2D Design Emphasis
I am interested in interactive forms of art and how the interaction can create a more personal and more meaningful experience for the viewer. While my emphasis is two dimensional, the focus of the art I create will be towards the use of interactivity. I do not want to limit my mediums to two dimensions, but to the medium that best fits the element of human involvement.
When I wrestle with creating a piece, wherein the main feature is interactivity, control is often ripped out of my hands and the experience along with it. Two people can often have completely different experiences with a piece, which depends on the way and how long they decide to interact. I came up with a few possible solutions to this problem such as instruction, gradual teaching, or a sense of playfulness. These solutions are inherently found in games or to make a game out of viewing art.
The word game is tightly associated with the word fun. Through study of the word fun, I found it has a fuzzy meaning that is more personal than universal. An example of different meanings of fun would be rock climbing. Some enjoy this activity while others would not find it amusing in the least. While I may try to use fun as a solution for a common experience, I simply cannot please everyone’s aesthetics.
The goal to please everyone is foolish at best and disastrous at worst. Not everyone has the knowledge of how to view a sculpture. The same can be said of controlling Super Mario. While controlling this character is widely known, it is definitely not universal knowledge. It may even be physically impossible for some to harness a video game controller. I came to terms with this in the knowledge that not everyone is literate in computer definitions, video game literacy or following instructions and understand that I can be dismissed by the uneducated.
Education is directly associated to games. If I played a game and had fun it has taught me something. Whether it be to grab mushrooms, eat blue ghosts or add numbers together these are things learned through play. These lessons learned could be constructed to be far more meaningful if handled with care. With all of the games I have experienced there are many ways that I could express something personally artistic.
A large part of my identity is video games. Before I was able to speak I was fascinated with watching my sister play Tetris. To say I have been entranced by games my whole life would be an understatement. Recently, games have become unsatisfying to me. I am upset by how immature and generalized most games are. I want more expressive, personal, mature and artful games.
Video games as art is a contemporary and controversial topic today. What is found on store shelves under the category of video games will disappoint if the goal is to find some artistic expression. There are other places to look for games that are attempts to contribute to the current fine art dialog. Independent and small groups of video game developers explore the idea of personal life, computers, and the act of programming itself. The extra effort to find these art games is large enough that most still do not know they exist. I intend to change that.
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