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Art, who needs it?! By Laure de Boisgelin

 

“To send light into the darkness of men’s hearts, such is the duty of the artist...” wrote the 19^th century composer Robert Schumann. Indeed, from cave paintings to digital art, art has held an essential place in our everyday lives. Art, in its many forms, has existed in every community and every culture since time began, but why is it so indispensable to human beings ?

But, what is art? It is, according to the Concise Oxford Dictionary : “the expression or application of creative skill and imagination, especially through a visual medium such as painting or sculpture.”

Do we realise that art is present in your everyday lives? Do we really pay any attention to it? In my opinion, I would say not. Nevertheless, art is a part of our lives; we “live” it, all the time and every day! From the vase in our living room to the song we are listening to, from the drawing we made on a piece of paper to a museum we visited, from the essay we did in class to the poem we are reading... Art is omnipresent. Paul Strand, the 20^th century American photographer, said : “The artist’s world is limitless. It can be found anywhere, far from where he lives or a few feet away. It is always on his doorstep.” Art, then, surrounds us, but we can’t see it if we aren’t aware that someone, for example, has drawn the lamp we have in our bedroom. This someone has been careful of every detail of this lamp, and someone else has created it: it’s design, it’s art.

Although art is mostly created by one person, it is also a shared experience ; a painting is made to be admired, a song to be listened to, theatre and dance to be watched, etc… It then becomes a silent dialogue between the artist and the spectator ; do we see the same thing that another person sees ? Do we understand what message the artist has tried to transmit to us ? We will take a famous example, “La Gioconda” by Leonardo da Vinci. People come to the Louvre from the entire world to admire this work of art. People share thoughts and feelings about the painting, but they also have their individual experience of its mystery...

In what ways does art help us ? First of all, art allows people to express themselves; it's a mean of expressing what an artist feels and thinks. For example: the bombing of Guernica in 1937 inspired Picasso to create his famous painting in order to squeeze out the horror and the anger he felt. This painting denounces barbarity, violence and war. Art allows people to share a point of view or a political opinion, to oppose something, to suggest, to stimulate thought, to provoke, to encourage... During the Second World War, “Liberté”, a poem by Paul Eluard, was parachuted to the members of the French Resistance, who were hiding in the “maquis”, to encourage them in their fight against Nazism. As Van Gogh said : “How rich art is; if one can only remember what one has seen, one is never without food for thought or truly lonely, never alone”.

Art is also used in a religious way, to glorify a god, or during rituals like the Egyptians in their funeral ceremonies, to ensure an afterlife for the dead person.

Art is used in healing too. The process of creating art engages both the body and the mind and provides us with time to look inward and reflect. It is used to make our lives better and used too in psychological tests.

Art is present everywhere and all the time, we can’t deny it or reject it. We all need it. I agree with John Lubbock, the 19^th century British historian and biologist, when he says : “Art is unquestionably one of the purest and highest elements in human happiness. It trains the mind through the eye, and the eye through the mind. As the sun colors flowers, so does art color life.”

Video games are art! By Jenguiz

Geek art

People usually see video games as a simple “new generation” distraction, or even as something bad... Those people, who mostly haven't grown up with video games, and don't even play them, certainly would deny it the status of art.

Is this point of view legitimate ? Or can video games in fact be considered as an art ?

In my opinion, which many “gamers” share, video games are an art. There is a plethora of arguments that can support this.

First, what is art ? According to the Penguin English dictionary, art is the conscious use of skill and creative imagination, especially in the production of aesthetic objects. Let's see if this definition fits video games.

"The conscious use of skill" ; does making a video game require skill? Yes, in fact it requires several skills. There are designers, programmers, music composers, and even sometimes actors. Cinema, which is also the sum total of many arts, is said to be the seventh art, therefore video games are the tenth art !

Let's continue with the definition : "creative imagination"... This fits perfectly the video game ! Effectively, the most way-out video games are generally the most creative ones. Here is an example : Super Mario Bros. Nowadays, this game has a worldwide reputation, and a lot of people know the eponymous heroes. But who could have imagined, before it was released, that a plumber with a moustache was about to become an international star ? I think that Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator, has an amazing imagination. He created an entirely new universe ; people were used to see fantasy worlds with elves, dwarves and other nice creatures of that kind. But there is nothing like Super Mario Bros : walking mushrooms, magic pipes, and so on...

Finally, are video games "aesthetic objects" ? Yes, they obviously are. Video games have been aesthetic objects since their beginning, even when they were full of big pixels, when High Definition did not yet exist. Maybe they were even more beautiful, because developers had to be really imaginative to make people recognize what's actually on the screen !

I think that we can add something we find in several other definitions of art : art is producing works to be appreciated primarily for their emotional power. Once again, this is the case for video games. The graphic design, the stories, and, very important, the music, create a whole new imaginary world in which lots of different emotions are experienced...

Another thing, which is not obligatory for art, but which is present in a lot of works of art, is the fact that it carries a message. This is true for most video games which promote certain values, such as tolerance, or even sometimes a political message.

Video games are art, then, but why isn't it recognized as such ? I think this is normal ; it is still in its infancy. Over time, it will be better accepted as a cultural object, mostly because people who have grown up with video games are becoming today's adults. Sometimes, people argue that it is mainly an industry, that video games are made to be sold, so it is not an art. This is absurd, of course : movies and books are industries as well, and yet they're considered as works of art.

There is an other interesting thing to notice : recognized artists are involved in video game creation. For example, Hayao Miyazaki and his studio, who made several well-known animation films, have realized the animated scenes of a video game (Ninokuni : Another World), and Steven Spielberg has also been involved in the creation of several video games (like Boom Blox).

Like every form of art, video games have their famous artists. Shigeru Miyamoto, with two others video game creators, have even been knighted under France's Order of Arts and Letters.

As it says above the entrance of the Secession building in Vienna : "To every age its art and to art its freedom". The video game is the new art of our era...