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This art gallery gave me space, now what?
AdrianKent
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hey guys. I'm a local Philadelphia artist who has the task of creating a exhibition. The community space I worked with for so long has decided to give me space to freely come up with my own subject, only limited by my imagination, the budget, and the community output.
I'm sort of looking to show the contemporary art world that video games is an art form just like film is. Film has giant epic Hollywood blockbusters, as well as the low-key indie films. But from a non-gamer standpoint, video games are all Modern Warfare 2s and Grand Theft Autos.
The problem is that I've been trying to pinpoint exactly what my premise is, and how do I go about to achieve it.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I'm sort of looking to show the contemporary art world that video games is an art form just like film is. Film has giant epic Hollywood blockbusters, as well as the low-key indie films. But from a non-gamer standpoint, video games are all Modern Warfare 2s and Grand Theft Autos.
The problem is that I've been trying to pinpoint exactly what my premise is, and how do I go about to achieve it.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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anyways art space... can you do comparisons on the evolution of film along with timeline then have the same evolution for video games.
Compare how stories, dialogue, FX etc has changed quite quickly in the video game medium. Would be an interesting show seeing things go from rotoscope to silent film, to talkies to color and beyond, and then showing it from Space War, to Atari to SNES/genesis, playstation, ps2 ps3, maybe include PC games in there as well (have screenshots from games showing some verbose dialogue have story synopsis (take a chunk from Planescape Torment, show stuff from Shadow of the colossus and Ico)
just my ideas.
Art inspired by games (fanart)
Art within games (copyright issues? call the company who's art your putting on display)
You could showcase any number of subjects in video games, feminism, learning (puzzle games, word games etc), war/peace, historic, futuristic, racism (as in racist against aliens? parallels between reality and games)
heck you could even just showcase heroes or villains characters of video games, highlighting the depth of the character (not just how badass he is) and how the line between good and evil has shades of grey even in video games (moral choice games save the girl vs save the world.
You could try talking to some in the artists corner.
The first, foremost thing you're going to have to consider is: what is your audience? What it sounds like you're doing is basically a persuasive essay in visual form. Who are you addressing? To what degree are you going to have to overcome generational, technological obstacles? If you're trying to do outreach, you're obviously trying to bring across an idea to people who are not naturally predisposed to consider said idea. You're not gonna reach everyone, so balance between breadth of reach and impact to target audience is crucial. Then facilitate, facilitate, facilitate.
I'd say, if possible, pick the titles you want to highlight. You know, remarkable, memorable shit that has both immediately grabbing delivery as well as a track record of persistent, recurring playability. A lot of times, museums that showcase games will resort to a historical approach - this was a good game from the 8-bit era, this was a game from 16-bit, 32, 64, 128-bit, PC, Arcade, online, the cutting edge of gaming, the future of gaming. This is the same difference between going to an exhibit of 20th century landscapes and an exhibit on British Colonial Arms.
I think static images would be a mistake. Just like showing the script of a movie in an exhibit would fail to demonstrate the incredible impact of the film medium, you'd probably need a majority of clips, both pre-rendered and real-time.
Things I think that would be really unique to a majority of the population, even the game playing population:
-be videos of really high end competitive play. The 17-hit ultimate counter in that SFII/III tournament some years back, a Boxer v. Blackman match, International CS tournaments, good Halo footage, whatever genres you're most familiar with will help you pick - these really do possess the same visceral attraction that MMA fights, soccer matches, the Oympics, and any kind of really intense competition radiates. Just in digital form. Fan reactions, crowd response, looped over cyber wars.
- a few key, really presentable cinematics and what have you. Final Fantasy, Chrono Cross, the Human campaign ending to Warcraft III, the concluding cinematic to Starcraft, good footage of Ico and SotC, Rez.
- Some of those standup store character stands. You know what I mean. That metroid one of Samus. I'm sure there are a bajillion. Pick the best!
- As many video game consoles and TVs running as possible, with a small but tight collection of games - probably not more than 3-5 really good titles for any one system. This is expensive. Also, lock everything to as many things as possible. I've already had people steal art - not even good art. Artsy people are not somehow more moral than other people - often, less so. Still, is it really an exhibit of video games if you can't, you know, game?
That would be how I would run it - give it a good vibe, minimal decoration, some snacks maybe - well away from the consoles, obviously. Seats. All of this, obviously, within the limits of finances and space.
This is just one direction. We're at the point, the VG industry takes in as much if not more than the film industry. It clearly has equal cultural validity, just not the same cultural legacy. How do you address this? There's enough variety and excellence in any one genre to do a whole exhibit on any given three letter acronym. Shit, internet games alone would do it as a new media exhibition.
The more you tie in traditional art themes - light, form, character, expression, mood, structure, narrative, the more 'cultural' or 'sensible' your show will be. It might help, it might not. You don't actually have to care about this, but some people like it.
yeah it would be cool to see what you pull together. fyi I now blame you for making me late to my train.
Let me clarify some points I am aiming for. The site that is providing me that space is a community-based non-profit organization. One of the demands I had was that this was going to be interactive. I want visitors to play the games. I have a pretty decent background in technology, and can I'll figure out a way to rip out a keyboard and turn it into a MAME controller.
THINGS I'M TRYING TO STAY AWAY FROM
Retro Shows - Video games have had plenty of those. Such as Iam8bit.
Commercialized exhibition - We have video game expos for that. Not to mention that I'm not even sure of the legal courses if I were to idolize a single commercial product or character.
I REALLY like this idea as a future project. If the site strictly wants flat pieces of artwork, I'm going for this route. I rather have a exhibit on anything video games then none at all.
The meeting next week will give me what kind of audience the SITE is targetting. As for me personally, I am aiming for non-gaming adults and/or already gaming teens. I know they're polar opposites. I don't want to confuse non-gamers and cement their negative views on video games, but I don't want to ostricize teens who are the biggest visitors of the site. In my mind, I keep picturing Popcap games. Those games reach everybody.
Because of space limits (The exhibit is not in the showroom, but in the hallway, which 150ft long/10ft wide), I'm trying to limit the gaming to PC games or portable games, and small LCD screens from Portable DVD players. I may have to skirt around legal issues with the portables, using homebrew games.
I'm really digging this. Racism is pretty huge in the Philadelphia Asian/African American population. (Local news right now is a bunch of asian students getting attacked in high schools) Not to mention that the staff of the SITE is largely of Asian and caucasian background, while the community we cater to is of minorities.
Please guys. Keep it coming!