Re: [-empyre-] hi

Ana Valdés <agora@algonet.se> · Sun, 04 Jul 2004 20:51:43 +0200

Hi Brody, cool to "meet old faces" in different forums. I was invited to 
participate in Witte de Witt discussion "Under Fire" by Catherine David, 
one of the most intelligent and well informed curator in our days. I 
think Catherines work with "Arabic Representations in the Modern World" 
is an example of how to use critical thinking and a radical view to Art 
and to representation.

We live in a world dominated by "representation" in Baudrillard terms 
and my question and the aim of my activism today is not to create 
"reactions" to, or "actions against", but "creation" per se, it means, 
the possibility to create not a counter culture but a culture based in 
cooperation, shareware and networking.

I think Gonzalo Frascas games,  http://www.newsgaming.com/, show pretty 
well how to deal with political and activist issues withing a game 
interface.

Ana

brody condon wrote:
Hello, I am one of the creators of Waco Res, and I have a history of 
work made around games and game culture - www.tmpspace.com
Melinda, it's great to hear positive feedback on the actual experiece 
with some of these "reality" pieces. But I have to be honest, as 
someone who grew up spending a substantial amount of time buried in 
computer and role-playing game aesthetics and interactive structures, 
I rarely get excited by spending time "playing" any of these games. 
There seems to be misconception that shoving topical content into a 
poorly crafted game world with a lack interesting game flow is somehow 
useful. In the end we are left with a mix of poor art and poor 
engineering that reeks of so much 90's media art. I am guilty of this 
myself. At the same time, I was just on "political games" panel with 
Harvey Smith, one the creators of Deus Ex, and he is on the other end 
of the spectrum. He spoke passionately about embedding political 
metaphor into that popular mainstream game. In the end, even though 
those intentions are surrounded by virtuoso game design and solid 
graphics, it falls flat. Curious, does the craft of game play and 
design actually matter? Is it enough that these critical games just 
exist as alternatives?
Ana, I am familiar with you from your involvement with the Under Fire 
panel on representations of violence recently staged at the Witte de 
With in Rotterdam. By the way I was probably born when you were in 
prison, and I am literally the child of the bitter and drug addicted 
aftermath of the somewhat failed countercultural movement in the US 
during that period. It would be nice to bring some of the issues 
raised at the Witte into this discussion. Although I was skeptical at 
first, there seemed to be some actual work being done to understand in 
a comprehensive way the structure and processes that have created our 
current relationship with images of violent conflict in 
tele/film/games/news. Some of the conclusions might be useful here, It 
seems like most of the discussions around this specific topic end up 
as pointing to the surge in reality gaming, mixed with healthy fear of 
those games being produced by conservative agendas: Kuma War, AA, 
Op-F18, whatever. And going back to Melinda's point, I am curious what 
you, and especially Rafeal, see as the important results that come out 
of somewhat predicatable game scenarios made by a group "in opposition 
to the dominant political force". Again, not the most interesting 
questions, but as someone making these hopeless and pathetic 
gestures,  I'm still curious if it is enough that these dissident 
forms of cultural production simply exist as an end in themselves? Are 
they actually effective/affective?
-Brody

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