/ Xeni Jardin / 11:09 am Thu Feb 17, 2011

10 artists who use videogames as their mediums

Flavorwire has a nice roundup of videogames as an artistic medium: a post today about the work of 10 artists, many of whom use mobile devices such as the iPhone and iPad as a platform. Among them, Greg Wohlwend and design partner Mike Boxleiter of Mikengreg, who created Solipskier (video embedded above) for the iPhone. Their next project, 4fourths, looks intriguing.

As the Flavorwire folks point out, all of this happens as the Smithsonian readies a major exhibition on the art of video games, and as a San Francisco-based nonprofit is trying to raise $20,000 for a video game museum.

10

  1. Mediums, as in, the method by which they communicate with spirits of the deceased? Or medium, the plural of which is media, as in, their material? I’m guessing it’s the latter, so I’m gonna go ahead and fix it for you:

    “10 artists who use videogames as their media.”

    All better now! :)

    1. I think actually the singular ‘medium’ would be better (‘artists who use videogames as their medium’). Also, I don’t think the smiley face quite stopped you from coming off as dickish, just so you know, seyo. (I’m sure you’re a nice person and the tone was just off, but the comment read – to me at least – more condescending than playful.)

      p.s. Thanks for the link, Xeni.

  4. How could there be a conversation about video games and art without mention of Cory Archangel’s Mario Clouds from 2002?

  5. I can’t help but notice that pretty much all of the examples on that list involve video games that ironically combine retro graphics and gameplay with politics and violence that you would not normally expect to find in video games of the Atari age.

    Is that really all it takes to be artistic? If I just re-skin Sinistar with blockier graphics and intersperse it with excerpts from “On the Origin of Species” will I be hailed as a brilliant artist?

    I’m really wary of this whole approach, because it reminds me a lot of Roy Lichtenstein, who pretty much just copied the art of others but got more respect then they did because he was better at advertising himself as an artist.

    I don’t want to be too negative towards any of these artists, but the process by which we’ve decided that “Today I Die” is impressive art while “Bubble Bobble” is just a silly game seems highly suspect to me.

    Also, you know, other media have other methods of expression then ironic canibalism. You’d have to work pretty hard to find any other kind of media where most important artists were busy recasting the stuff they loved as kids.

  6. @ Christopher You did click past the first example, right? Because you don’t seem to be describing the list I’m seeing. And at least in Bogost’s case, the game is actually designed and programmed for the Atari, so I wouldn’t describe the graphics as ironic retro– they’re kind of just the graphics you get on that system.

    I, for one, like that the list has a mix of indie games, art games, and gallery games. Just because Cory Arcangel (sp!) is the only fine artist you’ve ever heard of whose practice focuses on games, doesn’t mean he needs to go on every list.

    Also, I think all of these games have gameplay– which excludes a great number of artists who work with games (that’s not a value judgment, just an observation).

  7. The headline of this article is sad, sad commentary on the state of videogames AS a medium.

    “10 artists who use canvas as their mediums.”
    “10 artists who use film as their mediums.”
    “10 artists who use novels as their mediums.”

    Think about what is wrong with those sentence. And I ain’t dicking over grammar.

  8. i clicked through to see if the “lilt” games were there. i downloaded some demo’s on my wii and they totally qualify (and would score high imo) for the list!

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