Videogames and the Museum

TILBURG UNIVERSITY

Videogames and the Museum

Derkjan Koning ANR. S941364 27/11/2014

Liberal Arts and Sciences Bachelor Thesis: 2014, dr. K.J. Brown 1

Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ...... 3 1 Research Objectives ...... 3 2. Methodology ...... 3 3. Historical Context ...... 4 CHAPTER 1: Videogames and Art ...... 9 Cross-cultural Endeavour ...... 11 CHAPTER 2: Videogames and Art Museums ...... 15 The Art Museum and why it discourages physical interaction ...... 15 The Role of the Curator ...... 17 Videogames and museums? ...... 18 CHAPTER 3: Videogame Exhibitions ...... 21 MoMA: Applied Design...... 21 Smithsonian Institution: The Art of Video Games ...... 23 Stedelijk Museum: Do It! Load It! ...... 26 Conclusion ...... 28

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INTRODUCTION

1 Research Objectives

The intersection between the art world and videogames has been a subject of interest for several years in aesthetics and within the world of museums and game designers. Sadly, however, the gap between the disciplines of game design and museum practice is one that is not easily bridged. With regard to the ‘art status’ of videogames, there is no clear consensus to be found in academic literature or amongst the opinions of critics expressed in press publications. By ‘art status’ in this context I mean works that are intended (or seen as serious candidates) to be appreciated for their aesthetic qualities and that are experienced in the context of an exhibition space.

Those opposed to granting videogames art status are often judged to misunderstand the medium and aesthetic qualities of video games in general by those in favour of the medium. Conversely, proponents are told that their games do not constitute an art form because they are ‘games’. While this field of tension persists between art and videogames, it has not prevented art museums from attempting to incorporate videogames in to their collections as art (or art-related) works.

For instance, in 2012 the Museum of Modern Art (New York) acquired 14 videogames for a permanent exhibition on design. Earlier that year the Smithsonian Institution (Washington DC) organized “The Art of Videogames”, an exhibition which is currently travelling around the United States. One year prior to that, the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam) organized “DO IT! LOAD IT!” which sought to explore a link between art and videogames.

This thesis seeks to find an answer to the question of how videogames can be effectively showcased as art objects in a museum exhibition? To this end, I shall explore the principal challenges that curators and conservators face in their attempts to preserve and display videogames as artworks. An additional aim is to put forward a suggestion that seeks to mitigate the tension between museum display practices and the videogame experience with a view to smoothing the integration of videogames into museums as culturally and artistically interesting art objects.

Through writing this thesis I also hope to contribute to the discussion about whether videogames can be considered as a medium capable of offering artists a novel platform for creative expression, and whether museums can offer such works a useful place of preservation and exposure.

2. Methodology The scope of this thesis will limit itself to an explanation of what video games are, under what circumstances they can qualify as art, and the challenges they present to curators and conservators of museums who aim to incorporate them into temporary exhibitions or permanent collections.

The findings in this thesis will be based on an analysis of relevant scholarly literature, as well as on study of the recordings of panel discussions and lectures that took place at major videogame conventions, articles by journalists, and interviews with artists and game designers. Through the use of these sources, the thesis attempts not only to explore the topic from a theoretical academic perspective, but also to examine some of the practical issues that have affected this area of art production and debate.

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In chapter 1, I will discuss some recent theories in aesthetics that contribute to the debate on whether videogames can or should be understood as artworks. The focus will, in particular, be on the cluster theory of art put forward by Berys Gaut1 and further debated in the works of Grant Tavinor2 and Dominic McIver Lopes3. In contrast to a conceptualization of art as the product of artistic intent or institutional approval, a conception of art on the basis of a cluster theory is, in my view, the least rigid and most appealing to a defence of videogames as artworks. I will further show that if videogames are art they belong to the art form of computer art as discussed by Lopes. Discussion of these theories will serve to establish a framework from which it becomes easier to understand what a videogame is and how it relates to more traditional art forms such as painting or sculpture. This will also serve to create a foundation from which to tackle the topics examined in the remaining chapters relating to the collection and display of such works.

Chapter 2 will deal with the question of whether or not videogames deserve to be preserved in art museums and will examine the criteria a curator may use to create a selection of videogames. This part of the discussion will also examine some of the problems posed by the ‘game’ feature of the works and the purpose that art museums are considered to fulfil in contemporary society. In light of their interactive nature—which greatly differs from the objects that typically comprise the bulk of museum collections—videogames are seen to offer new challenges to curators and to the aims of their institutions.

The final chapter will focus in detail on the strategies utilized by curators of three videogame art exhibitions4. I will discuss the issues they encountered and the reasons why museums have chosen to incorporate video games into their collections. Each of them paid attention to a different aspect of videogames to reveal them as an art form: innovation for “Applied Design;” historical tradition and a cultural phenomenon for “The Art of Videogames;” and their viability as a medium for artistic expression for “DO IT! LOAD IT!.” Thus I will analyse key examples of how games have been incorporated in to museum exhibitions as art and will identify various pitfalls and opportunities that video games as a medium may bring to the museum. I will also try to show how the unique nature of the museum as an institution that is capable of creating a context in which to showcase objects, may contribute to facilitating a better understanding and appreciation of videogames as art. I will argue that this occurs by exhibiting games in a different (i.e. non-gaming) context that is mixed with other more familiar art forms.

3. Historical Context In order to put the arguments of this thesis into context, I will quickly sketch the current state of the videogame industry and consider how its current form came into being. This background is important as it gives the reader an idea of where the innovation in the industry is actually coming from and shows why videogames as a medium have started to be perceived as forms of artistic expression. I will do this by briefly detailing the various ways in which developers create videogames and consider how these and related trends in the industry influence the way in which videogames are made. Most

1 Berys Gaut, ““Art”as a Cluster Concept,” in Theories of Art Today, ed. Noël Carroll (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2000), p. 25-44. 2 Grant Tavinor, THE ART OF VIDEOGAMES (Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009), p. 172-196. 3 Dominic McIver Lopes, A Philosophy of Computer Art (London: Routledge, 2010), p. 103-120. 4 “DO IT! LOAD IT!,” The Stedelijk Museum 2011; “The Art of Videogames,” Smithsonian 2012; “Applied Design,” MoMA 2013. 4 prominent amongst those developments is the advent of self-publishing and digital distribution opportunities for independent game developers.

Before the advent of digital videogame download services and crowd funding over the internet, the videogames industry was, and to a great extent still is, dominated by large game producers who had come in to being as the result of various mergers between, and acquisitions of, previously smaller producers and developers. With these mergers, developers hoped to get an advantage in the highly competitive videogames industry of the early 21st century. Size benefits meant that more resources could be spend on the development and marketing of videogames. For videogames there is only a limited time window in which they can be promoted aggressively if a developer wishes to sell games through a store front. In order to compete, developer studios have to create ever more impressively looking videogames and organize larger marketing campaigns.5 These videogames are commonly referred to as triple AAA games, titles that are made with budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars that need to sell millions of copies in order for companies to break even.6

Needless to say, allocating such large amounts of money to projects requires risk management practices. These include continuously monitoring the market and analysing sales numbers in order to deduce what kind of games are in demand. This is the task of publishers7, who are also in charge of distribution and promotion. They relay this knowledge to developers and often demand that they include or exclude certain features in the games that are being produced. To a certain extent this production method has stifled the creative freedom of the developer teams.8

Competition between large game production companies has been fierce, and a few bad decisions may spell the end for any one of them at the hands of another. As such their business practices are very risk averse; they continue to create videogames each year that are typically new instalments of tried and true established franchises in the same format. As a result videogames were a fairly stale platform for creative expression during the first decade of the 21st century. Hence many audiences have come to expect the videogames industry to produce more of the same thing (one drab violent shooter after another). The practice of these production companies has remained largely the same with their focus on trying to make games with ever increasing graphic fidelity. This has reached the stage where large studios often try to create games that look like live action movies, even hiring famous actors for motion and voice capture9.

5 Mary Jane Irwin, “Indie Game Developers Rise Up,” Forbes. November 20, 2008, http://www.forbes.com/2008/11/20/games-indie-developers-tech-ebiz-cx_mji_1120indiegames.html. (Accessed October 22, 2014). 6 Wayne Harrel “The Indie Revolution: How Little Games are Making Big Money,” Game Academy. October 9, 2013, https://www.gameacademy.com/the-indie-revolution/. (Accessed October 22, 2014). 7 Notable examples of prominent publishers include Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony Computer Entertainment. 8 In April 2013 a guest editorial written by an anonymous game developer was published on video game news site “Kotaku.” The developer describes at length how managers in charge of large video game publishers fail to understand videogames as a medium. They keep suppressing or altering the creative visions of developers, and mistakenly pushing them to create cinematic instead of interactive experiences. - Anonymous Game Developer, “We Need Better Video Game Publishers,” Kotaku. April 15, 2013, http://kotaku.com/we-need-better-video- game-publishers-472880781. (Accessed November 5, 2014). 9 Famous examples include; Patrick Stewart in The Elder Scrolls Oblivion (Bethesda 2006); and Ellen Page in Beyond Two Souls (Quantic Dream 2013), who didn’t only voice but also lend her entire likeness to a game character. 5

The situation changed significantly with the advent of digital distribution in 200510, which heralded the decline of physical retail of software and the need for developer teams to rely on the distribution channels of large publishers. As a result, a few prominent game designers who had grown dissatisfied with the risk averse practices that stifled their creativity, or were let go by the larger game studios because of mergers, seized the opportunity to start their own independent studios based on their renown. Here they make games with smaller budgets, which allows them to experiment with games and take the risks that large publishers and developer studios are afraid of.

