Sci-Fi Writer Considers BioShock's Artistic Merit

The LevelUp blog considers an article on the Washington Post site, where their tech columnist did a little experiment. He set Science Fiction author Michael Dirda down in front of Irrational's BioShock, and asked him to consider the game's artistic merit. N'Gai has himself some interesting commentary about the article, which raises a flurry of question on its own: "Dirda, to use his word, doesn't know the 'rhetoric' of video games. Me: I've spent so much time playing video games over the years that I'd forgotten people aren't born instinctively knowing how to 'circlestrafe' a monster ... 'I could lose myself in this, in some ways, easier than in a book,' he said. Dirda said the game showed him that video games 'obviously have artistic value' and will likely become more of a recognized art form. So: Is BioShock art? 'I would hesitate to go that far,' he said after a short pause."

Comments

The Interesting Thing

[Effugas]

The question is not whether video games are or aren't art.

The question is why, oh why, are artists in other genres so utterly threatened by the concept that it might be.

I mean, just look at the constituent properties of games.

Games have music of all genres, and nobody denies that can be art.

Screen shots from many games could probably be snuck into your local modern art gallery. Nobody denies imagery can be art.

They went to a sci-fi author! Certainly a science fiction tale can be art.

If you combine all three of the above -- well, you end up with a movie, and nobody denies that cinema is an art form.

Even if you take away the controlled progression of experiences -- well, welcome to architecture. Was Frank Lloyd Wright not an artist?

I think the bottom line is that a lot of people who don't play games, but do pay attention to art, don't want to imagine that they're not trained to appreciate a particular art form. Better to deny its potential as being art at all.

The real question is -- why should gamers care?

Re:The Interesting Thing

[UbuntuDupe]

I've long felt that art is "whatever the old boys club says is art", which is what makes art so disenchanting for me. It's like if, in science, you could determine whether observations would fit your theory *only* after making them, instead of having to put the theory to the test by making the prediction first. Supposedly, you have to have a refined taste to appreciate art, but in my experience, this in practice means, "you have to be told it's good before you notice its good". Also known as the Placebo effect.

Recently, people have been putting the objectivity of art judgments to the test, and art's gatekeepers aren't looking so good:

-When Joshua Bell played anonymously in L'Enfant Plaza, with the world's best violin and supposedly most beautiful music, virtually no one stopped to listen.
-When wine critics have to do blind tests, the results look pretty random.
-When an author submitted Jane Austen's work to a publisher, the publisher rejected it as no good. (Of course, it should have been rejected, but on grounds of plagiarism.)

Sci-fi author?

[Negatyfus]

As far as I can tell, the man is a book critic. The write-up makes it seem as he's actually written sci-fi books?

Definition...

[pieaholicx]

I think it really comes down to how you define art. I personally will consider a lot of things as art that most people wouldn't, things like games, graffiti, and even source code. If you look at things like music, movies, and images you'll notice one thing in common. They all show or inspire emotions. I think that is how art should be defined. So why would a game, which quite often inspire emotions like fear and victory, and many games have quite elaborate and emotional stories, not be considered an art form?

Just my opinion though.

Is it art? Sure? Is it good?

[edremy]

Bioshock is art, as are many other video games. It may be a different kind of art than a painting, a novel, a piece of music or a movie (indeed, it combines all four) but it's still art.

The real question: is it *good* art? Nobody will deny that a painting or a novel is art, but 99% of all of them are crap. Good art provokes a response- you think about it and remember it later, and not just because you managed to frag some noob thirteen times in a row. Video games for the most part have not reached this state. I can only think of a few that merit the title "Good art" that tell stories that are interesting enough to reach that goal.