As I wandered by means of the exhibition Difference Machines: Technology and Identity in Contemporary Art, my thoughts felt prefer it had been hit by a number of lightning strikes. This exhibition, at present at Chicago’s Wrightwood 659 gallery, showcases the work of 17 artists who’ve been working in digital areas for many years, specializing in how the digital world has impacted our collective sense of identities, from race and gender to the surveillance state.

But what struck me have been the artists utilizing video video games of their work. For many years, debates have raged over the position of video video games in society: Are they art? Are they harmful? Meanwhile, artists have been utilizing video video games of their work. Some artists create precise video video games; others report movies inside a online game, creating films known as machinima.

Various artists have staged inventive interventions inside video games, and others nonetheless have used online game references of their artwork. And then there may be the entire style of fan art. And in fact, there are video video games which might be artwork themselves.

However, it has taken the artwork institution a while to catch up. Tina Rivers Ryan, curator of the exhibition and the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, explains by e-mail that for digital artwork in addition to online game artwork, “the art world continues to struggle with finding the aesthetic or cultural value (let alone market value) in digital art more broadly.” There are challenges with displaying online game artwork since “you have to consider questions that don’t come up with traditional artwork: What’s the appropriate scale for the work? Should the experience be individual or collective, private, or public?” Ryan says.

Slowly however absolutely, some establishments are beginning to acknowledge the inventive worth of video video games. Notably, the Museum of Modern Art in New York has had a minimum of two exhibitions (together with the 2022-2023 exhibition Never Alone) on video video games and commenced buying video games in its assortment in 2012, specializing in the design facet. It has 36 video video games in its archives and is aiming to get 40.

So the jury is in. Video video games will be artwork. The higher query now’s how modern artists can and are utilizing video video games of their work.

In and Out of Your Comfort Zone

A.M. Darke, exhibiting artist and assistant professor of artwork and design for video games and playable media at UC Santa Cruz, explains that one of many highly effective elements of video video games is that they “invest you as a participant and an agent in those stories.” You don’t simply witness or eat video games, particularly interactive ones. You actively make decisions within the sport.

Darke performs with the “magic circle” of video games in his artwork. The magic circle is a secure container the place “certain things can happen that do not impact you.” For occasion, in the event you see a pal play Grand Theft Auto, you don’t assume they are going to kill folks and steal vehicles in the true world. “But I design pieces that intentionally break the magic circles, so that the actions you take in the game, the experiences, [the knowledge and perspectives] you’re confronted with, is something that remains with you.”