My latest topics of cocktail conversation

We were discussing art last weekend at a party, mostly because I had been inspired by famed film critic Roger Ebert's recent blog-posting claiming that video games could NEVER be Art. I won't say that I agree with his suggestion. I also won't say that I have seen evidence of video games that are Art to me. The difficulty in the discussion is that each person has their own view of what Art is.

Here is my own response to the original post and to some of the earliest comments in the list.

I really love the definition for art that Scott McCloud gave in his seminal work, Understanding Comics. I wish I could directly quote it. To boil it down somewhat, those things we do (or perhaps the works that we create) that do not specifically contribute to our safety or our property might be considered art. I'm sure that I've mangled that in paraphrasing.

As a board gamer, I think of the crafting of a set of human interactions. Perhaps the way that a good party host might be able to artfully entertain their guests with an amazing meal and elegant conversation. Role playing gamer friends of mine might be seen to use their game as a creative outlet. The results of playing a game may or may not be art, but players are moved in one way or another, and perhaps through asking the right questions we can explore the art or craft of games.

As a dancer, I wonder: does a staged ballet have a distinct artistic value that doesn't exist in a dance in competition? Are contestants in a talent show (or American Idol or what have you) not, for sake of being in a winnable-like-a-game situation, somehow artistically invalidated?

As an improvisational actor, does the fact that my rules of my interaction with my partners were developed by Johnstone or Close mean that my own creative output cannot be artistic?

I would argue that Donkey Kong is as much Art as E.C. Segar's Popeye. From me, that's high praise.

Maybe a more interesting question would be - what shifts might be made to create works (and I do think of games as works rather than products) might become more deeply meaningful than a pastime?

At this point there are at least a thousand responses, so reading the whole thing might be time consuming. Still, mostly rewarding and much smarter than reading the comments on YouTube.

edited to add:
Scott McCloud contributed to the conversation this morning. For those of you who don't know who Scott McCloud is, he created my favorite comic book of all time, Zot! and is much more famous for the seminal critique Understanding Comics.

Also, Allan Gonzalez posted a link to this video on his Facebook. I thought it was amusing and worth including here.



End edit.

The other topic of conversation was feminist porn. It seems that since I first considered the idea of Feminism, the loudest voices on this subject were the Dworkin and Mackinnon, the anti-pornography crusaders. I always felt that while the porn industry has certainly had many examples of exploitative behavior, that it needn't be seen as a completely unhealthy industry. To present a different point of view, I went and looked up this article, which breaks down a few of the different feminist views on pornography.

I really want to read your responses to these two articles. Let me know what you think!

A Sort of Comics Oral History

I don't imagine anyone reading this blog was following my old blog on Myspace. I wrote an entry there about the very cool book Eisner/Miller , which was essentially a two-hundred page conversation between the late Will Eisner and Frank Miller, two of the most influential creators in comics.

Two very cool articles were recently posted on Twitter over the last few days and I thought they'd be worth re-posting here.



The first is a modern-day interview with Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics and also the creator of one of my favorite comics of all time, Zot!: Talking Comics with Scott McCloud.



The second is a Rolling Stone article circa 1971 which interviews the queen of the Marvel Bullpen, Flo Steinberg: Face Front! Clap Your Hands! You're on the Winning Team!

In general, I think it's cool that there's so much oral history regarding the comics medium.

Completely unrelated to the articles is a YouTube video about improvisation. Haha.

Crossing the medium divide

Caffeine-induced ramble ahead:

This afternoon, while I played Marvel: Ultimate Alliance a thought occurred to me.

Comic books are big business. However it's a business around a medium that appears to be on its last legs. Now it seems that the most popular comic book characters are merely grist for the mill. I sometimes wonder if the net worth of the history of comic books is the vault of properties from which so many movies, television shows and video games are produced.

I have been a life-long comics reader. That last bit is emphasized because the action of reading is important to me. So often people have asked me if I have collected comics and my response is often "No, but I read them. They tend to collect themselves." If we believe Scott McCloud, the notion that comics are read is vital. One qualitative difference between a film and a comic is that the film is paced entirely by the editor. While the layout of a comics page is determined by the artist/creator, the reader is left to move at their own pace through the images.

Another key theorist in comics is the late, great Will Eisner. One of his complaints that I remember is (and I'm near certainly misquoting) the stories in comics always revolved around the notion of pursuit. The super-hero meme is only one facet of the world of comics. Yet most folks can only think of super-heroes when the word comics are discussed.

That's all well and good. When it comes to it, though, it appears that comics and all print publishing are undergoing a huge shift as their respective media become obsolete. As has been reported elsewhere, new generations of children are not being introduced to comic books in those formative years. Instead, they learn of those memorable characters through movies and video games. In fact, it seems that video games may serve to this new generation what comic books did to the 1950s kid. That's the generation that was hit by Seduction of the Innocent.

This would appear to bring us full circle. However, to go a little past that, I think to the potential of video game stories. It's clear to me that the majority of video game adaptations tend to work in that same "pursuit story" mode that Eisner supposedly complained about. Can the player complete such and such objective? If not, keep trying until they do. The stories don't ever seem to do much beyond that. It feels to me like story developments are in service to the action. I don't know that I can remember a game where the pursuit was the Macguffin for a richer experience. It seems to me that there's untapped potential in the video game arena.

Blood in the Gutter and Blood on the Sand

Two considerations today, they're both oddly sexual though all of the links and pics that I will post are safe for work, more or less.

Thanks to Sylvia Sykes who reminded me in her very cool 16 things (one of those Facebook chain letters that I usually ignore but in this case found to be a very compelling read; I mean if you know or know of Sylvia, you're probably at least a little curious about her!) about the author of one of my favorite books:

The Curious Sofa, A Pornographic Work by Ogdred Weary

Of which, this is the first page.

I'm honor and duty bound (no spoilers here!) not to say any more about this book in public, but it's easily one of the greatest technical works visual storytelling genius that I have encountered. However since I've spoiled a little bit in the title of the post, if you understand Scott McCloud's notion of blood in the gutters, then you'll have an idea of what I mean. If you read this and the only consideration you have is that "it's weird" then you probably should read it again until you see.

If you read this and approach me about the book, we will have a conversation.



As a follow up to my post about The Other Sexual Storytelling, I think it intriguing to link to Tony Comstock's latest blog, YouTube, Iran, and Gay Sex. This link is also troubling in an entirely different way. Go read it now, then watch the video and we'll discuss it later.

I'm really not ready to talk about it yet. I haven't built up the context for conversation.