Video Games As Art PDF

Table of Content
1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 1
1.1. METHOD ........................................................................................................................................ 1
2. DIGITAL ART ................................................................................................................................... 2
2.1. INTERACTIVE DIGITAL ART ........................................................................................................... 3
3. INTRODUCTION TO VIDEO GAMES .......................................................................................... 4
4. A STUDY OF THE ART OF VIDEO GAMES ............................................................................... 5
4.1. CRAFT OF CREATION ..................................................................................................................... 5
4.2. VIDEO GAMES AS ART ................................................................................................................... 6
4.3. VIDEO GAMES AT ART MUSEUMS ................................................................................................. 8
4.3.1. The Art of Video Games at Smithsonian American Art Museum 2012 ............................. 8
4.3.2. Applied Design at The Museum of Modern Art, NY 2013 ................................................. 8
4.4. REACTIONS TO THE EXHIBITS ........................................................................................................ 9
4.4.1. Reactions to The Art of Video Games. .............................................................................. 9
4.4.2. Reactions to Applied Design ........................................................................................... 10
4.5. DEBATE REGARDING VIDEO GAMES AS ART. ............................................................................. 11
5. DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................................... 14
6. SUMMARY ....................................................................................................................................... 16
REFERENCES ..................................................................................................................................... 17
PRINTED MATERIAL ........................................................................................................................... 17
INTERNET MATERIAL ......................................................................................................................... 17
APPENDIX 1 ........................................................................................................................................ 19
EXHIBITION IMAGES ........................................................................................................................... 19
The Art of Video games at Smithsonian American Art Museum ............................................... 19
Applied Design at MoMA, NYC ................................................................................................ 20
APPENDIX 2 ........................................................................................................................................ 22
TRANSCRIBED INTERVIEWS ............................................................................................................... 22
Interview 1. Chris Melissinos, Curator The Art of Video Games ............................................. 22
Interview 2. Paola Antonelli, Curator Applied Design ............................................................. 23
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1. Introduction
Ever since new digital technologies began to emerge many decades ago, artists have been
among the first to experiment with these new mediums. Digital technologies are used both as
tools for more traditional art and as a medium for new art. The use of digital technologies in
art have opened new doors to what is possible to create and it has also become a way to
combine many types of art forms and interactivity in to one art piece. Interactivity especially,
have become an essential core in digital art that have been used to break rules and ideas of
what we consider an artwork. As with art and all types of mediums, some pieces are art and
some are not. Not all paintings are considered art, neither are all installations or performances.
The same goes with digital art. Some digital pieces can be considered art while others are not.
One field of digital production that lately been greatly discussed weather it may be art or not
are video games. And this is the field I aim to study further in this paper.
1.1. Method
The idea of claiming that video games are a type of art is rather new. For many developers
and artists that have worked with video games for decades the idea of looking at video games
as art have long been a fact, but in more established art circles the idea have not been brought
up until quite recently, and it is just in these last few years that exhibits of video games at art
museums have become a reality. My aim for this paper is to study the idea of video games as
art and I will do so by looking closer at two exhibits at art museums where video games have
been collected by the museum and exhibited as art. The exhibits I will be studying are: The
Art of Video Games that was produced by the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 2012,
and the 2013 Applied Design exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The
Applied Design exhibit include more items and installations then the video games, but I
will focus my study on the video game section of the exhibit. The curators of both these
exhibits have vocally claimed that video games are art and I will use interviews with them as
well as critics and developers, to get a better idea whether video games can be considered art.
As this is a rather limited study I will focus on these two exhibits, the ideas behind them and
the reactions to them. I will bring some context to the exhibition study by including short
summaries on digital art and video games, but there will not be room for much theory. I will
leave the theoretical approach to the idea of video games as art to a future and more extensive
study on the subject.
#
2. Digital Art
Even though digital technologies have gotten its main breakthrough these past decades, many
techniques began to develop already 60-70 years ago. Artists have always been among the
first to experiment with new types of technologies and mediums and it was no different in the
case of digital technologies. Artistic experiments using digital technologies were initially
referred to as computer art, but later called multimedia art. These days, however, they are
generally referred to as digital art.
1

The development of digital art has always been closely connected to the developments in
technology and science, but it did not only evolve based on technological improvements,
digital art also had strong connections to artistic streams such as Dada, Fluxus and conceptual
art.
2
During the 70s and 80s, digital art developed further and began to incorporate more
interactive elements, making the audience participants in the artwork. Later in the 90s digital
art became more frequently exhibited in art museums and galleries and at about the same time
digital art began to break ground on the Internet, available anytime to anyone, anywhere.
3

