Smithsonian lends legitimacy to the art form of video games

Binh Nguyen 23 Feb, 2011 at 8:02pm ET Article published in Gaming

The debate on whether or not video games constitute a form of art might not rage on any longer, as it has been seemingly put to bed. The Smithsonian American Art Museum is now inviting the public to help select which games should be included in the upcoming exhibition “The Art of Video Games” which will open in Washington, D.C. on March 16, 2012.

Voting can be done online, and will only take place from February 14th through April 7th. All you need is a valid e-mail address to vote.

“Playing video games involves many personal choices, so, in keeping with the spirit of the exhibition’s content, we want to involve the public in helping us select games for the exhibition,” said Elizabeth Broun, The Margaret and Terry Stent Director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

With the Smithsonian opening an exhibit for video games, does this truly end the question of video games as art?

Comments

23 Feb 2011 ~ 8:14pm RyanMM TAKE THAT EBERT.
23 Feb 2011 ~ 9:01pm ardichoke So voting on this right now. Deus Ex better make it in. Also.... WTF, they put Portal and Half Life 2 on the same ballot.

I'M SO TORN O_O
24 Feb 2011 ~ 12:54am CB A lot of the categorizing and such doesn't make much sense. Also, they are discussing video games as a purely visual art, not as in interactive narrative.

This is actually not the kind of recognition that gamers have been seeking for the form. Games should be recognized as pieces of art as wholes, not viewed as mechanisms for distributing visual art.
24 Feb 2011 ~ 3:31am Basil Don't see Planescape: Torment.

But at least Halo made it in. Twice.

Excuse me while I rage.
24 Feb 2011 ~ 12:07pm Annes Either way, if anyone wants to come and see this, I know a place nearby you can crash and drink rad beers. Just sayin'.
24 Feb 2011 ~ 12:41pm primesuspect CB, I agree with you; but at risk of this devolving into a semantic argument about the word "art" I think they're taking baby steps. This is literally the "art" of video games; the visuals.

Those who fear video games or don't understand that they can be narrative devices need to start somewhere; the visuals are something they can grasp onto.
24 Feb 2011 ~ 1:40pm Cliff_Forster Check out the voting site, its kind of enjoyable.
24 Feb 2011 ~ 5:27pm Snarkasm Mass Effect 2, Limbo, and Oblivion pitted against each other in one of the groupings. It's impressive that Oblivion still made me think really hard about how to answer that one, especially when pitted against the other two.
24 Feb 2011 ~ 5:35pm TiberiusLazarus That one caught me as well. I clicked on Mass Effect 2 just as I read Oblivion at the end of the list. Tossed it back and forth and realized ME2 was probably the right choice.
24 Feb 2011 ~ 6:08pm CB

primesuspect wrote:

CB, I agree with you; but at risk of this devolving into a semantic argument about the word "art" I think they're taking baby steps. This is literally the "art" of video games; the visuals.

Those who fear video games or don't understand that they can be narrative devices need to start somewhere; the visuals are something they can grasp onto.

It's not the semantics of "art" which are in question.

It's the difference between, "the art of video games" which is what this exhibit is about (which is fine and good), and "video games as art" which is what much of the media is trying to put forth the exhibit as being about.

Those are two such completely different things it's crazy.

I'm not decrying the exhibit, however, I think it's really exciting and positive. I've been planning to head out to our nation's capitol and visit with our friends out there sometime soon, and now I might try to plan that visit around seeing this exhibit.
24 May 2011 ~ 5:13pm EH So I e-mailed Ebert a link about this (politely, of course). Wonder how he'll respond: quiet tears of defeat, or ragequit from life?
24 May 2011 ~ 6:48pm Thrax Or denial, which is much better for one's cognitive bias.