There being no other person in the universe as qualified as myself in judging what I think is art, high art, artistic leaning and just plain crap, perhaps I should wade into the argument. In fact, I encourage each and everyone of you to find the right place to do the same. My comment section, your own blog, wherever the debate is seen and can be fleshed out.
I shall break this argument down along what lines I see naturally occurring in such a debate.
The argument, comes down to 3 simple things. I say simple in that the questions are simple enough to ask, not their answer. What is Art? Who decides what art is? Is intention or final experience the more relevant role in deciding what is categorized as art? I am not going to tackle these questions in that exact order, or for that matter independently. This manner of question requires a more gestalt reasoning.
If you ask a million people what art is, you will get at least 1.5 million answers. Obviously that is an anecdotal statement.
I've heard a old saying more times than I can possibly remember; doubtless so have you.
"I don't know about art, but I know what I like!" There are other variations on this theme.
If you want to define it, let us do the usual and check a dictionary.
For the NOUN, we get the following (source www.meriam-webster.com)
1: skill acquired by experience, study, or observation
2 a: a branch of learning: (1): one of the humanities (2)plural : liberal arts barchaic : learning, scholarship
3: an occupation requiring knowledge or skill
4 a: the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects; also : works so produced b (1): fine arts (2): one of the fine arts (3): a graphic art5 aarchaic : a skillful plan b: the quality or state of being artful
6: decorative or illustrative elements in printed matter
And for the Adjective we get the following:
: produced as an artistic effort or for decorative purposes
So let us take a few differing forms of entertainment and fit them into these given definitions from what I assume we can consider a trusted source.
Art: (noun) 1: skill acquired by experience, study, or observation
A skill acquired by Experience. OK, while the dead set role play gamer hiding in my heart wants to make the XP joke, I shall refrain.(though stating it in that form still gets the knuckle in the ribs of that matter) I worked to gain the physical skills and agility I used in my youth as an inline skater. My limits were pressed in my early studies of Martial Arts. The same effort was put forth in the acquisition of many skills for nearly anyone. The cook. The athlete. The surgeon. Perhaps most of all, in our discussion of physical skill and other skills closely related to the the end result of a physical skill, we can list the dancer. Note that while I list all these as physical skill, no underestimate should be made of the mental elements of any of these endeavors.
Let us take as our comparative for a moment the dancer, and let us say she is a ballerina. A person will work most of their lives to achieve the agility, muscle memory, know how, and skills that it take to make a ballerina outstanding. But even in her more simple, earlier stages, a ballerina may be considered an artist, and more importantly the ballet she and her fellow dancers produce are considered art.
Now, you I am sure wondering if I have the nerve to compare a ballerina to a gamer, those tubs of Cheetos and Mt. Dew sitting on the couch moving their fingers across a controller. Well I do, and then some. Not only do the actions of the player in the physical realm match some of the same agility, muscle memory and know how it takes to craft the ballerina. But let us take this a step further. What but a ballet can you describe the movements of a well orchestrated series of maneuvers the Marionette like digital Avatar of our humble player? Let us pick that most unlikely, some may think, genre of the Fighter game. While we as gamers not unlike the choreographers, moving our virtual ballerina across a digital landscape?
The logically predicted counter argument to this will be "Your are only working within the limitations created by the game maker, you are not creating art, nor even are you creating" Ah but is the body not a physical limitation, the stage, the force of gravity as well? These can be overcome by training, experimentation, external forces in the ballet. As well, a person playing a game such as Teken, Dead or Alive, and many other Fight games there are ways to overcome the intentional and not so intentional limitations placed on the player. In many scenarios, a gamer will improvise his own flow of play, his own set of movements, trapping her opponent, tacking her opponent, manipulating the environment to his benefit. Perhaps I should have tossed Fencing into the lists of physical art.
That is all for the moment, but don't worry, I'll be exploring the other definitions soon enough.
Now turn off the computer, and go out to your friends house to play Xbox.
No comments:
Post a Comment