Digital art is generally divided up in two different fields: art where digital technologies have
been used as a tool to produce more traditional types of art, such as photography, print,
sculpture and music, and art where the digital technologies serve as a medium.
4
In art where
digital technologies have been used as a tool the extent of the digital impact can vary a lot. In
some cases the fact that digital technologies have been used in the production of a piece will
never be noticeable for the viewer and in other cases the artist have let characteristics of the
digital medium be part of the piece.
5
In digital art where digital technologies are used as an
artistic medium, the art exists exclusively as a digital art piece. It is produced, stored and
presented in digital form.
6
The various forms that this type of digital art may take are for
example installation, video and animation, Internet and software art, virtual reality and
musical environments.
7

1
Christiane Paul, Digital Art, London 2008 (2003), p. 7.
2
3
Christiane Paul, Digital Art, London 2008 (2003), p. 21-23.
4
5
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2.1. Interactive Digital Art
On some level, all art can be considered interactive. Art have since its beginning created a
dialog between the artist and the viewer, but when it comes to interactive art the art piece
itself is created within this dialog.
8
Interactive art is not always collaborative but it does in
general make the audience participate in the art creation, as the art pieces structure is
dynamic and customizable.
9
The interactivity of interactive art is not merely there for its own
sake, but it serves as a way for the audience to discover the meaning behind the art piece and
the message it aims to convey.
10
Interactive art have contributed to a new way of consuming
art, it has shifted the focus from fact to event and from message to becoming part of a
dialog.
11
But interactive art should not only be looked upon as a an event, it is both event and
object, as Roberto Simanowski phrases it:
It provides a space for experiences, but also a message to be understood. The fact that
an interactive artwork needs its audiences participation to be completed does not mean
that it merely receives its meaning from this participation.
12

This new mixed nature of digital art, that is both object made up by the use of various types of
media and storytelling and an event in the interaction, make it hard to categorize, something
that in many cases also seem to be a point emphasized by digital artists and something they
strive for.
13

8
Roberto Simanowski. Digital Art and Meaning: Reading Kinetic Poetry, Text Machines, Mapping Art, and
Interactive Installations, Minneapolis 2011, location 1718 of 4096 (Kindle Edition).
9
Christiane Paul, Digital Art, London 2008 (2003), p. 68
10
Chee-Onn Wong; Keechul Jung; Joonsung Yoon Interactive Art: The Art that Communicates Leonardo Vol
42 No 2, p 180.
11
12
Interactive Installations, Minneapolis 2011, location 1846-1912 of 4096 (Kindle Edition).
13
%
3. Introduction to Video Games
When digital technologies began to appear some 60-70 years ago. Computer and video games
followed shortly after and they became a way for computer scientists to show what the
systems and hardware they invented were capable of creating.
14
During the 70s the first video
games adapted for the home market began to emerge and by the early 80s the use of personal
computers and video game consoles had exploded and were sold by the millions.
15
In the
early 80s arcades also began to flourish and offered a different video game experience oppose
to the video game consoles available for home use. By the mid 80s it seemed as if the
personal computers were taking over and consoles were loosing ground, but when Nintendo
released its first console in 1985 in the US, consoles were back and with them new types of
more advanced video games that had more complex storytelling and graphics.
16
By the 90s
both personal computers and game consoles offered a huge variety of games. Technologies
such as improved graphics and greater storage space made it possible for developers to use
higher resolution artwork, longer and more complex storytelling, realistic voices and more
intricate music compositions.
17
By the late 90s, new technologies made it possible to develop
3D gaming and along with that began the transition from 2D to 3D games. New game
consoles that were better suited for 3D gaming, like the Sony Playstation and the Microsoft
XBOX, launched during this time, and are still around today, though in updated versions.
18

As with other art and media, video games can be divided in to different genres. Though there
are many subgenres, Chris Melissinos focus on four main genres. The first one is Target, the
oldest type of video game that derive from target shooting but that also can take forms such as
pinball. The basic idea of this genre is the more you hit, the greater your score.
19
A second
genre is Adventure, it has a greater base in storytelling and encourage exploration. Action is a
third genre. Storytelling is generally important in the action genre too, but so is speed and
skill. The third genre is Tactics, these games deal with strategy, planning and structured logic.
To create a context to these tactics, storytelling is also an important part of this genre.
20

