The art of video games

There is much contesting of the idea that video games can be art. On the other hand, there is little argument that games are not a part of our cultural landscape.

Computers are not particularly old, and the first computer game was patented in 1948. Pong was released in 1972, and the age of the video arcade soon followed. So did the age of the home console, with the Magnavox Odyssey coming out that same year. When PCs came along in the 80s, games were right there with them. Today games are ubiquitous, on virtually every technical device that manufacturers can squeeze them on, and they range from the light and casual to the hardcore, and there’s something for everybody.

Are they art? Well, they certainly incorporate a lot of things we think of as art in other contexts. They have a strong visual component, and they often incorporate music, but then again, my supermarket uses visual tricks and music to get me to buy more cauliflower, so those alone may not be enough. They also have narrative, that is, a beginning, a middle and an end, and in that are like movies (which also have the visual and audio components). That the narrative is driven by the viewer/user and not the creator (in a way, although the creator is still ultimately responsible for the parameters of the experience), gives some critics pause. The question has to boil down to our definition of art. If art is something that moves us on a combined emotional and intellectual level, which is not a bad definition, than I’d have to say that they are art. Marcel Duchamp’s found art, which is a signed piece of old plumbing, moves us on a combined emotional and intellectual level. Monet’s lily pads move us on a combined emotional and intellectual level. Citizen Kane and Hamlet move us on a combined emotional and intellectual level. Beethoven does it. Why not BioShock? Let’s put it this way. Even if you believe that video games aren’t there yet, they’ll be there soon enough. And just as all paintings and movies and plays and music don’t move us on a combined emotional and intellectual level, neither will all video games. That any of them do, makes those that do, art. The ones that don’t? Either they’re just commerce, or bad/failed art.

In any case, whatever you believe about games as art, they’re now being exhibited in the Smithsonian. But keep this in perspective. They also have locomotives and Fonzie’s leather jacket in the Smithsonian.

Smithsonian scores with ‘Art of Video Games’ exhibit

How Video Games Ended Up in the Smithsonian