The rise of crowd funding internet sites can be identified as a secondary reason why it can be viable for developers and designers to start small studios. Game designer Tim Schafer11 was one of the first to successfully finance a development project through Kickstarter, and many other small time developers have followed his example with success. Thus crowd funding websites have helped smaller companies to gain more independence and creative freedom in the gaming industry. In addition they are able to reach a niche target demographic. In some cases that target audience is even included in the game making process, granting them early access to unfinished versions of videogames and the ability to participate in decisions about the content of games.12

The result of small, innovative developer projects is that the variation of videogame genres and forms of presentation in the market have increased tremendously over the past 5 years13. These factors together have contributed to the current dynamic nature of the videogames industry in which different small developers are able to experiment with videogames as a medium in a non traditional sense by creating games that are constantly challenging and questioning of the very concept of a videogame. This trend has developed to the extent that it is no longer strange to encounter videogames with a more serious tone that attempt to address philosophical and political dilemmas14.

In addition to any aesthetic question, the swift developments of the gaming industry has led to difficulties in defining the term ‘videogame’. Throughout his book The Art of Videogames, Grant Tavinor continuously presents examples of videogames that differ in their approach to being a

10Valve inc. introduced “Steam”, a website that functions as an online storefront and digital distribution channel for software, and made it available to other developers. The practice of purchasing software through steam is much like buying an e-book, people do not buy a physical more expensive copy of a product, but the rights to download a copy that becomes linked to a personal account. Currently Steam is no longer the sole digital download platform for software but remains the most dominant one, other examples include “The Humble Bundle”, and “GOG”. A more thorough explanation of Steam can be found at http://www.giantbomb.com/steam/3015-718/. 11 Tim Schafer is an example of such a designer, who out of frustration that no publishers would want to back his idea to create an adventure game (a genre of videogames that was declared dead by the industry after the 1990’s), turned to crowd funding website Kickstarter where he pitched his idea to the internet community. A video of his sales pitch can be found at https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/73409/video-77340- h264_high.mp4. (Accessed November 14, 2014). 12 Some Kickstarter projects for instance allow people who pledge a certain sum of money to a project to design or request the inclusion of a certain piece of content in the final product. 13 Kickstarter was founded in 2009 (Kickstarter 2014) and as of November 2014 1241 videogames projects have been successfully funded through the site (Kickstarter 2014). 14 “Papers Please” (Lucas Pope 2013) is for instance such a game. The player takes control of an immigration officer in a dystopian, seemingly communist, state that has to perform the menial and mind numbing task of doing background checks on potential immigrants. The game emphasises and explores the emotional burden that is placed on these people that accompanies the consequences of their decisions to grant or deny people access to a country instead of fun. 6

‘game’. He thus shows that there is no standard format in which a videogame has to present itself. They can, for example, take the form of narratives presented through cinematic sequences of high graphic fidelity, occasionally interrupted by a prompt to the player to push a button; this means that they often resemble something more like a movie than a game15. Alternatively, they can be puzzles16, real-time17 or turn-based18 strategy games, role playing games19, shooters20, adventure games21, simulators22, hybrids of any of these genres23 or something completely new24. This list is by no means exhaustive and focuses merely on superficial game mechanics; it does not reveal how the combination of content and game mechanics can yield unique and interesting game play experiences. I do hope however, that it shows that any attempt to define videogames in general, will be complicated by the need to reckon with their various forms. This point is echoed by Tavinor when he creates a disjunctive definition of videogames “that offers the possibility that there may be more than one way for something to be a videogame”25

More recently the market has seen the emergence of videogames that defy the definition of a videogame, for example Dear Esther26, because they generate virtual worlds that a player navigates without the inclusion of any element of ‘play’. Some videogame critics have argued that it would be more accurate to designate these games as interactive virtual installations/exhibits, rather than videogames27. The element of play, then, is something that emerges through the inclusion of implicit or explicitly formulated failure states, as John Bain explains28.

Moreover, according to Tavinor, videogames have to be distinguished from the concept of videogame-art:

“a genre of art that has recently adopted the visual lexicon and often the technological means of videogaming for artistic purposes. - such artworks are not games, principally

15 For example David Cage, “Heavy Rain.” Quantic Dream, Sony Computer Entertainment, (2010). 16 Tetris (Alexey Pajitnov 1984), World of Goo (2d Boy 2008), Angry Birds (Rovio Entertainment 2009), Candy Crush Saga (King 2012). 17 Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment 1994), Command and Conquer (Westwood Studios 1995), Age of Empires (Ensemble Studios 1997), Starcraft (Blizzard Entertainment 1998). 18 Civilization (Micro Prose 1991), Heroes of Might and Magic (New World Computing 1995). 19 The Elder Scrolls (Bethesda Softworks 1994), World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment 2004). 20 Half-Life (Valve 1998), Medal of Honor (Dreamworks Interactive 1999), Halo (Bungie 2001), Bioshock (2K Games 2007). 21 The Secret of Monkey Island (LucasArts 1990), Grim Fandango (LucasArts 1998), Limbo (Playdead 2010). 22 Rollercoaster Tycoon (Micro Prose 1999), (The Sims (Maxis 2000). 23 Fallout (Interplay 1997), Portal (Valve 2007), Mass Effect (BioWare 2007). 24 Amnesia the Dark Descent (Frictional Games 2010), Little Inferno (Tomorrow Corporation 2012), Papers Please (Lucas Pope 2013). 25 Tavinor, THE ART OF VIDEOGAMES, p. 32. 26 Dear Esther (The Chinese Room 2008) is a first-person videogame that requires minimal input from the player and focuses solely on the delivery of a fragmented narrative. Some game critics have mentioned that the player input of Dear Esther is the equivalent of a play and pause button on a dvd player, which inspired a debate on the videogame status of Dear Esther. 27 John Bain “What's in a game?: A discussion of gameplay and narrative,” Cynical Brit. October 17, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bvX4hzqcqc. (Accessed September 16, 2014). 28 Bain suggests that in order to define them, it would be more useful to emphasise the presence of failure instead of win states in videogames. Simply because there are many games where the goal is to simply last as long as possible before inevitably failing. - John Bain “In defence of specific definitions,” Cynical Brit. September 16, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm-3GJsr8Xw. (Accessed September 16, 2014). 7

because they are not played, - but rather engage audiences in the appreciative and interpretative behaviors associated with the traditional visual arts.”29

Videogame-art utilizes the engines30 of videogames to produce images31, music32, or films33. A videogame on the other hand is:

“an artifact in a visual digital medium, intended as an object of entertainment, and intended to provide such entertainment through the employment of either rule and objective gameplay or interactive fiction”.34

Hence, combining the approaches of Tavinor and Bain, we could argue that a videogame is a computer program that generates a virtual world that includes a set of rules with which a user can interact. It is also necessary that it becomes a game through the inclusion of a set of implicitly or explicitly formulated fail states35 as this draws a clear distinction between instances of videogames and virtual installations or videogame-art. But to treat them only as such overlooks the aesthetic content of the works with which the audience is presented. With this background in mind, I will now turn to a consideration of the debates concerning the appreciation of videogames as art.

29 Tavinor, The Art of Videogames, p. 173. 30 Computer programs that are designed to run videogames on a computer. 31 For instance “Fireworks” by Duncan Harris, an artist that takes pictures of videogames at such high resolutions that they become unplayable. 32 Rockman Navarro is a musician who uses gameboys as drum computers to compose and produce music. 33 For example “Ignis Solus” (Lit Fuse Films 2007) by Zachariah Scott. 34 Tavinor, The Art of Videogames, p. 32-33. 35 See Tavinor, The Art of Videogames, p. 86-109 and Bain’s notion that videogames are defined by the inclusion of a failure state as he explained in his video (Bain, In defence of specific definitions). 8

CHAPTER 1: Videogames and Art

Before turning to the debate on whether videogames should be understood as art, it is important briefly to address the ontological question of art. This will help to give an idea of the criteria that people might be looking for in order to consider a videogame as art. There are various definitions of art that all have their own merit, and depending on the definition of art to which an individual adheres, he or she might look for and conceive of the artistic qualities of videogames in different ways.

The institutional definition of art entails that art is “an artifact upon which some person(s) acting on behalf of the artworld has conferred the status of candidate for appreciation”36. It thus invests (prominent or specially qualified) individuals belonging to the artworld with the authority to designate what is and what is not art. Furthermore, institutional definitions have included the notions that “art and the interpretations thereof require an art historical context”37, and that a work of art is created with the intention “to be presented to an artworld public”38. According to an institutional definition of art, a videogame could thus be considered as art if it is made by someone who had the intention to present it to the art world and that it is accepted as art by the artworld.