14
Chris Melissinos, Preface the resonance of games as art. The art of video games from Pac-Man to Mass
Effect: Welcome Books. New York 2012, p. 8.
15
Chris Melissinos, The art of video games from Pac-Man to Mass Effect.. New York 2012, p. 15.
16
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4. A study of the art of video games
As mentioned earlier in this paper, digital art covers a wide spectrum of art genres and styles.
Video games are digital to be sure, but are they art?
4.1. Craft of Creation
The base of digital art is code, and that is also the case with video games. Many developers in
the video game field have a wider background then pure programming or engineering, they
have backgrounds in film, music and art and combine these backgrounds with their
technological knowledge.
21
To be able to make any judgment on whether video games may
be art or not, it important to take a look at the development process and the way developers
work in the creation of video games.
As many developers interviewed for the the Art of Video Games exhibit recall, in the early
days of game development there was a lot of engineering. The technology was limited and
just to make the most basic effects it took a lot of intense work.
22
But these technological
limitations also contributed to a focus on the narrative and storytelling in the games. As the
graphics were rough it was important to present a good story with the game to make it more
interesting to play.
23
Building games from scratch where there was nothing to build upon
involved tedious work like entering every pixel of every frame of the entire game by hand,
based on sketches on graph paper,
24
as developer Mike Mika recalls:
To me, the images we painted on our television screens were beyond compare. They
had meaning, and looking back at them now, I see an evolution. While our first works
drew heavily from pop culture influences comics, movies, and music our later
works became more original. [---] Much of the knowledge we acquired came from
taking apart other artists work, changing it, learning from it, and then playing it.
25

21
Mike Mika, Introduction. The art of video games from Pac-Man to Mass Effect: Welcome Books. New
York 2012, p. 11.
##
Steve Cartwright Interview | Steve Cartwright. The art of video games from Pac-Man to Mass Effect:
Welcome Books. New York 2012, p. 35.
#$
Don Daglow, Interview | Don Daglow. The art of video games from Pac-Man to Mass Effect: Welcome
Books. New York 2012, p. 45.
24
York 2012, p. 11.
25
York 2012, p. 11.
+
As technology developed it became easier to realize ideas in video games and developers
could bring in a wider spectrum of inspiration in to the games. The games became more
multifaceted and could include a more complex mix of multimedia, storytelling and
interaction. Inspiration from movies, art, music, drama and real life experiences became easier
to incorporate in to the games to enhance the experience and the message in the games.
26

These new developments made it easier to use the medium as a way of expression, as
developer Warren Spector states:
Video games are a serious medium of expression. The creators of these games
speaking not just for myself but for all my friends and colleagues we think about the
creative process the same way that a filmmaker does, in the same way that a novelist
does, in the same way that a musician or a painter does.
27

As with most types of media or art productions, it is often a very personal process. It is not
just a matter of story or a matter of media or mechanics. It is a matter of creating an
experience, and perhaps that is also why many of the interviewed game developers without a
doubt saw their works as pieces of art.
28
Developer Don Daglow notes that considering the
amount of work and passion behind each game, there are very few games that were created
only out of an opportunity to make money.
29

4.2. Video games as Art
Can video games be art? Many video game artists and developers have been seeing it as art all
along.
30
Other people in the video game field do not care whether it be called art or not, it is
not a priority of theirs. The art community have just recently begun to warm up to the idea of
video games as art, and some influential people in the modern art field such as MoMA Senior
curator Paola Antonelli clearly states that video games ARE art.
31

26
Kevin Bachus Interview | Kevin Bachus. The art of video games from Pac-Man to Mass Effect: Welcome
#&
Warren Spector, Interview | Warren Spector. The art of video games from Pac-Man to Mass Effect:
Welcome Books. New York 2012, p. 107.
28
Ron Gilbert, Interview | Ron Gilbert. The art of video games from Pac-Man to Mass Effect: Welcome
29
Don Daglow, Interview | Don Daglow. The art of video games from Pac-Man to Mass Effect: Welcome
30
York 2012, p. 10.
31
Paola Antonelli, Video Games: 14 in the Collection, for Starters, INSIDE/OUT MoMA Blog 2012-11-29 (url:
http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the-collection-for-starters )
&
Digital art overall have not been part of the art world for very long and various types of digital
art are constantly under debate whether they are art or not. The often considered strength of
digital art its mix of various types of media, story telling and interactivity have also often
been the part of digital art that critics have debated the most. As Roberto Simanowski declares
in his book Digital Art and Meaning:
ONCE UPON A TIME, visual art was simple: it originated with an artists conception
and craft, which the viewer acknowledged and then strove to understand while standing
before the object.
32

