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I’ve noticed that there are some who hesitate when it comes to positively correlating video games and art.  Of course a statement like there is an art to playing (insert game) is invalid, but what about the finished product itself? This quote “Video games can never be art” by Roger Ebert has me stumped because games are simply hybrids of the art we take for granted everyday. For some, to appreciate a compilation,  one must examine each of the individual parts. To begin, what is art?

Wikipedia describes art as “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power”. Although this definition doesn’t go into specifics, there are many mediums through which art (specifically modern art) is experienced. Other than the two mentioned, some of the others include but aren’t limited to music, photography, literacy and motion pictures.

My definition of an artist is a person who creates expressive works through available tools and mediums. Consider a composer, while Mason William’s choice was the acoustic guitar, Jimmy Hendrix made a name for himself with the electric guitar.  The question is however, with the broad spectrum of tools that mankind has developed through the centuries, where do we draw the line between what’s art and what’s not?

Painting, a classic art, liberates the trappings of the imagination by providing a platform for recreation and self-expression. Painting has gone from cave walls to the Mona Lisa over the years and below is an example by Johannes Vermeer called “the view of Delft”:

Now consider this work from one of the scenes in Brink:

This is an artist’s imagination of a world that doesn’t even exist. Regardless of the tools used to create it, the realism and openness to interpretation is at least similar to that of Vermeer. I regard re-creation and imagination as residing on two different planes of creativity. In my opinion, to paint something as it is in front of you isn’t as challenging as painting something as it could be. The interactivity of that world that games allow, tell a story but its brilliance isn’t limited to there. Lets take a motion picture. In this example, we’ll use a scene in a movie that derived from the book “Black Hawk Down” by Mark Bowden.

Compare this same scene to the popular video game Call of Duty:

Will anyone  argue that films aren’t art? Black Hawk Down, won academy awards for its editing and sound; the aesthetics of the film. Undoubtedly, popping in a video you game will bring you very similar characteristics including performances. While Black Hawk Down is an expression of the battle of Mogadishu, COD is a portrayal of World War II. Although subjected to opinion, the only overlaying difference between the two, is the way they are experienced.

They say when you wish to study emotion, you should consult an actor or musician, because it’s the true core of their professions. Music affects the mood and can be found in the background of most if not all films. It helps carry the scene and guide the audience as to how they should be feeling at any point in the plot. In the gaming world, before speech was a norm, music ruled all platforms and represented ninety percent of the sound that would be seen in games (the other ten percent representing the attempts at sound effects). Today, games have grown to feature both.  Some compositions have even grown to become so popular as to ignite re-creations or rearrangements (a feature that was only popular with historic classical pieces or pop music). Take for example the Kingdom Hearts theme song, Dearly Beloved:

Now compare that simplistic yet beautiful melody to this is composition by Kyle Landry:

Like the videos above, a quick search on Youtube bears many results of personalized variations; a growing arena. After all, what is art if not versatile enough to allow you to relate or re-express it as you see it?

As stated by Kellee Santiago in her TED talk, games are the cave paintings of what it can and probably will become. Although I agree that we’ve only scratched the surface, I think that games aren’t the cave paintings but the evolution of the chicken scratch. It goes further than its predecessors in individualizing the experiences and allowing for a broader range of interpretations. Games are no longer just coded pixels, they’re stories, paintings, and compositions. The code only allows them to mobilize and be experienced in a different way than the mediums before it. You can’t mix all of the components of art together and disregard the hybrid as something different than its parent class. So are games works of art? yes! if you disagree, let me know in the comments below or on twitter.