Last week sometime Ebert posted an article on why video games are not art and will never be art.
"Let me just say that no video gamer now living will survive long enough to experience the medium as an art form."
That's a pretty strong statement, one which sent the video community to foam at the mouth and cry foul in the most frenzied way possible. Having written on the subject and debated it myself a few times I felt an initial unpleasant gut reaction as the vile of hate spewed in the back of my throat. I haven't commented until now, enjoying the frenzy of responses and reactions that have ensued since the initial posting. While Ebert's article is at the heart of it and in itself poses many, many problems (which I’ll touch on a few in a minute), of greater interest to me is the reactions from the gaming community to his assertions of games are not art. Regardless of what anyone says, he seems to have touched a very sensitive nerve located in the heart and soul of many gamers.
First, life would be so much simpler if I could read one person’s work, disagree with said work and then write a response based on the single work and be an expert with a definitive opinion. My PhD would have been done years ago. In this case Kellee Santiago is certainly onto something but she’s not THE authority and I’m not sure why we’re treating her as such. This is by no means a slap to her credentials; my point however is that if you’re going to make such a strong statement as the one above maybe you should talk to a few more people and do a little footwork and research yourself. But alas, in the world of internet tongue it’s much easier to refute one person with your own diatribe. Hell, I do this myself, but I also don’t have millions of people reading my blog and looking to me for thought leadership…with great power comes great responsibility or some shit like that and I am in no means a position of great power or leadership…at least not yet (I’ll return to this in a bit…)
The problem is that even Ebert shows we have problems defining art. Art, like so many other aspects of life are culturally constructed and have personal meaning and emphasis for the individual in such a way that what touches one individual will not touch the other. Me and my husband are great examples of this: what he likes as art I do not and what I love he does not. Right now we have barely any art on the wall because we just can’t agree on what to put there…. One day I’ll win but only when I have the money to let my taste do the walking. My husband and I can agree that we don’t get modern art….there’s a really famous painting at our hometown location in the Detroit Institute of Art that we never get. We always go look at, and stare for 5 or so minutes until we’re bored, trying desperately to get the painting. We never do. Yet, it’s art right? I mean…it has to be, it’s hanging on the wall of a bona fide art museum. I personally think it’s crap. I don’t get it…whatever…but it doesn’t make it any less art just because I don’t personally understand it. Art is extremely subjective… and for Ebert to suddenly jump in and decide to define that subjectivity with his own subjective nature about video games (and art) is just the result of an ego gone too big for one person.
The other issue I see if that Ebert takes a lot of time trying to define art and say what it is and isn’t but he doesn’t even scratch the surface on what makes a game what it means to play and what those intersections mean.
The question keeps arising about why we care what Ebert said. We care because like it or not, he is a big somebody with a lot of followers and respected for his opinion. We care because what he says can make an impact. I think, of course, it’s a double edged sword in that if we put him on a pedestal and react like we did as a community we are responsible for creating the monster. I personally don’t give two shits about Ebert…I never read his stuff. I hear about him occasionally but I never have actually gone and read a review of his or any of his work…until now. See the problem yet? Yes, I admit, I’m contributing to the problem by talking about it. I think ignoring him would have more power than any of the millions of millions of words that have already been directed towards him and his ideals. Everyone wants to get their “two cents” in on the matter and I’m no different. I feel passionate about games and as a person I never can bite my tongue for too long… just ask my poor boss at work who has to constantly hear me bitching about the wrongs I perceived committed against me. So sue me…it’s who I am, but at least I admit it.
So, it still doesn’t answer the question of why we care if video games are considered art. I don’t have any hard or absolute answers for you. What I do have is a few thoughts. First, I think a lot of what creators of video games are doing IS creating art. So we’ve moved away from the medium of the cave wall and now create art with computers and technology… it’s about a modern fight on what art is. If we buffer the art and the artist with a computer and technology should we no longer call it art? Because it’s pixels instead of brush strokes has it lost authenticity? To me, it goes much deeper than just the video game aspect of it all. Second, I think by pegging something as art you’ve suddenly given it legitimacy. The history of video games is such that I think we’re still fighting for legitimacy and a place in cultural tradition that is more than just “pop culture” or something that we consider ephemeral or not worthy of place and respect. Hell, I can relate. When I first started down the academic path of studying video games people looked at me like I was committing academic suicide. I remember a fellow graduate student, one who studied a “more traditional and therefore respected area in anthropology – Russian economy”, look at me when he found out my academic aspirations and say, “Oh…you’re studying video games…so like… cabbage patch dolls and garbage pail kids? What will you study when they [video games] fall out of flavor?” I guess he could probably eat those words now.
Ultimately we care because if nothing else the video gaming community is passionate about what they do. No…it’s not because we want to legitimize us spending hours and hours playing a game, but rather we want people to understand the beauty, the experiences and culture shaping things we call video games.