He continues to say that when abstract art emerged, even though the art pieces looked
significantly different to the previous art, it was still a matter of a static art piece that had been
created by an artist and contained a meaning for the viewer. This however changed with
interactive art, where the viewer became part of the artwork itself instead of just viewing it.
33

Video games share a lot of ideas and structures with for example interactive art, such as user
participation and role-playing. They also share a lot of characteristics with animation and
Internet and software art.
34
Video games have long been disregarded within the art
community for being games, but there have been several examples of established artists using
the video game medium to create art pieces such as Natalie Bookchins pieces The Intruder,
an online game based on Jorge Luis Borges short story The Intruder, and Metapet, an online
game that focuses on resource management and where the player assumes the role of a
manager for a biotech company.
One commercial video game that the 2008 Thames & Hudson Digital Art book bring up as an
example of a game that is widely considered to be an art piece is Will Wrights The Sims, a
non-violent, community based game where the player assign characters personalities,
relationships, skills and appearances and build their own community as well as interact with
other players communities.
35
The fact that a book on digital art, that was last revised in 2008
include a sub-chapter on gaming is quite interesting and can perhaps be seen as a prediction of
what was to come.

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4.3. Video Games at Art Museums
Video game exhibits in art museum do not have a very long history. It was not until a few
years ago that art museums first began to acquire video games in to their collections, and later
putting them on display in exhibits. I will here look closer at two exhibits at established art
institutions that have exhibited video games.
4.3.1. The Art of Video Games at Smithsonian American Art Museum 2012
The Art of Video Games was produced by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and was
on display at the museum from March 16
th
2012 through September 30
th
2012, since then it
has been travelling throughout the USA, and will continue as a travelling exhibit until January
2016.
It was originally developer Chris Melissinos that pitched the idea to the Smithsonian
American Art Museum and together with the museum he created an advisory group made up
by game developers, designers, pioneers and journalists. Chris Melissinos himself was
assigned the position of curator of the exhibit. The advisory group selected some 240 games
in four different genres based on criterion such as visual effects, creative use of new
technologies and how world events and pop-culture influenced the games. Once the 240
games were selected, the public was invited to vote for their various favorites through a
website, this resulted in some 4 million votes from 175 different countries and a final
selection of 80 games that were displayed in the exhibition.
36

The exhibition was only focused on video games and presenting them in a way where the
visitors were to form their own opinions in the end whether they would consider video games
to be art or not.
37
The exhibition was divided by eras and genres, and there was also a focus
on the development of mechanics within the games.
38

4.3.2. Applied Design at The Museum of Modern Art, NY 2013
In 2012 the Museum of Modern Art in New York City acquired 14 video games in to their
collection, with the intent of collecting even more games in the future and displaying some of
the games in exhibit. The games acquired in 2012 were: Pac-Man (1980), Tetris (1984),

36
37
38
Chris Suellentrop, A Museums Games Are Not on Pedestals, New York Times 2013-03-03 (url:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/arts/video-games/a-museums-games-are-not-on-pedestals.html?_r=0)
(
Another World (1991), Myst (1993), SimCity 2000 (1994), vib-ribbon (1999), The Sims
(2000), EVE Online (2003), Katamari Demacy (2004), Dwarf Fortress (2006), flOw (2006),
Portal (2007), Passage (2008) and Canabalt (2009)
39
. The selection was based on criterion
such as visual quality, aesthetic experience, elegance of code and the design of the players
behavior.
40
The selection also included various types of games, from arcade games to
Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs).
41

On March 2
nd
2013 the exhibit Applied Design, curated by MoMA Senior Curator Paola
Antonelli, opened its doors showing a vast variation of items such as product design and
inventions, but the exhibit also included video games. Of the 14 games on display in the
exhibit, half of them are playable to the visitors and the rest of the games were made available
through interactive demonstrations, to better communicate the more extensive nature of that
game.
42
To the greatest extent possible, the original games were to be playable within the
exhibit, but in some cases where the original cartridges were in fragile shape, the exhibit
instead offered emulated games.
43

4.4. Reactions to the exhibits
The reactions to the exhibits were very mixed. Overall the gaming community was positive to
the fact that video games were exhibited at established art institutions, but many art critics
were not as positive and the debate regarding whether video games may be considered Art
stirred up along with the openings of the exhibits.
4.4.1. Reactions to The Art of Video Games.
Though the Art of Video Games did stir up the debate on whether video games could be
considered art, it also created a debate within the gaming community. Though many were
thrilled to see video games exhibited as art at an established art museum,
44
many in the
gaming community were disappointed in how the games were exhibited. Curator Chris