The institutional definition does not come without its philosophical problems. It would for instance become hard to understand how the artworld can come to accept some works as art, for instance Neolithic cave paintings, when they were clearly created without the concept of an art world. The same argument holds for works that are accepted as art by institutions within the artworld, but that are not created with the artworld as its intended audience.39 It becomes unclear whether the authority of institutions should override artistic intention in this situation. Furthermore, how are we to determine whether something is art if one part of the artworld accepts and the other part denies a particular work the status of ‘art’?

While the institutional definition of art requires consensus amongst a group of experts, it has the merit of moving away from the idea that art can be defined by identifying a set of properties that are shared by all artworks. Because of this, institutional definitions of art are well suited for application to the modern and contemporary arts because they can account for the acceptance of a broad range of objects, performances, and events as art (this includes, for example “ready-mades” or conceptual works, that seem to lack representational, formal or expressive properties).40

36 George Dickie, Aesthetics, an Introduction (New York: Pegasus, 1971), p. 101. 37 Diarmuid Costello, “Danto and Kant, Together at Last?,” in Danto and His Critics, ed. Mark Rollins (Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), p. 160. 38 George Dickie, The Art Circle (New York: Haven, 1984), p. 82. 39 “Portal” (Valve 2007) for instance is a critically acclaimed videogame that has been added to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Arts in New York, but the game’s lead designers distance themselves from any notion that their game would be an artwork. See John Walker, “Erik Wolpaw Talks In Depth About Portal 2,” Rock Paper Shotgun. May 11, 2011, http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/05/11/erik-wolpaw-talks-in- depth-about-portal-2/. (Accessed July 5, 2014) & Ryan Rigney, "Portal Designer Kim Swift Won’t Let You Take Her Toys Away," Wired. June 21, 2012, http://www.wired.com/2012/06/kim-swift-interview/. (Accessed July 5, 2014). 40 Thomas Adajian, “The Definition of Art,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 9 October, 2012, http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/art-definition/. (Accessed September 9, 2014). 9

An historical functionalist definition of art is a similar kind of ‘conventionalist’ definition. But rather than characterizing a work as art if it enjoys the approval of the artworld, it defines art as something that stands in an art-historical relation to previous artworks. Jerrold Levinson’s historical intentional definition, for instance, states that “an artwork is a thing seriously intended for regard in any way pre-existing or prior artworks are or were correctly regarded.”41 Historical functionalism defines an artifact as art only if it is one of the central art forms at its time of production and is made with the intention of fulfilling a function that art has at that time. 42

A final variation of the historical definition is historical narrativism.43 Broadly, this states that an artwork is historically linked to other artworks due to a resemblance to previous works. In other words, they are all created within a continuing artistic tradition in which artists have the intention to produce art. A variation on historical narrativism further states that historical relations between artworks are defined and incorporated in to a narrative that is accepted by relevant experts who are capable of discerning connections between candidate artworks and established artworks.44 Central to these historical definitions is thus the idea that art resembles other existing artworks. It does not deny that modes of art production may evolve, but rather that there is an artistic genealogy that will cause new artworks to resemble previous works in some way.

For the purposes of the present discussion, this would mean that viedogames could be considered as ‘art’ if they were able to connect to an art canon. Hypothetically a videogame that references or expands on recognised classical works of art could thus count as a work of art, albeit in a different form. Depending solely on an historical definition of art, the creation of a different form would not necessarily prevent an artwork from being able to link up with a historical tradition. Otherwise it would for instance be impossible to recognise genuine instances of innovative art within different disciplines (for instance Dante’s Divine Comedy (poetry), Michelangelo’s David (sculpture) and Caravaggio’s The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (painting)) as belonging to the same historical tradition. This suggests that it would not be impossible for new forms of artistic expression to create instances of art that would rightfully belong to the same tradition.

Like the institutional definition, the historical definition of art is also subject to various objections. For instance, it is difficult to explain what constitutes an ‘art tradition’ and how art traditions can be distinguished from non-art traditions. Furthermore, the historical definition has problems pertaining to the existence of autonomous art works and traditions. The possibility of their existence is either ruled out by definition, or accepted in which case the existence of a supra-historical concept of art cannot be denied45. In this case, however, it becomes possible to conceive of an historical tradition that would be fitting to any artwork, thus making the historical definition uninformative in the determination of when something can be art. Another objection to the historical definition is that it fails to designate a mandatory basis case that would count as the start of a historical tradition.

41 Jerrold Levinson, Music, Art, and Metaphysics: Essays in Philosophical Aesthetics (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990). 42 Robert Stecker, Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005) 43 Thomas Adajian, The Definition of Art. 44 Ibid. 45 Ibid. 10

Cross-cultural Endeavour So far conventionalist definitions of art seem to be limited in their ability to accept videogames as art. In particular, the art tradition view makes it difficult to identify any instances of art that anticipate video games and incorporate them in to an historical narrative. The institutional theory of art does not offer fare much better in this context, as many museum curators have been reluctant to accept videogames as part of their collections. One reason for this phenomenon could be a cultural disconnect: the above definitions are notorious for their struggle with accepting works produced outside of artworld institutions as art, and the necessary comparison that has to be made between videogames and previous art works is a cross-cultural and intermedial endeavour.

Even though videogames are visible in contemporary mainstream media, they are still a mysterious world to many because gaming culture is lively in less prominent spaces such as internet forums and review sites. In Tavinor’s view, under the influence of globalization and rapid technological developments, it has generated its own semi-isolated cultural history.46

A cluster account of art may help to accept (some) videogames as art, since it defines art not as something that emerges if and only if a specific condition (or set of conditions) is met, but recognises the possibility that there may be multiple ways for something to be art. The cluster account has been proposed by Berys Gaut in “Art” as a Cluster Concept. He argues that artworks possess some (though not necessarily) all of a particular set of properties:

(1) possessing positive aesthetic properties, such as being beautiful, graceful, or elegant (properties which ground a capacity to give sensuous pleasure); (2) being expressive of emotion; (3) being intellectually challenging; (4) being formally complex and coherent; (5) having a capacity to convey complex meanings; (6) exhibiting an individual point of view; (7) being an exercise of creative imagination; (8) being an artifact of performance which is the product of a high degree of skill; (9) belonging to an established artistic form; (10) being the product of an intention to make a work of art.47

According to Gaut, none of these properties is essential for something to be art, but possession of a listed property counts in favour of an object being art.48 Because different combinations of properties are possible, the cluster account is open to the idea that an object can be something in different ways. This is one of the main reasons why Grant Tavinor adopted it as his definition against which to test whether videogames could be considered art. In his book, Tavinor manages to find every property listed by Gaut and Dutton49 at least once in one videogame or another. Thus he concluded that videogames as a medium should in theory at least be able to produce genuine instances of art.

46 Tavinor, The Art of Videogames, p. 179. 47 Gaut, “Art” as a Cluster Concept, p. 28. 48 Ibid., p. 27. 49 Denis Dutton, “A Naturalist Definition of Art,” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 64, no. 3 (2006): p. 367. Modified Gaut’s cluster account of art. His reasons for doing so were that Gaut was mainly focused on proving that a cluster account as a system could work to provide definitions for concepts. Dutton instead focused on providing a more refinde cluster theory for art, and produced his own list which nevertheless showed great overlap with Gaut’s. – Tavinor, The Art of Videogames, p. 177. 11

Tavinor has to admit that not all videogames are art, that not many videogames can claim to possess all the qualities listed by Dutton and Gaut, and that especially older games are lacking in that sense.50 From this observation it could be deduced that the sophistication of videogames has witnessed a steady increase over the years. But alas even in the few instances where videogames manage to fulfil multiple requirements listed in the cluster theory, Tavinor often finds their artistic quality severely lacking. The videogames that could qualify as art are often not examples of very good art.

The latter is a point that has often been made by other critics in their debates about this issue. Some critics even dismiss the notion that videogames could ever produce genuine instances of art outright. Roger Ebert for example stated once that:

Videogames by their nature require player choices, which is the opposite of the strategy of serious film and literature, which requires authorial control. ... I believe the nature of the medium prevents it from moving beyond craftsmanship to the stature of art. To my knowledge, no one in or out of the field has ever been able to cite a game worthy of comparison with the great dramatists, poets, filmmakers, novelists and composers.51

Ebert is right in pointing out that videogames require player choices and that they have a problematic relationship with authorial control and the presentation of narratives. He is also right in highlighting that there have not yet been any games worthy of comparison to the works of great artists. But considering that the first videogame was created in 1961, it should be taken in to consideration that relative to more established art mediums, videogames should be considered a very young medium. Indeed literature and films employ authorial control to deliver a narrative, but that does not entail that videogames would need to do the same. Different media offer different opportunities, and we need to determine what these opportunities are and how they might be developed for the purpose of producing complex and interesting instances of art. Films for example had to abandon the idea of trying to copy theatre by trying to capture an entire set in a single shot without moving. It was not until cameras started moving around that filmmakers discovered that the strength of the cinematic medium lay elsewhere.

