Classifying Videogames as Art and Why It Matters Now Charlotte Moss This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the award of MA by Research of Oxford Brookes University, School of History, Philosophy and Culture. Supervised by: Dr Harry Mount Oxford Brookes University, UK January 2018 Moss, C. “Classifying Videogames as Art and Why It Matters Now.” MARes Diss., Oxford Brookes University, 2018. Abstract This dissertation analyses the idea that videogames can be considered art in order to argue that wide ranging benefits could be seen if the institution recognised them as such. I have explored the idea that the institution is the key to progress the notion of videogames as art and both art museums and universities alike must be behind the progression of what is considered the artistic canon in order to create new opportunities in the field of making art. I have reviewed popular arguments for and against the inclusion of videogames in the institutional artistic canon and then considered videogames in the light of several theorist's ideas of what art is. Primarily I have looked at the ideas behind cluster theory and the theory of mass art as a way of justifying videogames as art. I have followed this with case studies of This War of Mine (2014) and the developer Sam Barlow who has produced many videogames including Aisle (1999), Silent Hill: Shattered Memories (2009), and Her Story (2015). Lastly I have considered what might be the long-term benefits of classifying videogames as art within the institution, primarily the enfranchisement of young women artists. I do this by reviewing the new National Curriculum in computer programming and considering how, in the light of Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, this new education area will empower young women to be able to create art despite pressures that still persist with regards to the "proper" role of a woman in our society. It is my suggestion that all you need to create a work of videogame art is a basic computer, a standard UK education, and a room of your own - but only if the art institution recognises videogames as a legitimate form of art. Acknowledgements There are a handful of individuals who have had genuinely life-changing roles in my thirty-two-year journey, I am inordinately pleased that Dr Harry Mount ranks amongst them. It took five long years of applying to university before I was offered a place on a History of Art undergraduate degree at Oxford Brookes but my interview five years ago changed everything. I had been made redundant only weeks before and all my hopes were pinned on going back to university. An interview, several undergraduate modules, and three thesis supervisions later I do believe that I can count Harry as both a mentor and a friend. I would simply not have reached this point in my education without his support, and most importantly his belief. The same is true of the entire History of Art department at Brookes, of course. Each member of staff within the department has shaped my research in some way over the past five years and provided endless encouragement and cheerleading. It has truly been an environment where my curiosity has been allowed to flourish, and where my research and writing skills have been uncovered and nurtured. I was not sure when I started my academic career at the age of twenty-eight if I would manage to even write a first-year essay, so it is with some pride that I have submitted a thirty-thousand-word thesis on a single subject. Lastly I must thank Linda Nochlin, who passed away last year while I researched and wrote. Throughout these pages I stand upon the shoulders of giants like Nochlin; without her groundwork I could not even have considered writing this thesis. 2 Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ 1 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... 2 Contents ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Table of Figures .......................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 5 Videogames in the Art Institution ...................................................................................... 8 Outline of Chapters ............................................................................................................ 16 Chapter 1: Arguments Against Videogames as Art ......................................................... 19 1.1 Roger Ebert ..................................................................................................................... 21 1.2 Kellee Santiago ............................................................................................................... 26 1.3 Jonathan Jones ................................................................................................................ 28 1.4 Liel Leibovitz ................................................................................................................... 35 1.5 Videogames as Harmless Escapism ............................................................................ 39 1.6 Summary .......................................................................................................................... 41 Chapter 2: Classification of Art ............................................................................................ 42 2.1 Cluster Theory .............................................................................................................. 43 2.2 Mass Art .......................................................................................................................... 49 2.3 Design or Art ................................................................................................................. 55 2.4 Summary .......................................................................................................................... 59 Chapter 3: Case Studies ......................................................................................................... 60 3.1 This War of Mine .......................................................................................................... 62 3.2 Sam Barlow ..................................................................................................................... 68 3.3 Summary .......................................................................................................................... 80 Chapter 4: Why Should Video Games be Art? ................................................................. 81 4.1 Virginia Woolf and A Room of One's Own ................................................................. 86 4.2 Linda Nochlin and the Myth of the Great Artists .................................................. 88 4.3 The UK National Curriculum ..................................................................................... 91 4.4 The Role of the Art Institution in Encouraging Women Artists ........................ 93 4.5 The Sexist Appeal of Videogames ............................................................................. 95 4.6 Summary ....................................................................................................................... 101 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 103 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 110 Ludology .................................................................................................................................. 116 Appendix A: Where Games and Art are Taught .......................................................... 117 3 Ta b l e o f F i g u re s Figure 1: Nam June Paik, Participation TV. (Image shows one possible configuration). ............................ 33 Figure 2: Promotional image from Calvino Noir. ............................................................................................... 38 Figure 3: Comédie-Française (Odéon) long section in perspective, drawing by Charles de Wailly, 1776. From: Allan Braham, The Architecture of the French Enlightenment, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), 100. ....................................................................................................................... 38 Figure 4: Promotional image from This War of Mine. ..................................................................................... 63 Figure 5: Gallery photograph of Monument for the Living. .............................................................................. 65 Figure 6: Screenshot from Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. ............................................................................. 71 Figure 7: Promotional image and screenshot from Her Story. ...................................................................... 76 4 Introduction This thesis analyses the idea that videogames can and should be considered art form in order to argue that doing so will have wide reaching benefits beyond the inclusion of popular culture in an art museum.