39
40
41
Teshia Treuhaft, Tetris is Fine Art: MoMA's Paola Antonelli-Curated 'Applied Design' Exhibition, Core77
2013-04-23 (url: http://www.core77.com/blog/exhibitions/tetris_is_fine_art_momas_paola_antonelli-
curated_applied_design_exhibition_24627.asp)
42
43
44
Jason MacIsaac, Videogames Are Art. Case Closed., EP Daily 2012-05-22 (url: http://epdaily.tv/all/type-
of/news/videogames-are-art-case-closed/ )
")
Melissinos had created an exhibit that mainly focused on the evolution of video games and
the mechanics, craft and art behind them.
45
Though a large part of his claim that video games
are art was based in the interactivity of the medium, many in the gaming community were
disappointed that there were hardly any playable games on display. To show the interaction of
the games the exhibit instead depended on video footage of gameplay.
46
A lot of this video
footage, critics noted, were of poor quality and did not show the complexities of the games, in
turn they found that the exhibit made them think that video games did not fit in well at the art
museum.
47

4.4.2. Reactions to Applied Design
Even though MoMA was not the first art museum in the US to acquire and exhibit video
games, and even though their collection and display of video games were a lot smaller then
the the Art of Video Games exhibit, it still seems to have gained more attention then the
earlier exhibit. Art critics such as Jonathan Jones of the Guardian seemed frustrated by the
fact that video games would be on display next to fine art pieces such as Ma Jolie by Picasso
and Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh.
48
And the debate regarding video games as art
resulted in numerous articles, referring to the MoMA exhibit, in papers such as the New York
Times and The Guardian.
The exhibit also resulted in reactions from the gaming community. As in the case of the Art
of Video Games critique included lack of interactivity, as many games displayed were not
available for gameplay.
49
They also reacted to that the Applied Design exhibit overall
largely focused on function, and that in that context the video games were not clearly
emphasized as art.
50
Though visitors from the gaming community thought the displays were
naked and lacked contextual items such as gaming consoles, packaging and concept art,
51

45
46
47
Fred Dutton, Has the Art World Finally Fallen for Video Games?, Eurogamer 2012-03-29 (url:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-03-26-has-the-art-world-finally-fallen-for-video-games )
48
Jonathan Jones, Sorry MoMA, video games are not art, The Guardian 2012-11-30 (url:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/nov/30/moma-video-games-art )
49
Brian Moriarty, A designer's take: MoMA is wrong to pretend video games are art, The Guardian 2013-03-07
(url: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/07/designer-says-moma-wrong-on-video-games-art )
50
51
""
curator Paola Antonelli defended the approach by clearifying that the museum wished to
emphasise the experience and interaction of the games.
52

4.5. Debate regarding Video Games as Art.
As the art exhibits on video games came on display, the debate did not only cover direct
reactions to the exhibits, but it also rekindled the debate whether video games could be
considered art overall. Many art critics were very critical in their stance against video games
as art. As the Guardian columnist Jonathan Jones expressed in his blog:
There needs to be a word for the overly serious and reverent praise of digital games by
individuals or institutions who are almost certainly too old, too intellectual and too
dignified to really be playing at this stuff. Gamecrashing? Gamebollocks?
Spiellustfaken?
53

He continues his article Sorry MoMA, video games are not art by discussing the role of the
artist. He recalls a meeting with an aesthetician that defended video games as art on the bases
of their interactive dimension and their liberation of shared authorship,
54
but Jones himself do
not agree with this and instead argues that an art piece is one person's reaction to life, that it is
an act of personal imagination.
55
Video Games, however, do not, according to Jones, have an
artist - the player cannot claim to impose any personal vision on the piece and the creator has
ceded that responsibility. If the art piece do not have an author or artist, it cannot be art.
56

Acclaimed movie critic Roger Ebert also remain convinced that by principle video games can
not be art.
57
He discusses this further in his article Video Games can never be Art. His main
issue with dubbing video games as art is not the role of the artist but the fact that video games
are games, and games are not art - games are games.
58
He believes that many types of media
and performances can be art, such as books, dance and film, but these are experiences in

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Roger Ebert, Video Games can never be Art, Roger Eberts Journal 2010-04-16 (url:
http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/video-games-can-never-be-art )
58
"#
themselves, not something with points and rules, something that you can win.