This idea holds true for videogames as a medium as well. For a long time, games have been trying to mimic films by delivering narrative through impressively edited scenes. But this often results in an experience where narrative and player are constantly wrestling for control over what happens in the game. Both narrative and game play are constantly interrupting each other, and this risks detracting from the quality of both aspects of these videogames. It is for this reason that Tavinor also wonders whether the play characteristic of videogames should count against their claim to being art.52 On one hand it could be said that videogames provide an interactive element of (competitive) play as a potential novel experience that could also be utilized to create new aesthetic experiences. On the other hand it could also be argued that the element of play distracts the audience from any real instance of art that may be present in a game.

As a result, many game developers, especially small independent ones, have been experimenting with different ways to deliver narratives and different forms of gameplay. This is enabling them to

50 Tavinor, The Art of Videogames, p. 191. 51 Roger Ebert, “Video Games Can Never Be Art,”. Roger Ebert’s Journal. 16 April, 2010, http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/video-games-can-never-be-art. (Accessed September 18, 2014). 52 Tavinor, The Art of Videogames, p. 191-192. 12 discover what it actually is that videogames can do uniquely well. The logical assumption would be that it would have to do something with play and interactivity, because this is the key feature of videogames. Lacking any interactivity a videogame would merely be a film or movie still; lacking any element of play a videogame would become the equivalent of repeatedly pushing the pause and play button whilst watching a movie. Slowly game designers’ experiments with narrative delivery has focused on incorporating narrative and play into a single experience, thereby moving away from a resemblance to movies are revealing what videogames can achieve.

A lot of criticism aimed at videogames thus may be due to their misrepresentation as something else, (for instance interactive films), and the employment of standards reserved for other art forms, such as literature or film. Additionally a lot of qualitatively (artistically) bad videogames may also be the result of a misunderstanding of the capabilities and limits of the medium. The confusion is understandable because videogames do not have any clear precedent, and a correct idea of how to assess any potential artistic qualities has not yet been discovered. Furthermore they bear a strong resemblance to film, paintings, literature, architecture and music, in the sense that they show texts, still and moving images, virtual environments and music. This may tempt one to assess videogames as an aggregation of other more conventional art forms. Thus it becomes understandable that the standards that are applied to other art forms have also been applied to videogames.

But videogames do not belong to any traditional art form. If they do belong to a different art form, then they would be a variation of the computer art form as described by Dominic McIver Lopes. According to Lopes something is computer art if

1) it’s art, 2) it’s made by a computer, 3) it’s interactive, 4) it’s interactive because it is made by a computer.53

Videogames are also generated/made by a computer, interactive, and interactive because they are made by a computer. If it can be proven that a videogame is art, then it should also belong to computer art. The caveat here is that videogames as I defined them earlier, also need to contain an element of play that challenges the player. It is unclear whether that element of play alters videogames to such an extent that they have to be seen as something completely different from computer art. Lopes states that Trigger Happy is a clear case of art which is a modified version of the game space invaders, where the player shoots down a quote from Foucault instead of aliens.54 The artwork contains a failure state which entails that if it is computer art, it would also have to be a game. This example seems to unify the concept of videogames with the concept of computer art. Consequently there also seems to be no reason why the inclusion of implied or explicit failure states would necessarily have to disrupt or distract audiences from the artistic properties of a videogame. The fact that something is a game doesn’t have to entail that the game play experience is one of total absorption.

And even if it were, it should be considered that absorption in a current game is consistent with the reflection of a game over time.55 During gameplay a player is constantly attending to repeated displays and the way in which they change as the result of player decisions. This means that players

53 Lopes, A Philosophy of Computer Art, p. 27. 54 Ibid., p. 112. 55 Ibid., p. 117. 13 pay attention to the game as a range of possibilities that are constantly generated. Multiple plays can provide the distance needed to interpret the content of a videogame. Alternatively distance could be created by slowing the pace of a game: creating a tranquil atmosphere may provide the player with enough time and peace of mind to reflect on the content of a game. The genre of classic adventure games may provide an example of such instances where the player is afforded time to reflect on the actual content of a game.

Much of what happens in games and gaming is generated by the player’s own distinctive and semi- isolated cultural history. This is an important reason why we should approach videogames on their own terms, and not always judge them by more familiar forms of culture that philosophers of the arts and other theorists have typically dealt with.56

If we look at videogames for sophisticated meaning or moral seriousness we will more often than not be disappointed, but because of this focus we may also miss the genuine innovations and aesthetic qualities that exist in their creation of a dynamic and interactive fictional world.

As cultural artefacts, videogames deserve to be preserved for future generations, especially when they attempt to provide something else than mere entertainment. Currently designers have started to experiment with stretching the boundaries of the medium and investigating its potential. Furthermore videogames are part of very large subculture and currently vying with movies for being the largest entertainment industry.

Museums have traditionally served as sites for the preservation of cultural identity.57 In my view, this makes them a proper platform for the preservation of videogames. Furthermore, there seems to be no reason why videogames could not be used as a medium to produce sophisticated artworks in the future. While videogames are a medium for creative expression, it is still very unclear how they should be regarded and how they can be preserved and exhibited in ways that exploit their strengths. The medium has to be explored further in order to discover its possibilities and the things it can do well. Just as film once had to be explored as something other than a story with moving pictures, so too videogames have to be explored as something other than interactive film.

56 Tavinor, The Art of Videogames, p. 179. 57 Carol Duncan, “The Art Museum as Ritual,” in Civilizing Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums (London: Routledge, 1995), p. 8. 14

CHAPTER 2: Videogames and Art Museums

The Art Museum and why it discourages physical interaction

In “The Art Museum As Ritual” Carol Duncan states that art museums occupy themselves with the disciplines of art history, archaeology, and conservation. In addition she mentions that they hold the “status as preservers of the community’s official cultural memory.”58 Arguing in a similar vein, Constance Classen states in “Touch in the Museum” that “museologists in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century hoped that museums would have an educational and civilizing effect on the general public.”59 When looking at the various mission statements and definitions of contemporary Western art museums60, one can see that they continue to centre on such goals of collecting and preserving interesting objects, as well as educating and entertaining the people that visit the museum.

This does not mean, however, that museums have always functioned in the same manner or with the same purpose. The practice of exhibiting collections in museums has developed over time from the creation of private collections and cabinets of curiosity (usually shown by their owners to guests as a courtesy), to the public art museum in which the objects on display are thought of as reflecting a cultural heritage that should be protected from the influences of time itself. Classen and Duncan describe the events and notions that shaped this development, and some of their ideas will help to clarify why contemporary museum culture and practices present a problem to the display of videogames as art.

Historically, museums had an attitude towards their collections that differs from contemporary curatorial ambitions and concerns. Thus, for instance, museums focused less on the task of preserving artefacts and, instead, gave priority to the observation of conventional social practices of hospitality. As Classen argues, this entailed that, as a gracious host, the curator would tell his guests about the particular collection and the objects on display. Additionally, he would offer visitors the opportunity to hold or touch the artefacts. 61 By engaging physically with the artefacts and using multiple senses, visitors could examine them more closely and experience them intimately. The resulting wear and tear on the objects was not perceived as a particular problem, partly because the objects were subjected to other forces that changed them. Being kept in damp conditions, for instance, meant that forces of decay slowly changed the appearance of exhibits. Broken sculptures would be refitted with parts of other broken sculptures, and paintings would be cropped to fit frames or altered to suit new tastes.62 It was thought that museum pieces would start showing signs of decay sooner or later whether visitors touched them or not. As Classsen discusses, wear and tear as a result of human handling seemed like an invalid argument to prohibit the touching of museum pieces. It wasn’t until museums became accessible to the general public that a need for conservation came to the fore.

58 Duncan, The Art Museum as Ritual, p. 8. 59 Constance Classen, “Touch in the Museum,” in The Book of Touch (Oxford: Berg, 2005), p. 282. 60 MoMA for instance states that its mission is to collect and preserve artefacts in order to research and reveal a cultural historical dialogue that can be presented to and educate its visitors. 61 Classen, Touch in the Museum, p. 275. 62 Ibid., p. 280. 15

Before collections could be visited by the general public, owners could determine the range of individuals able to access their privately held artefacts. This reinforced prejudices of social selection, by which only prominent individuals gained access to collections that functioned mostly as symbols of social prestige and power. Perceiving exhibitions as such, it becomes understandable that permitting a wider public to touch symbols of power and authority could function as a disruption of the established social order.63 Where once the importance of exhibition pieces was clearly available to elite members of society, the visitors of public collections had to be taught “that they were less important than the exhibits on display.”64

Thus museum pieces became increasingly to be seen as inviolable, timeless, precious objects. Increased efforts at conservation contributed to cement the idea that the items on view belonged to a sacred place outside of time and were impervious to the natural processes of time and decay.

