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Monday May 3 - Friday May 7.

It's art week on Questionland. Joining us are Charles Kitching (Ambach & Rice Gallery), Jesse Oleson (Cakespy), Miguel Guillen (Artist Trust) Sharon Arnold (Artist) and Jen Graves (The Stranger).

So if you have any...

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    Sculpture opinion: your favorite piece in Seattle? In the world?
    Words_small

    I'm not well-versed in sculpture, but I love The Fremont Troll :)

    nseattlite answered in Artist Resources over 2 years ago
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    Are video games art?
    On_my_head_small

    Absolutely!

    You can find the same sense of wonder in a video game that you can in movies, books, music, and more traditional forms of art. Some of these worlds are incredibly intricate and/or beautiful! Games like Portal, the Half Life series, the Final Fantasy series, Myst (an oldie but a goodie), or even something as antiquarian but timeless as Nethack are all works of art in their own right. I'd even argue that the extensive worlds of some MMORPGS like World of Warcraft (I can hear the audience uprising now) are works of art, in the sense that you can completely abandon the goal/trajectory/storyline of the game to explore an expansive realm with surprising attention to details by its developers and artists.

    In addition to the games themselves, we've got really fun stuff that people do *with* the games. One of my all time favourite exploits of a video game is this video of Team Fortress Two. Holy shit, physics! That's a work of art as much as anything I've seen in a gallery. And people are having a lot of fun with Gary's Mod. With this gadget, you can create movies in a game environment. Here are a couple of my favourites - Full Life Consequences and Day in the Life of a Turret. They're silly, but they show you what's possible. Intent is the key, here - after all, intent is what makes the best art great.Why not have video games as a medium?

    As if that's not legitimizing enough, people are artistically inspired by video games. If you haven't seen Toledano's portraits of gamer faces, you're really missing out. Patrick Runte does some awesome photographs based on scenes from video games. And I know there's a photographer out there who is creating fine art photography from within video game settings but I can't find them right now - I'll let you know if I do. I'm sure a lot of people are doing this ... 

    Going back to your original question, what we have to learn is how to adapt with technology. It only makes sense that our definition of art will change as the methods through which we express or translate the world around us changes. Video games and virtual worlds are a clear part of that language, and more of us are using it. It only makes sense that video games as a tool or medium for artistic expression follows.

    Sharon Arnold answered in Artist Resources over 2 years ago
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    If something is art, should it be respected and preserved?
    On_my_head_small

    I think these are a lot of questions wrapped up in one, so I'm going to answer the big one first:

    What is art, and should we preserve it?

    Who the fuck knows. Does it matter?

    To the detriment of my peers, my work is non-archival. But hell, I'm non-archival. For me, the point is not whether or not the work will be around in a hundred years - it's about the process of making and enjoying it now, and placing it into the lives of people *now*. Perhaps there's an element of irresponsibility in that attitude, in respect to documentation and history, but I'm not going to presume that the work I make is relevant to that. Again, the everything I'm doing is about the present, for the present. Life is transient. Why wouldn't art be? Besides, the argument for history can be demonstrated through the preservation of deteriorating works by Eva Hesse - we learn something by seeing her work shift, sag, crumble, and change. In it, perhaps we see ourselves.

    I think it's beautiful that street/graffitti art is temporary. It's a moment in time. If you see it, you've captured it. Artists on the street are not consumed with documentation of history. They're in it for the enjoyment, for sharing it with whomever comes across it. Perhaps it doesn't translate the same way when it's decal-d or spray-painted on a gallery wall or canvas, but that doesn't remove its legitimacy or relevance. It's a contextual change from outside to inside; from part of our daily lives to something on a pedestal. There shouldn't be a value judgement there - it's merely a change in presentation. The meaning will take on new layers, for sure - who's enjoying the spray-painted gallery? That's an important question.

    There will always be a counterculture changing the way they make art, where, and how. We're losing nothing by alternative movements being accepted into the mainstream. Culture shifts, so do we. That's how it should be.

    Sharon Arnold answered in Artist Resources over 2 years ago
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