But he also
clarifies that not all paintings are art, not all films are art, in the end it is a matter of taste.
59

Brian Moriarty of The Guardian agrees on that video games are not art in his article A
designer's take: MoMA is wrong to pretend video games are art, but at the same time he find
the reasoning of Jones and Ebert troublesome. He writes:
Nevertheless, I find myself becoming cross and irritable when I read the particular
objection expressed in Jonathan Jones' recent Guardian editorial (also found in Mr
Ebert's writings), where he states that games cannot be art simply because they appear
to abrogate the authority of the artist. This argument brushes aside nearly a century of
vital artwork exploring the conventional boundaries between artist, exhibitor and
spectator.
60

Instead Moriartys issue with calling video games art is more based in theory. He claims that
nowhere in the past 2500 years worth of art philosophy is there any support for that a medium
like video games could be classified as art. He brings theorist Schopenhauer in to his
argument, stating that in his writings he would classify game playing as a form of
excitement, the opposite of sublime art.
61

Developer and the Art of Video Games exhibition curator Chris Melissinos also brings up
Roger Eberts ideas regarding video games in an interview with EP (Electric Playground)
Daily. Though he says he respects Eberts opinion, he also adds that art is subjective and that
ones definition of art often is a personal definition. His own definition of art he states as
follows:
I believe that [if] you are able to observe the work of an artist and understand their
intent while also finding personal connection or resonance with that message, then art
has been achieved. By every measure, videogames hold up to that definition.
62

He describes video games as an amalgam of traditional art. Within the video game one can
find illustration, composition, painting, orchestration, narrative and other types of artistic

59
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expression, and combining these expression together in to a game make the mix greater then
the sum of its parts. He adds:
It isnt any one art discipline; its many art disciplines that creates this new art form.
63

But it is not just a matter of the various types of art one can find within the video game,
Melissinos also discusses three voices in video games that together turn it in to an art piece.
The first voice is that of the author or artist who have a story and message they want to
convey, may it be a single person or an entire team. The second voice is that of the game
itself, the mechanics and how one is able to interact with the game. The third voice is that of
the player, that guides his was way through the game based on his own ideas, emotions and
priorities. Melissinos state that it is through the playing of the game that art emerges.
64

He continues to discuss the role of video games in todays world. Today, developers and
artists in the game industry does not always need to limit themselves the way they had to in
earlier game development as todays digital technologies are so advanced. The previous strive
for better mechanics and realism is now being turned in to a strive to create games with
greater artistic intent.
65

While Melissinos is passionate about declaring video games as art, others in the gaming field
are not as enthusiastic. Just like Melissinos, Fred Dutton mentions in his article Has the Art
World Finally Fallen for Video Games? that there is no set definition of art, and because of
that he finds it meaningless to discuss whether games may be art when we dont even know
what art is.
66
Dutton also get support on this statement from Digital Art and Meaning author
Roberto Simanowski who writes:
Nobody can really say what comprises art today, and everybody know that judgments
about quality of an alleged example of art are hardly objective.
67

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Fred Dutton, Has the Art World Finally Fallen for Video Games?, Eurogamer 2012-03-29 (url:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-03-26-has-the-art-world-finally-fallen-for-video-games )
67
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5. Discussion
The amount of definitions of art I have read for this paper are staggering and one thing I
noticed is that the same definition easily can be used to both declare video games as art and
strip them off the same label. Many art critics seem to think that the gaming industry craves to
be able to label its productions art, but going through interviews and texts by game developers
they are either already sure it is art and dont need any art critics to tell them so, or they are
indifferent to the debate overall.
A lot of the critique brought up against video games as art definitely present some valid
concerns. One major issue many critics has with video games as art is the interactive side of
them, but if one is to disregard interactivity as a mean for expression in an art piece, one is
also disregarding decades worth of interactive installations, and a lot of digital art overall.
Brian Moriarty does criticize his colleagues for disregarding interactive art, but he himself
cites 19
th
century theory that claims that art is supposed to be sublime, and that games are just
pure excitement. A lot of art before as well as after the 19
th
century does not fall under the
category of sublime art, and today, especially since the introduction of interactive art,
excitement does not mean that an art piece cannot be art.
Another issue raised by critic Brian Moriarty of the Guardian in his article is a concern about
the commercial side of the gaming industry.