What also contributed to the prominence of the need for conservation was the developing spirit of inquiry that gradually gave a different meaning and purpose to practices of collecting artefacts. Their intrinsic value was perceived less and less in their meaning as evidence of social prestige and instead they came to be seen as important sources of knowledge. And if they were to have a potent and lasting effect as such, efforts should be made to keep them in good condition and make them accessible to as many people as possible, i.e. the general public.65 Eventually, therefore, art collections were no longer regarded as symbols of prestige in the form of private hordes. Instead they were seen as artefacts that supported a particular cultural historical narrative. It is in this sense that museums were assigned the function of custodians of collective memory and heritage.

This change in attitude has became the norm for the museums as we know them today.66 This new attitude is characterised by a taboo on touch in the museum and a strong focus on ways in which visitors can investigate exhibits visually. Furthermore the museum’s educational function has become increasingly important, and with it the notion that exhibits have to be preserved in order to serve as sources of information for future generations.

Art museums seem to have the strange quality of being able to turn any mundane item in to a special object once it is put on display. Duncan attributes this quality to the idea that museums function as secular ritual sites in our society that create a “liminal zone of time and space in which visitors, removed from the concerns of their daily, practical lives, and open themselves to a different quality of experience.”67 Within this state of liminality, people attain a mode of consciousness that is different from the normal way in which they experience the world in their daily lives. As such it allows them to momentarily suppress their normal predispositions about the world and look at it from a fresh perspective, a process that enables them to develop new interpretations of themselves and their surroundings.

63 Ibid., p. 281. 64 Ibid., p. 282. 65 Geoffery Lewis, “History of Museums: Toward the modern museum,” Encyclopedia Britannica. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/398827/history-of-museums/76508/Royal-collections#toc76511 (Accessed November 23, 2014). 66 Classen, Touch in the Museum, p. 283. 67 Duncan, The Art Museum as Ritual, p. 20. 16

This state of liminality comes in to being in part because people anticipate it. Before they enter an art museum, people attain a frame of mind that tells them that there will be something special about the objects that will be shown to them, that they have a hidden meaning, or convey a certain story. The museum, in turn, facilitates this notion by isolating objects so that they can be regarded without any distraction. Thus they provide visitors with an opportunity to perform a ritual through which they can focus closely on the objects, thereby enabling them to contemplate the narrative that accompanies an artefact, to appreciate its subject matter, the techniques used to craft it, and the motivations of the artist that created it.68

The artworks function essentially as conduits that allow the visitors “to engage in imaginative acts of identification with the artist, to penetrate their intentions, think with their thoughts, and feel with their feelings” and to experience “a profound spiritual revelation.”69 It should be noted however that the museum’s power to present objects as possessing a special quality due to its creation of a liminal zone, is exercised within the larger framework of the exhibition that also exists within that same zone. Their structures stand as a larger narrative framework to the artefacts, providing information that will be used by visitors to contemplate the works on display. Thus the placement of an object and the theme of an exhibition allow museums to determine the meaning of the narratives conveyed by their exhibits. In that sense museums function as “sites that represent beliefs about the order of the world, its past and present, and the individual’s place within it.”70

Museums present their audiences with exhibitions that, according to Boris Groys, are “made with the intention of designing a new order of memories, of proposing the new criteria for telling a story, for differentiating between past and future.”71 As institutions that organize our interpretations and perceptions, museums contain the power to transform the way in which we look at the world.

The Role of the Curator Historically, curators were charged with the tasks of mounting an exhibition, offering information on the exhibits, and acting as guides for museum visitors. Over the years, however, various external factors (including technological development and socio-political issues impacting on museum ambitions) have forced curators time to adapt their practices.

Swift increases in the number of visitors, for instance, meant that the task of escorting every group in person became unmanageable. In addition to his or her role as host, curator originally assumed a security role, keeping a close eye on the exhibits in order to prevent theft. Here too, the large increase in visitors presented a challenge to this task. Curators had to find a different means of securing museum exhibits. As Classen notes, the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford), for example, would impose a limit on the amount of people and groups of visitors admitted to the museum at a time and keep its doors closed during visits.72

68 Ibid., p. 17. 69 Ibid., p. 16. The quote that Duncan uses to describe the act of aesthetic contemplation and identification with the artefacts comes from Benjamin Ives Gilman, Museum Ideals of Purpose and Method (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1918). 70 Ibid., p. 8. 71 Boris Groys, “The Topology of Contemporary Art,” in Antimonies of Art and Culture: Modernity, Postmodernity, Contemporaneity, eds. Okwui Enwezor, Nancy Condee, Terry Smith (Durnham: Duke University Press, 2008), p. 76. 72 Classen, Touch in the Museum, p. 282. 17

Nowadays, however, curators are charged with a wide variety of tasks. Depending on their focus and level of expertise and the institution that employs them, they fulfil a specialist role and are tasked with researching and providing information on specific topics. Alternatively, they may have a more generalist role, carrying a broad range of responsibilities from facility management to exhibition development, and anything in between.73 In any case, the ways in which curators fulfil their roles will depend largely on the mission statement and vision of the relevant museum.

One of the tasks commonly assigned to curators is that of developing an exhibition. In order to do so, curators have to make decisions about the theme and content of the exhibition, determine the manner in which the objects are put on display, and in some cases consider how to promote the exhibition. They also have to take in to account the mission statements and goals of the museum and ensure that their exhibition falls in line with their formulation. For curators working in public museums that claim to preserve and present the official cultural memory of a community, these decisions become particularly important and politically loaded, as their work will convey a narrative that makes strong authoritative claims about the nature of a cultural community.74 In that sense it could be stated that curators wield a tremendous amount of power and are able to influence the way people perceive the subjects of an exhibition and the issues raised by those subjects. Furthermore, in recognition of the transformative powers of exhibition design, curators have to take in to account the reputation of donors and artists when exhibiting their works, as these individuals will be associated with the works and the narrative displayed.

Boris Groys draws a parallel between museum exhibitions and installation art. He argues that installations are the best example of contemporary art practices that work “on the level of context, framework, or of a new theoretical interpretation.”75 They are, he argues, “less a production of individual artworks than they are a manifestation of individual decisions to include or exclude things and images that circulate in our world, that are either given or denied a new context.”76 Determining this principle of selection is the activity par excellence of the curator. As such the work of a curator could be interpreted as a form of artistic expression as well. Whether they intend to or not, with the practice of exhibition design, curators propose the criteria by which a story is told and interpreted. As such curators have to be aware of the fact that their exhibitions will influence people’s perceptions of notions tied directly and indirectly to the exhibits. They create the context that shapes the interpretations of what people perceive around them throughout their lives.

Videogames and museums? Whether videogames belong in a museum depends for the most part on the mission goals and vision of the relevant institution and the assignment with which the curator is tasked. Indeed, there are some museums in which videogames fit undeniably well, namely, museums dedicated to videogames and the sub-culture that surrounds them or museums of entertainment technology.

However, I mentioned above Duncan’s claim that art museums function as the preservers of a community’s cultural memory. I also claimed that videogames, at least as an artistic medium, are a form of artistic expression. In my view, the forms of expression contained within these artworks are

73 American Association of Museums, A Code of Ethics for Curators (Curators Committee, 2009), p. 3. 74 “To control a museum means to control the representation of a community and its highest values and truths.” Duncan, The Art Museum as Ritual. p. 8. 75 Groys, The Topology of Contemporary Art, p. 76. 76 Ibid., p. 76. 18 an important aspect of the cultural narrative presented by art museums. For this reason, I would argue that videogames deserve to be included in museums by virtue of both their aesthetic content and their contribution to a cultural narrative.

It should be noted further that art museums have often exhibited objects that have tested conceptions of ‘art’, a notable example being Duchamp’s readymades. These items nevertheless contribute to the narrative of cultural heritage that is presented in museum exhibitions, and videogames could certainly be viewed as an extension of this tradition. But this is not the way in which I want to approach videogames as artworks because it ignores their unique aspect as a medium for artistic expression, namely gameplay.

To exhibit videogames as artworks in museums would, in my view, require facilitating the element of gameplay in a museum on the grounds that this is a key aspect of the realization of the artwork. However, this step is difficult for various reasons. The most obvious difficulty is that, like books or long movies, videogames generally take a lot of time to play. Because videogames need the element of interaction in order to develop their narrative, they become, at least in most cases, too time consuming for visitors to experience in a museum exhibition.

Furthermore videogames are often mostly single player experiences. Even when they offer a multiplayer experience they are usually limited, either due to the number of controllers who can operate a single console,77 or by the number of computers available to allow people to access the same virtual world. These are problems that are apparent in the practice of developers showcasing their new games at large videogame conventions.78 Here they invite people to play a short demo version of their game, a practice that usually results in long queues of curious gamers who are eager to play an unreleased game for a few minutes. I suspect that the same situation would be true for the display of videogames in art museums. If exhibited as fully operational works in a museum, not only would the appreciation of video games be time consuming, but the experience they could offer would only be accessible to a small number of people at any time.

