News Clive Barker still thinks games are art

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/09/27/clive_barker_still_thinks_games_are_art/1

Clive Barker makes the news again this week, continuing to say that games are an artform and that critics like Roger Ebert don't understand the medium.

 

to say that games are not art for the sole reason that they force the player to make choices is a fallacy. count the number of interactive installations in the tate modern.

 

Nearly every component of a game can be considered art in its own right. From the sound track to the textures. I think where people get confused is that they hear the word game and they immediately think about the action of playing the game. Its true, A person playing a game is not art. However the game itself is.

 

yup agree to above posts.

anything can be art. personally, i think game is art. the story can be art. the graphic can be art. the music can be art. heck, even the coding can be art if executed beautifully and bug-free. thats art! i know, im a computer engineer

game can be art, of course. i can be considererd art, it can definitely be art, and it can be considered not art as well. depends on the person who, well, play it.

my personal opinion of course.

 

Clive Barker is my new hero... he stands up for games... the world needs more Clive Barkers.

 

The people that really hate other people calling games art are the people that stick forks and dead animals to household objects. They know we are on to them, and they are going down with a fight!

 

Clive is awesome!

 

games aren't art! art isn't supposed to be interactive in any way. what you're supposed to do with art is put it on the wall, say "i have no idea what the hell this is but i paid $10,000 for it." now that's art.

i think art is also supposed to evoke emotions, such as pretentiousness and elitism. i don't think games are quite there yet, since they only allow you to feel those emotions among a small subset of the population.

 

If CGI used to tell a story (as in a movie) is art then that same CGI is also art if it's used to tell an interactive story (game). The same goes for the plot(s) etc.

IMHO, KOTOR was a fantastic piece of art from both a storyline perspective and a visual perspective.

However, I wonder If part of Clive's campaign is the fact that "Art" gets a lot more leeway in what it can portray.

 

considering that it cant be art because you have choices then paintings, music and movies are not art, you can chose to see them or not.

 

I do think games can be art, but it's not a strong endorsement coming from Clive Barker, who's never produced anything I'd consider decent, let alone art.

 

Despite the fact he's a prolific painter, writer, screenwriter, photgrapher and game writer? Have you read any of his books? Or played Undying?

 

Art is what you make it. Because someone doesn`t believe it is art or someone believes it is doesn`t change anything.

An over saturated market when most of the products are overpriced, somewhat boring and cash in`s doesn`t mean it can`t be art? It just makes it crap! .................................But then again which medium am I talking about lol.



What would be the point of taking a urinal and putting it in the middle of an art gallery? Roger Ebert is obviously un-educated about what he is talking about and is also ignorant to the fact that he could actually educate himself to the situation. Not very artisan.

Black and White. A game that lets you be a God and control an entire civilisation any way you see fit through an avatar that you can treat how you like? The end results being a direct result of your actions.

 

Yessir. I've read a couple of his books and had a go at Undying, but I didn't find anything that interested me, and the focus on gore in Undying completely turned me off.

 

Fair does, each to their own I suppose