That the commercial side of the industry may
choke whatever artistic intent the developers may initially have had.
68
But the fact still
remains that many art forms such as music and film also have a very commercial side to them.
And it is interesting to see cases where established artists like Natalie Bookchin develop art
pieces using the video game medium in collaboration with art institutions, and how these
pieces are more easily accepted by the established art world.
But when it comes to the critics, it is quite evident that many of them have had very little
contact with video games and seem to be quite unfamiliar with the process and idea behind
them. Author Roberto Simanowski brings this issue up in his book Digital Art and Meaning.
He argues that critics of digital art need to be more familiar with the medium at hand. Just like
many art critics are very familiar with painting techniques, materials and historical context,

68
"*
critics debating digital art should perhaps to some extent be expected to be familiar with the
base of digital art its code.
69

As mentioned in the introduction, when it comes to all artistic mediums, some productions
may be considered art and some may not. I believe that if video games would be considered
art it would not mean that all video games would be considered art. Just as with painting,
where a vast minority of the paintings in the world are considered art, only a minority of
video games may be considered art or artistic. The debate going on today seem to be very two
sided, where either video games are art or they are not. I think there are clear examples of
incredibly artistic video games but there are also clear examples of video games that are not
as artistic. Some games may be more commercialized while other spring from a genuinely
artistic approach to the medium.
Based on this study, the words and ideas of developers, curators and critics, I would say that
defining video games as art simply depends on the game. The artistic intent, the message, the
craft and the interactivity and experience that the players become part of. The museum of
Modern Art based its selection on criterion such as visual quality, aesthetic experience,
elegance of code and the design of the players behavior, and I find that to be a rather useful
tool when looking at video games and perhaps even interactive digital art overall.
So to finalize this study and answer my initial question for this paper: I would say that video
games are art and not art at the same time.

69
"+
6. Summary
In this paper I studied the issue of whether video games can be considered an art form. Digital
technologies have been around for some 60-70 years, and games began to be developed as a
way to show the capacity of the systems and hardware that scientists were creating. Parallel to
the development of digital technologies, digital art emerged as a means for artistic expression
within the new medium. Digital technologies were used both as tools for more traditional
artistic expression and as a medium for new art. Digital Art developed in to a wide variety of
genres including installation, software art, virtual reality and animation. One of the strongest
points of the digital medium was its ability to mix various types of media and interaction in to
the same art piece. A lot of digital art have been debated over the years and just recently the
debate of whether some digital art is art or not have also come to include video games.
Museums such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in
New York have been among the first art museums to acquire video games in to their
collections and put them on display in exhibits. The reaction to these exhibits have been quite
mixed where the gaming community overall have been positive to having games on display at
art museums. Many art critics, however, have not been as optimistic, and the debate following
the opening of the exhibits included numerous articles refusing to dub video games art.
What comes across, however, looking closer at the work, craft, and ideas that goes in to video
games, is that not only are a lot of the people developing video games artistically schooled,
they also consider the artistic dimensions of the game thoroughly. Many critics disregard
video games on the basis of its interactivity, that one can not tell who the artist is, or based on
the fact that it is a game, but if one is to disregard interactivity in art one will exclude a lot of
interactive art from the art definition. The fact that video games are games is not necessarily
something preventing it from being art. A game of chess may be elegant, but it is still a game,
it is not art. But video games do contain artistic material, ideas and expression, and therefor
the fact that they are games should not be a sole reason not to be able to call them art.
When it comes down to it, most people have their own definition of what art is, and for some
video games fit that definition and for some they dont. But the debate do not need to be black
and white. As with all types of artistic mediums, from paintings to performance, some pieces
may be considered art and some may not. Video games can be art and not art at the same
time.
"&
References
Printed Material
Melissinos, Cris; ORourke, Patrick. The Art of Video Games : From Pac-Man to Mass Effect.
Welcome Books, New York, NY, 2012.
Paul, Christiane. Digital Art. Thames & Hudson, London, 2008.
Simanowski. Roberto. Digital Art and Meaning: Reading Kinetic Poetry, Text Machines,
Mapping Art, and Interactive Installations. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis,
2011.
Wong, Chee-Onn; Jung, Keechul; Yoon, Joonsung. Interactive Art: The Art that
Communicates Leonardo, Volume 42 No 2. The MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 2009.
Internet Material
Antonelli, Paola Video Games: 14 in the Collection, for Starters INSIDE/OUT MoMA Blog
2012-11-29 (2013-04-09) url: http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-
games-14-in-the-collection-for-starters
Bressanin, Anna Console creativity: Museums display video games BBC News 2013-03-04
(2013-04-09) url: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21661690
Dutton, Fred Has the Art World Finally Fallen for Video Games? Eurogamer 2012-03-29
(2013-04-19) url: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-03-26-has-the-art-world-finally-
fallen-for-video-games
Ebert, Roger Video Games can never be Art Roger Eberts Journal 2010-04-16 (2013-04-
19) url: http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/video-games-can-never-be-art
Jones, Jonathan Sorry MoMA, video games are not art The Guardian 2012-11-30 (2013-04-
09) url: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/nov/30/moma-
video-games-art
MacIsaac, Jason Videogames Are Art. Case Closed. EP Daily 2012-05-22 (2013-04-19)
url: http://epdaily.tv/all/type-of/news/videogames-are-art-case-closed/
"'
Moriarty, Brian A designer's take: MoMA is wrong to pretend video games are art The
Guardian 2013-03-07 (2013-04-09) url:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/07/designer-says-moma-wrong-on-
video-games-art
Suellentrop, Chris A Museums Games Are Not on Pedestals New York Times 2013-03-03
(2013-05-15) url: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/04/arts/video-games/a-museums-games-
are-not-on-pedestals.html?_r=0
Treuhaft, Teshia Tetris is Fine Art: MoMA's Paola Antonelli-Curated 'Applied Design'
Exhibition Core77 2013-04-23 (2013-04-23) url:
http://www.core77.com/blog/exhibitions/tetris_is_fine_art_momas_paola_antonelli-
curated_applied_design_exhibition_24627.asp