Furthermore, videogames often require people to engage with them through a physical peripheral device that would be subject to wear and tear when handled repeatedly by visitors. The production of these accessories is limited and will stop altogether at some point in the future, which makes it difficult for a museum to guarantee the continued offering of a gameplay experience. Even videogames that do not require a people to physically interact with them (such as Microsoft’s xbox camera that tracks body movement and interprets them as commands) will fail at some point in the future because hardware ages. Furthermore, just as hardware ages, so too technology itself becomes obsolete. As a result, the means to reproduce a gameplay experience may disappear due to a loss of knowledge about old hardware or incompatibility issues between old and new technologies.

Not only may the need to interact through a peripheral device increase rates of wear and tear on videogames, it also clashes with the notion of the taboo on touch in museums that I discussed above. Despite the increasing exhibition of participatory artworks, museums still generally have a

77 That number will be limited by the consoles capability to support multiple input devices at the same time. The current generation of consoles (Sony Playstation 3, XBOX One, and Wii U) are all capable of supporting four controllers at the same time. 78 Most notably; Games Com, Cologne; Penny Arcade Expo, Melbourne, Boston, Seattle; and the Electronic Entertainment Expo, Los Angeles. 19 prohibition on touching the exhibits. This notion may discourage people to attempt to investigate what a videogame is about. Nevertheless, it should also be noted that multisensory investigations of exhibitions are slowly returning to the museum, and the authority of the museum that was used to enforce no touch policies can also be used to inform visitors to engage with exhibits in new and different ways.

20

CHAPTER 3: Videogame Exhibitions

Museums around the world have attempted to showcase videogames as artworks for various reasons. Tavinor suspects that, in view of the recent non-art uses the museum has taken on, the videogames that made their way into these spaces did so not as ‘art’, but as appropriations of popular culture on the part of the museum.79

As I argued above, I do not think that this is a problem because, throughout their history, museums have had uses other than simply the presentation of art. Whether they are concerned with showcasing art will depend on their vision and mission statement. In my opinion, the important point on which to focus is that what ultimately counts for a museum is not whether videogames are art or popular culture, but whether the decision to exhibit them is compatible with the realization of a particular goals in the institution’s mission statement.

The aim of this chapter is to examine three different museum exhibitions that focused on the display of videogames. In my discussion, I will have regard to each institution’s mission statement and the obstacles and opportunities that informed the curators’ decisions to exhibit the videogames in the way they did.

MoMA: Applied Design

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York is dedicated to the goal of becoming the world’s most prominent museum of modern art. In order to accomplish that goal they see it as their purpose to: create, document and, preserve a large permanent collection that reflects the vitality, complexity and constantly changing patterns of modern art. In its mission statement, the institution also emphasizes its educational function of encouraging the understanding of modern and contemporary art on the part of the diverse local, national, and international audiences that it attracts. 80

According to information provided on its website, MoMA sees modern and contemporary art as an ongoing exploration of ideals and interests expressed through new artistic traditions that started in the late nineteenth century and continues today. It involves all forms of visual expression as an open- ended series of arguments and counter arguments that can be explored through exhibitions and installations that are reflected in the museum’s collection. MoMA recognises that new forms of visual expression are constantly being sought out by artists to reflect the issues of their times. As such the museum values the importance of keeping an open mind to potential new forms of expression and a willingness to experiment and innovate practices of incorporating these new forms of expression in exhibitions. What MoMA attempts to do is to establish and reveal the ongoing dialogue between the established and the experimental, the past and the present.

In 2012 MoMA acquired its first selection of 14 videogames that it incorporated in its applied design exhibition (part of MoMA’s architecture and design department). The emphasis here is not

79 Tavinor, The Art of Videogames, p. 190. 80 MoMA’s goal and mission statements have been made available on their website at http://www.moma.org/about/index. (Accessed November 26, 2014). 21 necessarily on the videogames being presented as art, even though MoMA states they are,81 but as outstanding examples of interactive design. This is understood to consist in the many different and creative solutions people come up with in order to respond to changes in everyday life. In that sense MoMA recognises and celebrates the inventor as an artist and their inventions as art. It is recognised that as inventions, novel criteria by which these inventions/works are judged are introduced; for instance how a designer has used the available means to overcome the challenge of technological limitations.

With the help of a large team of experts, MoMA was able to identify four main criteria82 that could serve as a set of standards to examine existing videogames namely:

(1) Behaviour: understood as how well or subtle a videogame is in establishing its narrative; how it manages to elicit and guide the players behaviour through the implementation of rules and stimuli. “A purposefully designed videogame can be used to train and educate to induce emotions, to test new experiences, or to question the way things are and envision how they might be.”

(2) Aesthetics: how designers embraced technological limitations in order to establish a game’s identity.

(3) Space: the architectural design of the virtual world in which the gameplay/narrative is situated. The architecture does not necessarily have to adhere to real world laws of physics and, as a result, allows designers to create a world that can offer new experiences or insights. For instance what it would be like to explore a world that adheres to the physical laws of an M.C. Escher painting.

(4) Time: how a designer managed to implement the concept of time for a videogame or just the length of the gameplay experience. There are games that can potentially continue for years on end83 or only a few minutes84, and ‘gametime’ may progress in tandem with real time, whether a player is active or not,85 sped up, slowed down, or stopped altogether.

With these four criteria in mind as a focal points for their selection, MoMA determined a wish list of 40 videogames that excelled in one way or another according to the four criteria. Nevertheless, not all of these could be acquired because of MoMA’s principles for acquisitions, namely: only works for which a legal title can be firmly established; only works that are in, or capable of being returned to an acceptable state of conservation can be obtained. MoMA is not interested in acquiring a mere copy of artworks, they want to preserve and display the authentic work. In the case of computer programs

81 Curator Paola Antonelli, makes this claim in an article published on MoMA’s website. Paola Antonelli, “Video Games: 14 in the Collection, for Starters,” INSIDE/OUT. MoMA, November 29, 2012, http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the-collection-for-starters. (Accessed November 22, 2014). 82 These criteria can be found in the same article in which Antonelli acknowledges videogames as art. (Antonelli, Video Games). 83 Dwarf Fortress (Bay 12 Games, 2006) is a game that is so complex and open ended that it has the potential for the length of a complete play through to surpass years, as well as allow years to pass by in in-game-time. 84 Passage (Jason Rohrer, 2007) manages to reduce an entire lifetime from birth to death to five minutes of gameplay. 85 World of Warcraft for instance, has a real time day and night cycle. A player visiting the game will be able to watch the sun rise at the exact same time as the sun would actually be rising in the real world. 22 this means that ownership of the, authentic, source code86 has to be acquired. This is however problematic, because videogame publishers and developers own the legal and intellectual property rights to these codes. Therefore, these rights need to be negotiated with their owners if MoMA wants to acquire the games for its archive and exhibition. Thus far it has succeeded in 14 cases.

Additional materials that MoMA strives to acquire are copies of the original software format and hardware on which the relevant game ran, and interviews with designers at the time of acquisition. In addition to easing the efforts of preservation and correct future emulation, the latter also provides information that is instrumental to future research and offers additional exhibition content to visitors.

Depending on individual cases of videogames, MoMA displays them in different manners, for not all the videogames it acquired are suitable to be presented in the same manner to an audience. Where the duration of a complete play through is short enough,87 the entire work is open to visitors. Where the duration is too long but interaction is still required for full appreciation, MoMA tries to offer a short demo version that can be played for a limited amount of time. And finally where games are just too lengthy of complex to be comprehended through playing them for the short amount of time available within the exhibition visit, MoMA tries offer gameplay footage and information to give visitors an impression of the work as a whole. Another option that has been considered is to offer guided tours that can make the depth and complexity more comprehensible to visitors.

Generally, the works are presented as one would expect in a modern art museum: at eye level, with large empty spaces of wall in between them to create a sense of intimacy and reduce distractions. Flat screen displays are embedded within the walls, and—where the games are playable—a small shelf with a single controller and set of headphones protrudes from the wall. MoMA offers videogames as works that are available to one visitor at a time and attempts to limit the amount of external distractions. It takes on a method of display that is characteristic of museums that prioritize aesthetic experience in the display of artworks.

Smithsonian Institution: The Art of Video Games

The Smithsonian Institution presents itself as the largest museum and research complex in the world. One of its main objectives, as stated on its website, is to foster an understanding of the “American experience.” 88 The United States is home to a society consisting of individuals who can claim a great many different cultural backgrounds and who identify themselves with varying ethnic, cultural, religious, linguistic, and political groups. By documenting various of the nation’s struggles and triumphs, the Smithsonian Institution strives to enable people to better understand how diverse peoples have been able to become one nation and how that nation and its people continue to evolve and share in a national heritage.

86 The program as it was originally written down by a programmer. It is the original work, and owning it means that MoMA can emulate –translations of the original code- the program on new hardware when the old hardware for which the code originally functioned becomes unavailable, thus ensuring the survival of the work. 87 The aforementioned Passage, lasts no longer than 5 minutes. Canabalt (Adam Saltsman, 2009), can be played through in an even shorter amount of time. 88 Smithsonian Institution, STRATEGIC PLAN: Fiscal Years 2010-2015 (Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 2009), p. 16. 23

The Institution includes 19 museums. Amongst them is the American Art Museum where the exhibition “The Art of Video Games” was first organized in 2012. It is an exhibition that seeks to reveal the cultural history of the videogames subculture by highlighting the evolution of art within the videogame medium over the past four decades.89 The Smithsonian Institution invited Chris Melissinos, an insider to the world of videogame programming and preservation,90 to curate and create the exhibition.

