Presentation on games as art askov august 2011

Jonas Heide Smith (jonassmith.dk)
You call that... art? Askov Højskole, 31. august 2011

fredag den 2. september 2011

SPACEWAR, 1962

DEC PDP-1


“Reliably, at any nighttime moment
(i.e. non-business hours) in North
America hundreds of computer
technicians are effectively out of
their bodies, locked in life-or-Death
space combat computer-projected
onto cathode ray tube display
screens, for hours at a time, ruining
SPACEWAR, 1962 their eyes, numbing their ﬁngers in
frenzied mashing of control buttons,
joyously slaying their friend and
wasting their employers' valuable
computer time.
Something basic is going on.”

- Stewart Brand, Rolling Stone Magazine,
december 1972
DEC PDP-1


SPACEWAR, 1962 SPACE INVADERS, 1978 PAC-MAN, 1980

GUN FIGHT, 1975

MISSILE COMMAND, 1980


DEATH RACE (1976)

CARMAGEDDON (1997)

MORTAL KOMBAT, 1992 NIGHT TRAP, 1992


“These games
are not harmless
fun, as some
suggest...They
are, in fact,
digital poison.”

FORMER DEMOCRAT CANDIDATE FOR THE VICE PRECIDENCY
JOSEPH LIEBERMAN (1997)

“Children are playing a
game that encourages
them to have sex with
prostitutes and then
murder them...This is a
silent epidemic of media
desensitisation that
teaches kids it’s okay to
diss people because they
are a woman, they’re a
different colour or they’re
from a different place.”

MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HILLARY CLINTON (2005)

“Of course it’s true that
young people buy their
way to excitement by
playing the machines.
But to my eye, that is a
fairly peaceful way,
compared to other
imaginable ways of
creating excitement.”

FORMER MINISTER OF JUSTICE
OLE ESPERSEN (1982)

DOOM II (1994)

“The problem with
DOOM is that it creates
an unconscious
emotional reaction
patter that you bring into
your everyday life and
which appears to linger
for a long time, until you
become conscious of it
through self-analysis
and stop playing.”

JAN ESMANN (1995)

“The children resemble
a group of scientist
who collaboratively
explore a new
universe, develop
hypotheses and test
them. [...] children
actually waste
incredible amounts of
time in the traditional
school system.”

CULTURE RESEARCHER
CARSTEN JESSEN (1994)

MYST (1993)

BLACKOUT (1997)

HEAVY RAIN (2010)

“I think the real
indicator [that
games have
become a
storytelling art form]
will be when
somebody
confesses that they
cried at level 17.”

STEVEN SPIELBERG (2006)

“Games differ from
funding-entitled art
forms, since they
are more about
movement and
action than about
language.” (in email)

FORMER SPOKESPERSON ON CULTURAL AFFAIRS (K)
CARINA CHRISTENSEN (2002)

UNCHARTED 2 (2009)

SEGA MEGADRIVE (1989)

PLAYSTATION

FRONTIER: ELITE II (1993)

SID MEIER’S PIRATES (1987/2004)
FRONTIER: ELITE II (1993)

GRAND THEFT AUTO 3: VICE CITY (2002)

TETRIS (1984)

CANABALT (2009)

THE JOY OF MAKING STUFF HAPPEN

SPECTACLE

CHOICE

THE GAME MAKER IS AN ARCHITECT

A GAME IS AN AMUSEMENT PARK WITH POINTS

“Well, I do think it is
important that we have
Danish game developers.
[...] Danish video game
developers will of course be
shaped by having grown up
in Danish culture. And that
cannot but shape their way
of working and so it gets
close to the children. And
you’re absolutely right, we
have to go where the
children are..”

MINISTER OF CULTURE
PER STIG MØLLER (2010)

“The Liberal Party does not
support that government
should fund video games.
Video games are an
obvious trade commodity
and I don’t think at all that
this is comparable to
funding movies. I have a
hard time seeing why
Danish games should be
particularly more
trustworthy and good than
other games.”

FORMER SPOKESPERSON ON POLICY (V)
JENS ROHDE (2004)

“Indeed, if I had my way,
a solid grounding in
economics would be
required of anyone
seeking to learn about
game design.”

- Greg Costikyan

@JONASSMITH

THANKS A LOT FOR
YOUR ATTENTION
jonas@autoﬁre.dk


Presentation on games as art askov august 2011

Presentation on games as art askov august 2011

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Presentation on games as art askov august 2011