"(
Appendix 1
Exhibition Images
The Art of Video games at Smithsonian American Art Museum
(image from cnet.com)
(image from techhive.com)
#)
Applied Design at MoMA, NYC
Sim City (Image from mashable.com)
Pac-Man Installation (Image from mashable.com)
#"
Tetris (Image from mashable.com)
##
Appendix 2
Transcribed Interviews
Interview 1. Chris Melissinos, Curator The Art of Video Games
CM: In games there are three voices. There is the voice of the creator. There is the voice of
the game. And there is the voice of the player. And that is what separates video games apart
from any other expressive form of media that we have today.
CM: We are invited by the artist to inject our own morality, our own worldview, our own
experiences into the game as we play it. And what comes out is wholly different for
everybody that experiences it.
CM: And thats why its important: because there is no other medium that affords the world
this incredible opportunity. I want everybody that comes to this exhibition and experiences
the materials and the work thats gone into this to understand that video games are more than
what they thought they were when they came in.
CM: So, the exhibition is actually broken up into three distinct areas. The first area is, of
course, listening to the artists, the designers, the programmers, the musicians talk about their
craft, talk about the meaning. Tim Schafer and Warren Spector and Nolan Bushnell: people
that were pioneers in storytelling. So you get some background into what youre about to
experience.
CM: So moving from there, weve chosen five playable games, one game that represents each
of the five major eras. These are games that allow people to experience games that propelled
those eras forward, that created mechanics and storytelling, opportunities that then other
games built upon.
CM: And, finally, you arrive at a place where you're actually able to see spread out before you
the 40-year history of these games and these systems that acted as touch points within each of
those generations. As youre experiencing the materials, youre actually able to see the
evolution of the art, the evolution of the storytelling, the evolution of meaning of these games,
but hear the echoes of the mechanics of these games all the way back to the beginning.
#$
CM: Given the era in which certain games were made, the technology isnt present for the
entire story, the entire narrative to emerge, but there just wasnt space or power in which to do
so.
CM: You may see Pitfall! on the Atari VCS at the beginning of that part of the exhibition and
see Uncharted 2 at the end of that exhibition and understand that their origin of mechanics are
the same. Thats what people are going to be able to experience the creative process, the
mechanics that allowed things to move forward, and the evolution of the form over time.
CM: So, you know, as people leave this exhibition after experiencing all these things, my
greatest hope is that they go home, re-experience these games in a completely different light.
And they use them to find connection that may have been missing within their own lives.
CM: Games are so much more than just code that runs inside of a computer. You are looking
at the output of passion, of love, of art from the people who create these games.

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=t-l0Bs3wsgo
Interview 2. Paola Antonelli, Curator Applied Design
PA: Were amongst the first museums of Art to acquire video games within a collection of
Art.
PA: We have games like Tetris, like Pac-Man. I believe that this is just the beginning.
PA: Im quite sure that in the future well move to apps, well move to other forms of
software. The new warehouse in the collection of digital kind of warehouse.
PA: People who believe that video games do not belong in art museums are in a dramatic
minority. They also sound so out of space and out of time, as if they didnt know what is
happening. Are video games Art? I believe they are.
PA: And Im perfectly happy with them being great design, I dont need for them to be art,
but I believe they are, and its just a matter of time before the whole world believes that.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21661690

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