Originally Posted by Icarus Moonsight
I'm guessing Ebert will not be attending the exhibit...
While I view some games as having art like qualities, I still can't think of them as "Art". Love and appreciate them as I do. Someone explain to me how Cabela's Billy Big-Mouth Bass and Deercide Fest 08 qualifies as art and I might be on the verge of shifting opinion. Oh, and the Smithsonian... You're not the Louve, get over yourselves.
that would depend on how you define art dont you think?
i think this like most anything in life is open to interpretation, governed by the courts of both public and personal opinion.
of course to use the word "art" as a blanket term enveloping the entire spectrum in anything gaming related is not only egregious but incredibly presumptious, because not all games fall under the same umbrella much in the same way that not all movies do.
you wouldnt put dumb and dumber in the same pocket as you would eternal sunshine of the spotless mind or the truman show would you? likewise i wouldnt put metal gear solid in even the same universe as army men. but im sure there is some misguided soul out there who thinks army men was the ps1's singular magnum opus. who am i to argue?
i hate these pretentious art house film reviewers sipping their 20 cent coffees from 9 dollar cups, typing up reviews on on obscure criterion collection films no one has ever heard of on macbooks, using their sharp and signature "acid-tongued" prose for their blog that no one reads, using words like "trite", "non-conformist" and "contrived" in whatever hip new "anti-establishment" soho hole in the wall coffee shop, waving around their nyu film degrees/pyschological validations, believing with every fiber of their being, that somehow having the sundance channel makes their opinions on all things art, somehow more valid than yours.
"oh but i've seen everything jean luc goddard has ever made!"
wow really? GO FUCK YOURSELF, seven samurai sucked, a film being foreign doesnt automatically make it better and no matter what you want to believe, FIGHT CLUB IS NOT AN INDIE FILM!
i would also like to add...
that the mona lisa is a piece of shit, i dont care about the whimsical interplay of light and shadow and all that garbage, to me its just some stupid bitch in a room, i consider the watchmen & dark knight strikes again graphic novels to be some of the finest examples of literary art in history, but if i said that to a librarian, she'd probably tell me that alan moore is a douche and that ernest hemingway probably had sex with my mother.
point is, given that the word "art" is so mercurial and context sensitive, it shouldnt be taken so seriously when self appointed judges on all things art cosign it or not.
i personally define art as anything that can be perceived as being emotionally provocative, if beethovens 9th (an admittedly moving piece by conventional standards) is considered art of the highest order, then why can't the same be said of the wu tang clans enter the 36 chambers or nirvanas in utero?
art is subjective by its own admission, regardless of credentials, it should never be dictated, especially by a person who isnt involved or a part of the subculture. ebert is no authority on the matter and neither is the smithsonian. the smithsonian coming around and labeling it as such is great, but should in no way shape or define your views on it one way or the other. you all have the freedom to decide for yourself.
hideo kojimas personal view on gaming not being art is lamentable, especially considering metal gear solid and mgs4 are 2 of the best examples of gaming as art. i found both genre defining blockbusters to be 2 of the most moving, visually stunning, engrossing, cinematic and interactive expierences i have ever witnessed. but ultimately, he doesnt get to decide how i feel on it. the fact that its interactive shouldnt be reason to exclude it from being in the same company as picasso (another artist i think sucks), monet, charlie parker, the beatles, futura 2000, shakespeare or Dostoievsky.
moral of the story? art is just a word, it can be lent meaning, but only if the beholder wills it to have one, forever a product of the human condition, slave to our ever changing fickle nature
finallyyyyyy.......FINISHED!
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