Chapter 3 Response

A theme that is fascinating to me related to digital art is gaming. With technology rapidly changing, it is interesting to see the similarities and differences between the first generation of video games and current games on the market today. Many of the older systems are difficult to find because there is very little demand for older technologies. 

Games incorporate many digital elements: visual images, created environments, interactivity between users, and now gaming consoles are connected to the internet which adds a new player-to-player aspect of voice, picture and video communication.

For me, video games are a great way to explore a form of digital art and entertainment. It was interesting to see the examples in Chapter 3 because they were not the actual games, but modified versions that incorporated new elements and interpretations from the artist. 

The Quake modification by Chinese artist Feng Mengbo shows the artist in the game, equipped with a weapon and a camcorder (Paul 201). He uses the original Quake environment and “populates it with an army of his clones that can be played by the audience (or the artist himself)” (Paul 203). This is something that as a gamer would be awesome to see – yourself in the game.

The artistic talent involved in creating video games is of a very high caliber and I have the utmost respect for all the people involved in the design and programming. Many of the characters that have been created (even older characters such as Mario) are commonly known and still talked about today. It shows that this form of art has a huge and long-lasting impact on a population that is immersed in the digital age.

Work Cited:

Christiane Paul. Digital Art. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2003.