The assignment presented Melissinos with two main challenges: making a selection of videogames that reveals the medium’s progression and deciding on how to identify and communicate the artistic merit of videogames in general.

The procedure consisted of a preliminary selection of 240 videogames that were chosen by Melissinos himself in consultation with “an advisory group of game developers, designers, pioneers, and journalists.”91 20 groups92 comprised of 4 subgroups, each group represents 1 of 4 archetypical genres93, and for each of these genres the curator selected 3 games, thus totalling up to 240 videogames. Thus the curator ended up with a list of games that showed the evolution of videogames. The criteria used for the selection focused on visual effects, and the creative use of new technologies. Another important criterion was how world events and popular culture influenced game design in order to show how designers can use videogames to respond to real life events.94

This preliminary selection was put to a vote on the internet: anyone was allowed to participate and vote for 1 out of 3 candidates proposed for each category on each gaming platform. The inclusion of the internet community was important to Melissinos, because he wanted the community’s opinion to be reflected in the exhibition.95 By categorizing each game within an archetypical genre, the games were linked to a historical tradition of design, and the evolution of the medium could be revealed. The criteria used in the preliminary selection ensured that the curator could present his narrative regardless of how the internet would cast its vote.

According to Melissinos, videogames are a unique and novel form of expression that sets itself apart from other forms of expression through the inclusion of three distinct, expressive voices.96 One is the voice of the author or designer who attempts to impart a certain message with his or her work. The second voice belongs to the game itself, and can be identified as the manner in which the game tries

89 Smithsonian Institution, “Exhibitions: The Art of Video Games,” Smithsonian American Art Museum. http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/archive/2012/games/. (Accessed November 23, 2014). 90 Melissinos; started the company past pixels in 2009, a company that focuses on the long term preservation of videogames; and served as chief gaming officer at the now defunct sun Microsystems, a company that is responsible for the existence of a few open source java gaming technologies. 91 Chris Melissinos and Patrick O’Rourke, The Art of Video Games: From Pac-Man to Mass Effect (New York: Welcome Books, 2012), p. 9. 92 These 20 groups represent 20 different videogame platforms, that have come and gone over the years, ranging from the Atari VCS to the Sony Playstation 3. 93 Target, Adventure, Action, Tactics. Melissinos and O’Rourke, The Art of Video Games, p. 12. 94 Smithsonian Institution, Exhibitions: The Art of Video Games. 95 Ann Bednarz, “Q&A: Chris Melissinos on curating Smithsonian’s ‘The Art of Video Games’,” Networks World. March 15, 2012, http://www.networkworld.com/article/2186873/data-center/q-a--chris-melissinos-on- curating-smithsonian-s--the-art-of-video-games-.html. (Accessed November 23, 2014). 96 Erik Silk, “Video Games As Art? With an Upcoming Smithsonian Exhibit, Pong Equals Picasso,” All Things D. April 3, 2011, http://allthingsd.com/20110403/video-games-as-art-with-an-upcoming-smithsonian-exhibit- pong-equals-picasso/. (Accessed November 23, 2014). 24 to explain itself to the player who engages with it. It is a voice that can be recognised in many forms, most clearly in those instances where a non playable character addresses the player and explains something or tells a story; but also the game mechanics that guide, limit and, empower, the player are part of this expressive voice. Lastly there is the voice of the player who is allowed to navigate and experience the game world and make decisions within it that will shape each individual play experience into something unique. According to Melissinos, these three voices comprise the expressive artistic output of a videogame,97 and it is this interplay of author, game mechanics, and player that he wanted to highlight in the exhibition as the unique artistic quality that the medium has to offer.

The voice of the author was incorporated through the inclusion and display of concept art and interviews with prominent game designers in the exhibition, many of them who had their own videogames on display within the exhibition. The voice of the game mechanics could be found in the displays of demo reels of gameplay footage with commentary for 80 different videogames, thus putting on display the mechanics themselves that guide player interaction. And finally the voice of the player was incorporated by adding a room where 5 installations with each 1 different videogame were made playable for visitors. These installations consisted of a room with a large screen on one end on which the game would be displayed, and a pedestal with a controller in the middle. Visitors were allowed to play a game for a limited amount of time. This did not take place in a private or intimate atmosphere such as the one that was created at the MoMA exhibition. Instead other visitors were invited to watch the performance of players and thus witness how different playthroughs involve a series of decisions that are made by a player and hence give rise to a different manifestation of the game each time.98

The videogames that were displayed were divided into 5 generations99 corresponding to the technology and techniques that were available to game designers. They were then further subdivided by platform within each of those generations. For each platform an installation was designed consisting of a cabinet containing the videogame console together with its peripherals and an interactive display with brightly coloured buttons and a headset. By default the display would show the four games that were voted on through the internet in split screen, by pushing one of the buttons visitors could get more detailed information and demonstrations of one of the games. Throughout the exhibition visitors could see particular themes,100 return to videogames over the course of time, and observe how the medium has progressed over the years. But they could also find examples of games where designers completely break with tradition and embrace the opportunities

97 Bednarz, Q&A: Chris Melissinos. 98 Anastasia Salter, “Playing Through the “Art of Video Games” Exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum,” Journal of Digital Humanities, 1, no. 2 (2012). http://journalofdigitalhumanities.org/1-2/playing- through-the-art-of-video-games-exhibit-by-anastasia-salter/. (Accessed November 23, 2014). 99 1 Start; Atari VCS, Colecovision, Intellivision, 2 8-Bit; Commodore 64, NES, Sega Master System, 3 Bit wars; Sega Genesis, Super NES, 4 Transition; DOS/Windows, N64, Sega Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, Sony Playstation, 5 Next Gen; XBOX, XBOX360, Modern Windows, Game Cube, Wii, PS2, PS3.

100 Pitfall! (Atari VCS), Tomb Raider (Sega Saturn) and, Uncharted 2 (Playstation 3), are for instance all games that revolve around treasure hunters as their protagonist. 25 offered by novel technologies in order to create something seemingly unprecedented. The Art of Videogames nevertheless managed to place them within the evolutionary path of a genre archetype.

Stedelijk Museum: Do It! Load It!

The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, was founded by a group of private citizens in the 19th century. Initially it maintained a diverse collection, ranging from paintings by Dutch and French masters as well as citizen militia banners. The collection was culled 1920 and the museum direction decided to focus on the collection of modern and contemporary art.101 Since this time it has sought to provide a home for art and artists that stimulates artistic production and originality. By collaborating with artists and designers, the museum is actively involved in the production, representation and, (re)interpretation of modern art history. As such it has adopted a very investigative attitude towards art, one that is reflected in its willingness to open itself up to critique and to invite diverse and broad audiences to discuss developments in society and media that relate to, and influence the production of, art.

The museum organizes events on a regular basis; these vary in format from panel discussions and lectures, to guided tours and interactive art performances. Having regard to its long standing tradition of presenting new developments in art and visual culture, the museum noticed the expansive growth of gaming in contemporary culture and its demarcation as a separate cultural domain that seemed incompatible with contemporary art practices. In an attempt to bridge the gap between contemporary art and the games industry, it organized an exhibition about the influence of games in the works of artists102 in 2006. It was here that the curator of the exhibition, Marten Jongema met with one of the directors of media production company Submarine Channel, Bruno Felix. Together they would came up with the idea of initiating a three-year research project, “A Split Second”, that would connect visual artists and game designers in order to see if and how they would influence each other’s practices103. The purpose of the project was to investigate the potential of videogames as a medium for artistic expression104, thus contributing to the museum’s larger goal of actively exploring the relationship between its modern and contemporary art collection and contemporary media practices. 105

“Do It! Load It!”106 was the concluding evening event of “A Split Second”. It opened with a panel discussion between Isabelle Arvers (a freelance curator specialised in art and videogames), Matthias Fuchs (game pioneer, conservator and lecturer at the university of Salford), Bruno Felix (the director of Submarine Channel) and Bart Rutten (the conservator at Stedelijk Museum). This discussion

101 Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, “History,” Stedelijk Museum. 2014 http://www.stedelijk.nl/en/about-the- stedelijk/history. (Accessed November 23, 2014). 102 An entry of the exhibition “Next Level” can still be found on the Stedelijk Museum’s website at http://www.stedelijk.nl/en/exhibitions/next-level-art-games-reality. (Accessed November 23, 2014). 103 Matthijs van der Meulen, “INTERVIEW WITH BART RUTTEN, CURATOR OF “DO IT! LOAD IT!” AT STEDELIJK MUSEUM,” Stedelijk Museum. October, 2011, http://journal.stedelijk.nl/2011/10/interview-with-bart-rutten- curator-of-%E2%80%9Cdo-it-load-it%E2%80%9D-at-stedelijk-museum/. (Accessed November 23, 2014). 104 Submarine Channel, “A Split Second,” Submarine Channel. October 5,2009, http://www.submarinechannel.com/transmedia/a-split-second/. (Accessed November 23, 2014). 105 Stedelijk description DO IT! LOADIT! Can be found at http://www.stedelijk.nl/agenda/do-it/do-it-load-it. (Accessed November 23, 2014). 106 Held at the museums temporary location on October 6th 2011, due to renovations. 26 focused on the relationship between videogames and the museum.107 The most prominent issue that was brought to bare was that videogames do not lend themselves easily to art exhibitions in their conventional format.

