Games and Art

Source Article: Museum of Modern Art picks 14 pretty, ugly games for new exhibit by Jessica Conditt. Joystiq Nov. 29, 2012.

The debate about whether or not video games can be art is futile. The detractors will never acknowledge games as art. Their minds are made up. They will not change their minds because they are not gamers. They are critics like Roger Ebert who famously said, "video games can never be art." Given his occupation as a film critic many would think that Ebert would see the parallels between the art of film and video games. Ebert cannot see the many story telling and artistic similarities between cinema and video games because he has never played video games. Luckily for those who do play younger generations of art critics are ready to give video games the credit they deserve.

From March to September the Smithsonian Museum of Art held an exhibition to "explore the forty-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium." The exhibition heralded video games as a combination of "painting, writing, sculpture, music, storytelling, and cinematography." The Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in NewYork City will also host a video game exhibit starting in March 2013. The MOMA has acquired 14 games, ranging Pac-Man to Portal, with the intention of expanding their collection to 40 games in the near future. In 2008 The Vancouver Art Gallery held an exhibition called 'Krazy!' The exhibition featured video games along side comics and cartoons and visual art. The exhibition promised"insight into the mind and method of some of the finest artists at work today."

Ebert eventually modified his statement that games could never be art. Never was to absolute of a time frame so he downgraded to say that "no video gamer now living will survive long enough to experience the medium as an art form." This statement is much easier to live with because video games are here to stay and developers are committed to improving their art. Game developers are exploring new ideas like LA Game Space. The goal of LA Game Space is to offer a place for artists and developers to "collaborate in unconventional ways." Giving game developers a place to collaborate and create games outside of a studio structure gives them an opportunity to take chances that they normally couldn't. Taking chances will allow developers to "push the limits of the artform."

 When asked, "are video games art?" Paola Antonelli Senior Curator at the MOMA responded, "They sure are." The Smithsonian called video games an "unprecedented method of communicating with and engaging audiences." Endorsements like these are still not enough for some people to admit that games can be art. This is alright though because even if it does not happen in the lifetime of a "video gamer now living" eventually video games will be seen as the art that they are.