art

No, I'm not talking about the A&E Channel. If you habitually watch A&E, I'm sorry.

In class today, we discussed interactive literature, hypertext media, and tried to understand why it never really "took off." It's hard to read a book that wants you to do more than read. I know that sounds silly, but a historical look can only confirm this.

The novel has not changed very much since the times of Jane Austen, Dickens, or Poe. Popular literature is very straightforward, there are a few twists, the characters are round, and the main character undergoes some sort of change by way of overcoming a conflict. The rules are not that hard to follow.

There is literature that attempts to do things otherwise, such as the short stories of Donald Barthelme, Italo Calvino--books that really change the way a person reads. But they are not popular in the least, and frankly, they do not sell. Why do you think there is an ever-shrinking "Fiction - Literature" section at Barnes & Noble? Genre fiction is what sells.  read more »

It has never really occured to me to think about the impact that video games have had on the world.
Basically, when I think of video games, I think of Guitar Hero. Every once in a while, Rock Band or Dance Dance Revolution occurs to me too. But that's about it.
But when my brother (for example) thinks of video games, it's not just one or two. It's Assassin's Creed, Grand Theft Auto, James Bond, Madden, and most importantly, Halo's 1,2, and 3. There are probably more.
But the effect these games have aren't just to give us an escape from the real world, as much as they help with that. This year, the UF marching band did a show during one of the games that was exclusively video game music- Zelda, Super Mario, Halo, etc, showing that these games not only have an impact on what we do with our free time, but also how we think about pop culture in today's society.  read more »

Crawford writes: "Computer games are too trivial, too frivolous to be called art."

This reminded me quickly of what I've read in the realm of criticism, which tries to define abstract concepts, such as "art," "experience," and "emotion." Duchamp's "Fountain" barely seems artistic to some.Duchamp's "Fountain"

I. A. Richards, considered one of the founding fathers of modern criticism, explains that art must communicate. I'm paraphrasing him here, but this same idea is apparent in Crawford, who writes: "Art is something designed to evoke emotion through fantasy." This is exactly what it does. Richards further explains that art communicates, through emotion, an EXPERIENCE. This is the guiding light of art. Now, how well it communicates that experience, and satisfies impulses, determines "good art" from "bad art". I will simply refer to these as "high art" and "low art," respectively.  read more »

In the preface of his book, Art of Computer Game, Crawford suggest that mainstream video games are trival at best. I Agree...to Disagree. He of course makes some important distinctions of art from an artist point of view but he fails to mention art from the eyes of the audience.

I AGREE:

..."that the computer has become a medium for emotional communication."
- The computer has allowed the audience to become part of the art itself instead of just interpreting the art, as it was commonly done prior to the industrialization of computers.

..."more invest of the game equals more emotional value to the audience."  read more »

Sort of. Passage is a game by the barest definition: You play it. You have one single, generic character that you navigate along a linear path with some limited room for maneuvering. There's one music track, one non-player-character, and exactly one (depressing, or cathartic, or anticlimactic, depending on how you look at it) ending.

The digital "game" is just the medium of Passage. Personally, I think of Passage as more of an artistic expression than a traditional game. Some artists use prose, and others use canvas. Passage happens to be a digital game. I don't mean to sound pretentious though. The idea of something being a 'work of art' has connotes a status of importance that transcends what many would consider the ultimate goal of any given video game: mundane entertainment. Personally I didn't think Passage was so groundbreaking and brilliant to be a "work of art" (but, some people break down into tears upon seeing a Rothko painting, so what do I know?), but it is artistic. Here's why.  read more »