The panel discussion was followed up by the presentation of the results of “A Split Second”. Three games were created in collaboration with Submarine Channel and added to the Stedelijk Museum’s permanent collection. One of the games, “FLX”108, was demonstrated through a live performance that included the videogame characters that were also present in the game. After the presentation the audience was invited to try the games themselves.

“Styleclash-The Painting Machine Construction Kit,”109 one of the other newly created games, was available in one room together with “FLX”. Unlike the remaining new game, “Sollmann (Part 1: The Harbour)”110, the former two share the fact that neither has to be played with a controller111; whereas the latter recommends a gamepad. Both rooms took a more cinematic approach to the exhibition of videogames. The space was darkened, seats lined the walls of the room, and the games´ displays were projected in an enlarged format on one of the walls. Thus the popular parallel between film and videogames was drawn.

Additionally the audience could also play various older games that were offered in regular videogame cabinets and distributed throughout the gallery in rooms that showcased artworks with seemingly112 similar themes as the games.

Thus the Stedelijk Museum attempted to investigate whether videogames could be made to fit in a museum. Conservator Bart Rutten concluded, that although games show overlap with the visual arts, they do not easily allow themselves to be displayed as such. His experience with the project led him to the notion that the videogame as a medium is very solitary. It doesn´t reach out or allow itself to interact with the environment in which it is situated, because it creates its own virtual world. Furthermore, the attention they demand is so absorbing that people can lose sight of the context in which the games are played; it is as if they dispel the magic of the museum.

107 Van der Meulen, Interview With Bart Rutten. 108 by artist Han Hoogebrugge and programmer Sander van der Vegte 109 by Jochem van der Spek, the only solo project within A Split Second, van der Spek had no previous experience with game design. 110 aka. Gone by artist Marcel van Eeden and programmer Jorrit de Vries 111 “FLX” uses motion capture technology as its input; “Styleclash,” an I-pad game, makes use of a touch screen. 112 I think the Stedelijk Museum missed the mark here by not really focusing on the content of the videogames it showcased. For instance, it placed the game Mirrors Edge, a game that focuses primarily on the practice of free running, in an exhibition space featuring many mirrors, even though neither the narrative nor aesthetic content of the videogame has anything to do with mirrors. 27

Conclusion

Having focused on three specific exhibitions, I have examined some of the difficulties faced by curators in identifying and highlighting the novel or artistic features of videogames. In each case, the exhibition has been considered in light of the mission statement of the relevant institution; if we base our judgements on how well the exhibitions kept in line with those mission statements, each of them could be considered a success. Yet press reports have been critical and revealing of the various issues that are at the forefront of the debates about the display of videogames in museums. The potential for artistic expression is recognised within the institutions, but curators have struggled to highlight the artistic qualities that are unique to the medium and to communicate these qualities to a wide audience.

The Stedelijk Museum´s “Do It! Load It!” has been discussed at length on an internet forum by critics and the exhibitions curator Bart Rutten in the comments section of a review article.113 The curator was criticized for failing to appreciate that videogames are not supposed to be approached as either video art or visual art and that what should be emphasized, instead, is the unique experience offered by gameplay. Rutten reacted to this critique by admitting that he did not fully understand the medium when he organised the exhibition and by explaining the unique difficulties that it presented. Like many videogame critics and designers, Rutten wondered what features actually define the medium and questioned what should be highlighted in an exhibition if not the (audio)visual aesthetics. In other words, he specifically addressed the ontological challenge posed by videogames and asked where can we might locate the medium’s artistic added value? In responding to his critics, therefore, he raised important lines for further philosophical and aesthetic inquiry.

The curator of the Smithsonian Institution’s “The Art of Video Games” struggled with similar questions and stated that videogames can be art by virtue of being an amalgam of traditional artistic disciplines that are brought to life by adding the critical element of human interaction. 114 The practice of selecting the exhibits based on a popular vote was meant to incorporate this element of interaction in to the exhibition itself. As a result, however, some critics argued that the exhibition suffered from a lack of focus.115 On the website of the Washington Post, Philip Kennicott calls the exhibition “technologically impressive but intellectually inert,”116 arguing that the exhibition showed that player agency separates videogames from other art forms, but fails to clarify how it contributes to the medium’s aesthetic impact. Regarding the games that were available for play, Anastasia Salter states that “they are presented without sufficient context to explain the curatorial intention behind their inclusion.”117 Critics argued, therefore, that the exhibition would have benefitted from a clearer curatorial intent that would have actively encouraged visitors to reflect upon their experience. This is

113 Arjen de Jong, “De kunst van games in het museum: Load It! in het Stedelijk,” Bashers. October 10, 2011, http://bashers.nl/de-kunst-van-games-in-het-museum-load-it-in-het-stedelijk. (Accessed November 23, 2014) 114 T.C. Sottek, “’The Art of Video Games’ at the Smithsonian: still in beta,” THE VERGE. April 26, 2012, http://www.theverge.com/2012/4/26/2972326/the-art-of-video-games-review. (Accessed November 23, 2014). 115 Salter, Playing through the art of videogames. 116 Phillip Kennicott, “In ‘The Art of Video Games’,” Washington Post. March 18, 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/gog/exhibits/the-art-of-video-games,1215143.html. (Accessed November 23, 2014). 117 Salter, Playing through the art of video games. 28 all the more important in light of the absorbing nature of most videogames that, as Rutten noticed, can distract players from the museum environment.

In contrast to the absorbing nature of videogames stands the notion that part of the gameplay experience is lost when it is experienced in public rather than in private. Nicholas O´Brien, for instance, described the Smithsonian´s projection of videogames in large booths as “an uncomfortably public performance.”118 Videogames differ from films in the sense that their expression is, in part, the result of an individual decision-making process; placing the latter on public display may make people feel uncomfortably self-conscious and this may discourage visitors from investigating the exhibits available for interaction.

Of the three exhibitions, MoMA’s applied design seemed to come closest to highlighting the artistically interesting features of videogames. Instead of merely emphasizing visual effects, it focused on the design aspect of videogames. It didn’t approach them as films and ironically it didn´t approach them as art, but more as the inventions of some creative minds. The mechanics within the game that explicitly or implicitly nudge people to make one decision instead of another are the focal point.119 Furthermore where the Smithsonian museum called attention to the gameplay of other visitors on large screens, MoMA made gameplay a more intimate experience by removing other distracting objects in the visitor’s field of vision. LCD screens are embedded within the gray walls with lots of empty space in between exhibits; these are accompanied by a set of headphones and, where possible, a controller for visitors to interact with the exhibit. Where a videogame is not suited to display because of time constraints or complexity, MoMA tries to offer guided tours of the works in the forms of demonstrations.

Critical feedback relating to the Applied Design exhibition has mostly been a back and forth between those who do or do not accept videogames as a viable art medium.120121 Most resistance to accepting videogames as an artistic medium seems to stem from treating them—in my view unfairly—by the standards of other established art forms. As I have argued in this thesis, we should recognise the fact that, as an artistic medium, videogames are relatively young; as yet, designers may not have produced many examples of works that deserve to be designated as great art in the manner in which people consider the works of established artists working in traditional media.

Just as film once had to realise its full potential by recognising there was more that could be done than merely filming a stage, so too game designers and artists need to further explore and uncover the potential of videogames as an artistic medium. In that sense the videogames that are being

118 Nicholas O Brien, “The Possibilities and Pitfalls of the Video Game Exhibition,” RHIZOME. February 4, 2014, http://rhizome.org/editorial/2014/feb/4/possibilities-and-pitfalls-video-game-exhibitions/. (Accessed November 23, 2014). 119 Colin Snyder, “The Museum Of Modern Art Is Playing Games,” MOTHERBOARD. VICE, March 6, 2013, http://motherboard.vice.com/en_ca/blog/the-museum-of-modern-art-is-playing-games. (Accessed November 23, 2014). 120 Liel Leibovitz, “MoMA Has Mistaken Video Games for Art,” New Republic. March 13, 2013, http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112646/moma-applied-design-exhibit-mistakes-video-games-art. (Accessed November 23, 2014). 121 Jonathan Jones, “Sorry MoMA, video games are not art,” The Guardian. November 30, 2012, http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2012/nov/30/moma-video-games- art?guni=Article:in%20body%20link. (Accessed November 23, 2014). 29 acquired and preserved by various art institutions may one day function as a kind of Rosetta Stone that will help us to understand that journey and, as such, are deserving of their place in the museum.

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