The Art of Play

By: Derek Yu

On: March 25th, 2008

The Art of Play

Heather Kelley, aka “moboid,” aka one part of the experimental game group Kokoromi, has put together an event called “”http://www.theartofplay.com/“>The Art of Play,” which will take place at Carnegie Mellon University on March 31st and April 1st.

The aim of this Symposium and Arcade is to survey the games that brought us to this moment with their unique creative vision, and to frame the field moving forward, as game makers finally abandon the question “CAN games be art,” and begin to ask ourselves in how many ways they WILL be.

Sounds good to me! If you’re in the Pittsburgh area, drop by – the event is free and open to the public.

Guest speakers/panelists include Phil Fish (Fez) and Jason Rohrer (Passage, Gravitation).

  • First Post Getter

    I’m first. I rock.

    So fuck youse all.

  • nich

    do you know if this event is being recorded? it sounds very interesting and i’d like to hear what the speakers say.

    i can’t beleive how many talks i’ve been to asking the same old “are games art?” rubbish. most of them didn’t even have an artist speaking. just some code monkeys.

  • Fishy Boy

    Just a side note. You mentioned Kings of Power 4,000,000,000% long ago, and now it is out!

    http://probertson.livejournal.com/23973.html

    TAoP looks pretty cool.

  • PHeMoX

    Damn, it’s the one and only F.P.G. … isn’t he tha pimp? :)

  • moboid

    nich: Yes everything will be recorded and uploaded as an archive of the event. Only a fraction of the people interested in the topic will actually be able to attend, so this aspect was really important to me (especially after recently losing all our video footage of gamma256). The art of play URL will become a repository for that archive material, so check back there in May or so (which is how long I suspect it will take to get everything properly archived).

  • Robert

    Awesome, moboid! Just awesome :O

  • MrBig

    Still don’t know if games are art… I’m one of those gamers that can’t say that any one genre is my favorite because I enjoy games from all of them. The hardest question to me is, who determines which of these games is art and which aren’t and why should they be the ones to decide? I think it definitely comes down to player and the feelings that they get from playing a game so perhaps the art behind the games is just sharing and describing how the game made you feel emotionally.

    An example of what isn’t art and then what is art for me would be the differences between a game like Ghost Recon and Crayon Physics Deluxe. Ghost Recon where I’m slowly surveying my surroundings, lying prone in mud up to my ears, trying not to move or breath until I spot the other guy move and by then… POW, it’s lights out for them… not really art, but it can be a lot of fun when you appreciate the way the game was meant to be played.

    Then there’s Crayon Physics Deluxe. A game that isn’t even out, yet I find myself watching the gameplay movie and can’t help but sit there enjoying what I’m seeing, mesmerized, relaxed, and impressed. Finally when the video’s done it’s time to fix the stupid smirk on my face and wipe the drool hanging from my lip to come back to reality… and back to games that somehow seem very… mundane now. Both the game-play, music, and simple yet brilliant graphics all meld together to form an ever so tasty morsel of gaming that I want to experience ASAP. I’d consider a game like this to be closer to art than most other games, but I’m still not convinced whether we even need to be convinced of whether games are art.

    I just believe they should be fun. ;-)

  • Zeno, Internetographer

    Oh god, more “games as art” stuff.

    What ever happened to “games as games”?

  • http://doomlaser.com Golds

    There is NO Gamma 256 footage? :(

  • mio

    Oh god, more “literature as art” stuff.

    What ever happened to “literature as literature”?

  • MrBig

    Oh god, I just ate 3 bowls of Chili! Make way!

  • mio

    You mean, “Chili as Chili” or “Chili as pepper?”

  • Mr. Medium

    Or “Chili as Republic of Chile”

  • sinoth

    Perhaps Chili in association with some notable Red Hot Peppers?

  • JackSnap

    I’m a CMU student, and when I heard about this, I nearly shat myself.

    They don’t announce this stuff anywhere on campus!

  • MrBig

    Oh I meant Chili as in Chili pepper! Look out!!! AAAAAHHHHHH…. Fatality!

  • mio

    MrBig, did you know that your intelligence makes you ten times hotter than the hottest Chilli pepper?

    And why do you call yourself MrBig?

  • phil

    Suuhhhweeett.
    Sometimes it pays off to be going to CMU. and most of the time you just get owned by the weather.

    I’ll be there.

  • MrBig

    mio,

    I had heard that somewhere but what’s more phenomenal is the fact that Chili also makes your arse ten times hotter as well, it’s just a fact.

    Also, MrBig was a name that was given to me when I was in high school and stuck throughout the crony college years. I won’t bother divulging the reasons behind it because it’s not as fun nor as funny as it sounds.

  • http://www.gamecreation.org Sifu Peng

    @JackSnap/phil

    Hey, send me a line @ gpeng. Would love to know who the tigsourcers are that go to CMU.

  • danield

    I’m from CMU too! But I’m just a lurker… in any case, I sure hope I can make this event. It looks to be sweet.

    And yeah, what is up with CMU not publicizing this? Maybe we should put up posters…

  • moboid

    daneild – we have some sah-weet posters available (with art by Cactus), so just come up to the School of Art office in CFA, tell Lauren you are going to distro them around campus and that Heather says “it’s cool, it’s cool”. the only reason they haven’t been posted yet is that this whole thing was put together very quickly and the posters just got here last week. So we could use the assistance.

    Also – any TIGers from CMU who have made indie/artsy games should submit themselves to the Master Class asap. Just PM moboid (me) on the forums for more info.

  • moboid

    Hey Mark.
    There is no video footage of the games from the sources I arranged (long story).

    So I put out a general call for gamma 256 footage on kokoromi.org, but haven’t heard from anyone. If you want to help get the word out on the boards/irc/etc that we are looking for any and all video documentation of the games (and are willing to provide hosting, dupe media, etc) then that could be cool. I know there must have been other folks with cameras there…

    Incidentally we have tons of great still photos. it’s only video that we’re really lacking.

  • moboid

    Oh and all you CMU people who will be attending… bring video cameras and record stuff and send it to me. :) Having additional video coverage would be a great help!

  • Zeno, Internetographer

    Art is a completely meaningless term therefore discussion of whether or not something is art, or why it is, is also completely meaningless.

    Amirite kids?

  • mio

    No.

  • MrBig

    Zeno, discussion of anything is pretty much meaningless considering the sun is going to swallow us whole within the next billion years or so. So you’re right, by discussing things we’re just trying to avoid the inevitable.

    So long cruel world! ;-p

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