[-empyre-] games as art or art as game

[Daphne Dragona]

i went into a music record store today , looking for a cd
i have not been in one for a long long time
as the i-tunes invasion made this habit fade out
i found my cd quickly but  i finally stayed in for an hour or so...
walking around browsing cds, checking offers,
getting excited with cds i did not expect to find...
of course i finally left the store having bought more than i should...
but this is not the issue.

wandering around in a music record store...
does it sound simplistic? Maybe…
but when i was there our discussion came back to my mind
what do you prefer i said to my self?
the i-tunes search engine which fulfils your wishes  in a minute?
or spending time looking at the shelves of a music store,  full of
people on a saturday morning?

i answered the second...but... truth is
i ll go back to my i-tunes cos it s most convenient and faster.

So i can not say we dont need archives
Of course they are precious for any research work, there is no doubt about it.
But I believe that there is something being lost here.

My answer to julian's question on curating, is predictable.
I spend hours and hours reading blogs and websites on new media and games,
going through books and catalogues and checking exhibitions to do my work.
And an archive is of course of a great help to my work.

But yes i do believe at the same time that while working a lot on the
direction of classifying and archiving game projects.., play becomes
institutionalised. It does gain certain values of an academic or
research interest.... but its character is being lost.

The idea of an archive and the idea of wandering can not really meet,
in my opinion.
An non- structured archive is not an archive anymore. It s something
else. Would we be interested in such a form? That would follow
playfulness, unexpected outcomes and wanderings?

I fear that in the frenetic times we are living in we feel we are not
allowed to say yes.
It is a little paradox of our "community". Working for play and
against play at the same time.
At least, this is how i often critisize my self

d