[-empyre-] Game Art & The End Of The Gallery

[Christian McCrea]

Thanks Daphne and Melinda,

On the question of the gallery... its hard to imagine game art
exhibitions ten years from now being organised without reference to
commerce because so much of the aesthetic of seriality is
commerce-driven. Nor would I want it to be the driving narrative...
but for example, Game On's display of indepedent games was on slightly
older monitors (it seems, anyway) than the new commercial games. The
effect was perfect.


>  for me the main question is always around
>  - what role is game art asked to play?

I think it is very very localised; especially considering how global
games is assumed to be. A lot of hand-made, craft-based work that
references game culture appears in Sydney; Melbourne has a
painterly/drawn influence. What surprises me is the late 90s/early
2000s connection to music has not developed a great deal more in
Australia while so much happens in Europe.

If there is a general way of answering, game art is asked to position
itself between a whole range of forces and bodies, to offer rules for
others to play in. Its asked to bring in all these other types of
micro production, while infecting their practitioners with art,
thought, etc. I feel like sometimes this is a role forced upon any
serious treatment of games.

Some short answers to questions which deserve to be taken up on their
own rather than lumped together:

>  Almost a decade later, is the scene still parasitic or it has gained
>  an autonomous role?

I believe a lot has changed for the better. There are critical masses
at points, enough that the question shifts from ontology to practice.
A very small show in Melbourne last year by artist Nirmala Shome
involving a hand-made model of a Sim City which the audience destroyed
struck me as one influenced by earlier game art, and that in itself
was a opening up of dialogues.
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2007/03/nirmala-shome-w.php

>  Can we - the ones working on this field - encourage critical thinking?

Yes; most games people entering the world of games now are going
through University degree programs which are (I hope, believe)
naturally attracted to art as a way to communicate the critical method
in action, as a way of presenting game production itself as well.

>  There are millions of gamers around the world but are they conscious
>  about the new dimensions of play ?

Somewhat; the existence of blogs and sites that pick up the
occassional story about game art add to a chatter about productive
activity appealing to the geek sensibility. So you have hacks, indy
games, game art popping up all the time on even hardcore gaming blogs
precisely because it is seen as more hardcore (we need a Linda
Williams analysis of the gamer use of the word!).

>  Vaneigem, referring to Dada, wrote that it was from art that play broke free .
>  How free is play today? what can art do about it?

Thats wonderful... is art trying to rein play back in after all?

-Christian McCrea