. But once you get over your initial fit of laughter, and you begin to take a closer look at some of the work that is being produced in the newest crop of games, you might be willing to admit that these artifacts have come a long way since Pac-Man and Pong. If films as art is within your sphere of acceptance, then video games can't be far behind.
Ultimately, it really comes down to what art means to you. If art is something that challenges social perceptions, inspires emotions or adds a little touch of beauty in the world, then some of the latest video games will likely knock your socks off. In fact, the medium has advanced so much and taken such a hold in the modern world that a museum dedicated to them was recently announced in the United States.
Located in Rochester in New York state, the World Video Game Hall of Fame is a project by the Strong National Museum of Play, and as the Strong put it, created to "recognize individual electronic games of all types — arcade, console, computer, handheld, and mobile — that have enjoyed popularity over a sustained period and have exerted influence on the video game industry or on popular culture and society in general," which does rather sound like something an art museum might be able to claim.
Whether or not that sways you, it still begs the question, "can video games be art?" The answer, of course, is yes, but they are not inherently art. If you believe that Shia LaBoeuf sitting in a room where anyone can do anything they want to him - or the piece by the original artist he was ripping off, for that matter - counts as art, then a video game with an emotionally charged narrative that asks deep questions about the nature of morality, friendship and loneliness can't be that far away from the mark.
So before you give up on the latest generation, take a bit of time to get to know what you might be dismissing. Angry Birds probably isn't art, but who knows - those pigs are rather remarkable.
Posted on February 13th 2015 on 02:22pm
