digital art and games

Games as Digital Art

Seminar for the Master on Technology and Digital Arts, University of Minho, 21 October 2011

Nelson Zagalo

Mads

Peit

ers

on

Digital Arts

Support defines the art: digital art, computer art, multimedia art, new media art

An artform that obligates interactive participation: from the user or a computer

Types of digital art:

Video Games

Involves interaction with electronic device.

Requires receptor participation to become, the interactivity.

Genres define the way player interact and make sense of games.

Games are made of mechanics and story, and some games only have mechanics

Are supposed to be FUN

Art Games

Subvert the convention, Subvert the format, Subvert the “should be”, Subvert the Expected - "the procedurality of the readymades was more important than their status as objects”

Creating art, is playing with ideas, structured playing is Creating Games

Art Games are evolving from Indie Games

in the beginning

Ceremony of Innocence, 1997By Alex Mayhew

Ceremony of Innocence is a CD-ROM adaptation of the Nick Bantock's GRIFFIN & SABINE trilogy of books. Described as a 'spellbinding electronic theatre of the imagination', it stars starring Paul McGann, Isabella Rossellini, and Ben Kingsley. Within an enchanting interactive environment, Ceremony of Innocence conjures up the mystical story of Griffin and Sabine.

Fifty-eight cards and letters, burst into life through interactive riddles, animation, film, video, fine art and photomontage.

video

following real world conventions

The Graveyard is a very short computer game designed by Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn. You play an old woman who visits a graveyard. You walk around, sit on a bench and listen to a song. It's more like an explorable painting than an actual game. An experiment with realtime poetry, with storytelling without words.

Graveyard, 2008 Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn

http://tale-of-tales.com/TheGraveyard/


Heavy Rain, 2010

http://www.heavyrainps3.com/video

“Austin Breed has created a split-screen tale of a couple separated by, well, distance. You follow their separate, daily routines and at night get to pose one of two questions while they chat on the phone. But will their eyes start to wander? What would you do? Find out!”

www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/556828

Distance (2010)by Austin Breed


following art performanceshttp://moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/965

The Artist is Present, 2010

video

following art performanceshttp://www.pippinbarr.com/games/theartistispresent/TheArtistIsPresent.html

"Waiting is very high on the list of things you are not supposed to have to do in a game. For instance, we all complain bitterly about loading screens. The idea started as a joke. I thought it would be funny to make a game where all you do is wait.” Pippin Barr

The Artist is Present, 2011

following film storytelling

“Take a poignant walk through the life of an alien caught in the midst of humanity. You arrive on Earth (presumably) as a crawling little blob, fostered by some very nice people you grow and in turn, protect them. From who and why is up to the player to decide and ultimately, the game will leave you thinking about what you just played. The changing background colors, the scenery and your foes are all simple in design but put together in a way and style that makes it truly an elegant visual experience.”

www.kongregate.com/games/Pixelante/immortall

Immortall, (2010), Evan Miller, 5m

video

playing with conventions

The Path is a short horror game inspired by older versions of Little Red Ridinghood, set in modern day. The Path offers an atmospheric experience of exploration, discovery and introspection through a unique form of gameplay, designed to immerse you deeply into its dark themes. Every interaction in the game expresses an aspect of the narrative. The six protagonists each have their own age and personality and allow the player to live through the tale in different ways. Most of the story, however, relies on your active imagination.

http://thepath-game.com/

playing with world representations

“Dinner Date” is the portrait of Julian: from his desires and doubts to reflections on his friends and his place in the world. You are not merely witnessing - by interacting with Julian and his world you gain a clear vantage point on his life.The wait for the beautiful girl he invited over becomes longer and she becomes the dominant factor in his thoughts. And yet his true problems may not even begin with the girl: what of his work, of his boss, the headhunter, his fascination of Byron and his friendship with Jerry, who had been pushing Julian to take on this date?

Dinner Date, 2010

http://thestoutgames.com/:DinnerDate


“As a mother, it's your job to keep your little tyke in the safety of the homestead until they have enough experience to survive the monster-infested woods. Don't expect any gratitude, though. The brat will continually try to give you the slip and escape into the wild. After a while, like many a parent, you may well be tempted to let it go find out the hard way what the world's really like.”


A Mother in Festerwood, (2011), Austin Breed


"One Chance is a game about choices and dealing with them.Scientist John Pilgrim and his team have accidently created a pathogen that is killing all living cells on Earth.In the last 6 remaining in-game days on Earth, the player must make choices about how to spend his last moments. Will he spend time with his family, work on a cure or go nuts?"


One Chance, (2010), AwkwardSilence, 7m

video


“On the surface, the point of Passage is to open as many treasure chests within the allotted time. But that's not what Jason Rohrer's award winning game is really about. What it is really about is love, the passing of time, saying goodbye to youth and freedom, grief - ultimately life itself.”

http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/

Passage, (2007), Jason Rohrer, 5m

video


“Gray is a riot - quite literally. In this cerebral, experimental game, you play the part of a lone dissenter, trying desperately to win a seemingly never ending horde of rioters over to your cause. It seems like a helpless task but one by one you manage to woo the rioters until eventually you have the majority following you. But what does any self-respecting rebel do when they are a member of the majority, well in this game, they switch to the other side of course, and repeat the whole process again but from the opposite direction.

Gray raises some interesting questions about the individual and the possibility of one person changing the course of history.”


Gray, (2009), Greg Wohlwend, 5m


“Every day the same dream is a slightly existential riff on the theme of alienation and refusal of labor. The idea was to charge the cyclic nature of most video games with some kind of meaning (i.e. the "play again" is not a game over). Yes, there is an end state, you can "beat" the game.”


Every Day the Same Dream, 2007, Paolo Pedercini, 5m

video

Reference - sites

Molleindustria - http://www.molleindustria.org

Tales of Tales - http://tale-of-tales.com Not Games - http://notgames.org/blog Kongregate - http://www.kongregate.com/ Jay Is Games - http://jayisgames.com/ Newgrounds -

http://www.newgrounds.com/account/ Real Time Manifest - http://tale-of-

tales.com/tales/RAM.html

Nelson Zagalo, [email protected]. http://nelsonzagalo.googlepages.com

B. http://virtual-illusion.blogspot.com

F. http://www.facebook.com/nelsonzagalo

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