The Ludologist has written a transcript of the discussion! Yay! Found here!
I don’t know what’s going on with my feeds – sorry about any inconvenience!
Category Archives: Art
Games as Art Discussion
Oooh! Almost forgot!!! The Ludologist reports:
“Join us on Wednesday, November 1st for a chat with on the subject of games and art with Henry Jenkins, Jesper Juul, Marc LeBlanc, and Eric Zimmerman.
…
Are games art? If not, why not? And if so, why? Is thinking of games as art useful or actually a hindrance for game developers? If games are art, what should our aspirations for the form be?”
Network: irc.freenode.net
Channel: #gamesandart
Time: 6 PM PST, 9PM EST, 2 AM GMT
There’s a link on how to get on the IRC (which I honestly don’t even know what is yet).
Doubtful that I’ll be awake – but you might! Great minds talking about an interesting subject!
Halloween Pumpkin Stencils
Hehe!!! These are just brilliant!!! Stencils for your Halloween game character pumpkins! Sometimes I wish we were more into Halloween here! But now it just seems stupid to bring the tradition into our lives. Which I find sad – I guess I’m just an eager consumer! I want the money hungry industries to decide what I should celebrate and make up nice holidays for me to enjoy!!! ;) I think I’m gonna get myself some horror movies tonight! Or should I focus on getting a game? Maybe F.E.A.R.?!
Shooter!
How cool is this?!!! Shooter is an art project based on a video and pictures of players at private LAN parties organised by the artists Beate Geissler and Oliver Sann. Vigourating!!!
The abstract:
The two-part work “Shooter” by the artist duo Geissler and Sann consists of a video and photo documentation of LAN parties organised by the artists in their studio over a period of a year and a half. Both the video sequences and the photo documentations show the players front-on against a neutral background from a constant camera angle.
The video, on show at the exhibition, observes the players during a fight scene, i.e. while they are killing or getting killed in the virtual world of the network while sitting in the same room as their adversaries. The video shows moments of intense concentration of a temporary tension characterised by inner drama. According to the artists, “The viewer … witnesses a life-and-death game with no consequences”.
“Shooter” presents a test set-up with which to analyse the human relation to real and virtual spaces and the associated gestures and facial expressions. At the same time, the artists question the function of the real body and the game of identities with reference to New Technologies.
The specially installed web site features a documentation and a guest book in which the portrayed players can leave their comments.
(Silke Albrecht)
Found at Game Scenes (which I don’t have time to investigate further at the moment, but definitely on top of my ‘to do’ list!)
What an excellent way to be a fan!
I’ve been completely smitten by Keane’s “Crystal Ball”! I know, I’m late and everyone else is probably sick of it – but I’m completely and utterly smitten!!! I saw a clip of the music video and there was my favorite B-actor (oh dear…is that an insult?)! Does anyone else have those? Actors that you just adore, but don’t remember the name of?
Anyways, wanted to have a look at the whole video and naturally headed over to YouTube! And, naturally the RIAA had requested the video removed! Idiots!
But ofcourse I found so much more interesting stuff with the song!!! A Lost mashup! An adorable puppet! A Harry Potter love triangle drama! Three best friends portraying the weirdness of growing up (I think)! An amusement park mash-up! And….
Well…I think I’m gonna have to stop there, the song’s starting to wear thin in my ears! Hehe!
I think this stuff is just adorable and entertaining (although I really shouldn’t be spending this much time enjoying myself). And ofcourse….how could I ever mention fan culture without mentioning machinima?!!! Hehe!
Basshunter strikes again
This time it’s a song about gaming. Pretty much singing that they’re sitting there in ‘venten’ (which I think is an abreviation for ventrilo) and playing a little computer games (interesting to think that the direct translation would be ‘playing data)!
Update: Oops! I was wrong! He’s actually singing about playing DotA – Defense of the Ancients.
It’s, you know, something to blog about without having to write too much;)! Interesting, at least!
Thanks, i1277!
Silence Variations
Yay! Finally!!! The Silence Variations is now available for download!!!
I suppose we were all stunned in August, 2004 – when some thieves manage to just casually steal Munch‘s famous ‘Scream‘ and ‘Madonna’ paintings. And when I say casually – I mean just taking the darn things off the wall and running out of there!
So Overdog Games designed this magnificent game for Bergen Kunsthall‘s Game On exhibition last year.
“Silence plays out endless variations on this theme, as a two-player computer game installation: Wave your guns, find the paintings, and get the hell out. If nobody gets hurt, all is well. It’s the classic heist story, but with a twist: There is no flaky partner, no smart-ass heroes, and no wise-cracking cops. Too simple? Well, this time that’s the tune.”
The paintings have finally been retrieved! And the game is finally available for download! Yay!
And they warm my little ol’ heart when they also release the code under a Creative Commons license!! Bless them!!!
I want more, more and MORE!!! Bogost has also picked up on it! Yay!!!
Velvet-Strike
This is new to me…and oh…how beautiful!!! I’m truely touched!
”
It’s just…beautiful! Anti war graffiti in such a ‘reality-like’ war game? Amazing! And as they state:
and
“Reality is up for grabs. The real needs to be remade by us.”
I’m such a sucker for movements like this!!! Gives me so much hope! And I’m going to stop now before I get all sappy!!
Wright speaks again!
Will Wright (omg I’ve become a groupie haven’t I?) spoke at BAFTA on “The Future of Games” and David Hayward was generous enough to blog his great notes (bless him!). Inspiring, as expected! “They teach systemic thinking. Players learn to analyse and play systems of rules. They can also teach us to navigate the future. They could teach kids to think long term instead of short term.” Wooo haaa!!! But you know…sometimes I’m worried that we’re all just a bit too optimistic.
Reservoir Dogs Marketing Campaign
I’m glad I’m alone here right now and no serious students around trying to study! I just had one of my surfing breaks from my hellish monstrosity and was introduced to the Reservoir Dogs Game ads!!! I love them!!! I’m sorry – I know they’re crude and all that….but I’m certainly smitten!!!
Aleks at the Guardian Games Blog asks if it isn’t illegal to use kids to promote something “that would give broadcast output an 18+ rating”? That’s an interesting question actually! How exactly are broadcasting regulations and the internet combined?! Ooooohhh!!! This would be a great subject for a Master’s thesis!!! Although I’m sure it’s already been written a lot about….seems so familiar…yet I cannot remember what the law is! Must restrain myself from searching for the info – MUST FINISH, MUST FINISH!!!
Anyways! Hope you enjoy them just as much as I did!
Remember What The Dormouse Said 
