On the MacGuffin of Art

This is a response to Chris Lamb’s recent post on his blog, in which he addresses the desire to find a video game worthy of the term “Art.”

This response, originally intended for the comments, has spiraled out of control, and therefore I am putting it here. Feel free to ridicule this post on your own blog, or in the comments.

Hmm.

Firstly, anyone who claims that Citizen Kane is the film that proved movies could be art is playing fairly loose with the history of cinema. I’ll grant that it is one of the movies people use as an example now of early artistic film, one that serves as a gateway flick for people who want to explore the more artistic side of filmmaking. But it is a bit like the fourth comment in a thread proudly proclaiming “First!” There jes ain’t no sech animal.

That said, I think the real argument here is whether Games (or ANY popular medium) want to even bother with the label of “Art.” Frustratingly, it’s impossible to engage in this conversation without having some sort of working definition of what Art actually IS, a conversation that has been going on for a century with no consensus in sight. The latter half of the 20th century was one long argument over the nature of art. Most of what came out of that argument was that anything that was created before the argument began was automatically called Art, everything that happened later had to earn the moniker. Painting, illustration, sculpture, classical music, classic literature — automatically passed. Film, TV, modern music, conceptual art, performance art — that’s not art, that’s trash.

So it goes, with each new medium growing and asking to be called Art, whether the term is applicable or not. Personally (and I say this as somebody who strives to work in the medium), I can’t think of a single moment of Television that I’ve ever watched that I would call Art. Very few movies are Art. Popular books are usually not Art. Most comics, not Art either. And I haven’t played more than two or three games that were even approximating Art (I’d say Passage is the argument that it’s possible at all, for me).

You know what? Art isn’t a guarantee of entertainment. The fact that I haven’t seen Art on TV doesn’t mean TV isn’t my favorite medium. When I’m deciding what movie I want to watch, Art almost never factors into the decision. I admit to giving a second chance to comics with more Artistic conceits, but I’m far more excited about a new Ex Machina trade, say, than the Wolverton Bible.

The Big Lie is that something being Art automatically means you’ll like it. Unfortunately, when you do all the reading, listen to all the arguments, and really examine what it is that defines Art, it comes down to a weird mixture of posturing and fame.

There’s a story my old art teacher told about visiting the Louvre. He talked about the room with the Mona Lisa in it. He talked about how there were lines snaking around the building of people waiting to get a glimpse of the Mona Lisa, which was in a ten foot enclosure of bullet-proof glass. What boggled his mind was that the rest of the room was covered in other paintings by da Vinci. Small, delicate landscapes, other portraits, all of which were painted by the same great man, all of which were arguably better paintings than the Mona Lisa, and all of which you could walk right up to, put your nose an inch away from, no lines, no glass.

That’s Art.

The Mona Lisa is one of the greatest works of Art of all time not because it’s a great painting, but because it’s a pretty good painting that everybody has agreed is one of the greatest works of Art of all time. The Mona Lisa is an icon of the entirety of da Vinci’s career, and is a symbol for what Art is (even to me, as you’ll note by the use of this story to illustrate my point).

This is slightly different than mass-market popularity; most people, when asked, wouldn’t be able to tell you whether or not they like the Mona Lisa. You don’t typically see Mona Lisa posters in dorms or living rooms. Everybody knows it, few people ever actually pay attention to it. It’s Important without being Popular. Which is a neat trick.

No, while people often recognize Art, they spend most of their time with Other things. TV shows. Action movies. Superhero comics. World of Warcraft. Things that, for the most part, nobody would mistake for Art. What they are, and the point I’ve been trying so very hard to work towards, is Craft.

Things that are Good, things that are Well-Made, those are Craft. As in, well-crafted. By Craftspersons. Take TV. Sports Night, for example, is an incredibly well-assembled, well-paced, brilliantly performed comedy/drama with excellent writing, precision editing, and seamless direction. Apart from a few choices forced upon the creators by the network (the laugh track being the most glaring), the show is damn near perfect. It isn’t Art, though. It’s something else. It is a shining example of the Craft of Television.

Once you take “Art” out of the equation, things get so much easier. Craft is something demonstrable. Something is well-crafted or it isn’t. Sure, Arrested Development isn’t to my particular taste, but I cannot deny it is a supremely well-crafted show. I can appreciate it for how it’s put together, how individual performances play off each other, how the camera moves to manipulate the thoughts and emotions of the viewer, how and where the sound effects and music play into the scenes to intensify the experience, &c. I don’t have to like the show in order to respect it. Because I’m looking at it through the lens of Craft.

Video Games don’t NEED to be Art, see? They are Games. Games are for Playing. And what they need to worry about is Craft. How many times have we seen a review that praises a game’s ideas and then curses its interface? Or that notes its solid gameplay while mocking its voice acting? Video Games are the lovely little mash-up of all the Crafts of the last hundred years, but all this striving for Art has them a bit misguided. The best games I’ve ever played remembered that every moment needed to be Crafted. Skilled people (to use the term “artisan” here might cause confusion, as well it should, because it’s sort of at the root of the whole thing) creating solid things. Crafting a unique interactive experience.

So while I agree that it’s time for Video Games to grow up, I propose a clarification. Lamb, you ended your piece with this line:

The first step to being a grown up is calling yourself one – sooner or later, the rest of the world will come around.

The point at which the rest of the world comes around is when you stop worrying how you’re perceived and get on with your adult life. The respect (and really, isn’t this all we’re talking about here?) comes AFTER you do the amazing work, not before.

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