class blog – we respond together

Pantone Colors 2021

December 12, 2020

"Two extremely independent colors highlight how different elements come together to express this message of strength and hopefulness," said Pantone VP Laurie Pressman.

Pantone has chosen its colors for 2021! It was interesting to see what colors they would choose, especially since in this class we have talked a lot about messaging and meaning behind choice of the colors and because 2020 has been a bizarre year to say the least. Pantone has chosen “Ultimate Gray” and “Illuminating,” a neutral gray and a sunshine yellow. The colors supposedly signify “a light at the end of the tunnel” which is appropriate, as 2021, hopefully, will be a year of rebuilding and recovery. Seeing the colors, I immediately thought of how this year has been for me- pretty miserable and gray (if I were to choose a color for this year, I would choose a much darker, smokier gray) but with some small moments of hope. To me, the “Ultimate Gray” color signifies uncertain hope, mourning, and healing. The gray does not promise positivity ahead, but it has a soothing, calming quality to it which somehow gives me a sense that everything will be okay. The bright yellow, although it’s a beautiful shade, seems a little too literal. I think Pantone’s act in choosing the “Illuminating” color in itself is symbolic and uplifting, since it seems to signal something positive to come. However, the cynic in me feels that it was too cliche for Pantone to choose the bright yellow color. The gray color speaks to me more, because it’s uplifting without feeling performative and is a color that I feel people can relate to. The color seems to say, “2021 will still have challenges and will not be all peaches and cream, but everything will be okay.”

“Ouroboros Steak”

December 12, 2020

philadelphia museum art steaks

I recently read an article about an art work created by Orkan Telhan, who is actually a Penn professor, called “Ouroboros Steak.” When I first saw the picture above, I had thought the red objects were actual steaks (beef? tuna, perhaps?) but I was shocked to read that they were in fact steaks made from human cells. Apparently, “Ouroboros” is an ancient Egyptian symbol of a snake eating its own tail, and Telhan named the art work after it to make a commentary on what the future could look like if climate change and mass meat production progress. The art work was on display at the PMA in 2019 and received little backlash. However, since the work moved to London in October of this year, the work has been receiving many negative reactions especially on social media. Many have taken to Twitter to express their disgust at the work, saying “I’d rather eat dirt. That’s just not right.” Some have accused Telhan of promoting cannibalism.

I personally feel that Telhan getting such feedback demonstrates the effectiveness of his work, which was intended to be satire. Good satirical work, whether it be an art work like this piece or even stand up, evokes strong emotions out of audiences and makes them rethink the validity of societal norms and status quos. Meat-eaters who have no hesitation in eating red meats may think this piece is repulsive and rethink the future and sustainability of meat consumption. The piece certainly grossed me out but simultaneously made me think about the implications that meat production has on the environment and imagine a world where resources have run out and we need to harvest meat from human cells. It is a horrifying thought, but given the urgency of the climate change crisis, I find pieces like this extremely evocative and important.

Cyberpunk 2077

December 8, 2020

Cyberpunk 2077 – the long-awaited game by Witcher studio CD Projekt Red, is about a place called Night City. It boasts of vast virtual city with a complex narrative and roleplaying system filled with retro-future cyberpunk visuals influenced by the 80s and 90s.

Through these rich visuals, Cyberpunk 2077 reimagines a world completely different to what it is today. It depicts a hyper-stratified society that rewards cruelty, exploits vulnerability, and commercializes absolutely everything.

Any quick snapshot from the game displays advanced realistic graphics, no doubt upping the immersive experience. Some pictures are so pretty they look like art, not a still from a game. It’s a far leap from art and graphics in games from the past, which only makes one wonder what games will look like in the future. Much like how the art in Cyberpunk 2077 completely reimagines a new world with new tech, perhaps advancements in technology will completely reimagine how we see and perceive art.

Cyberpunk 2077 is set to release on December 10.

Long March: Restart

December 7, 2020

I recently found a super interesting game that’s pretty much been formally recognized as art. Long March: Restart was created in 2008 by Feng Mengbo as the final work in his painting series Game Over: Long March, and it was acquired by MoMA in 2009. The game questions media portrayal of events from the Long March of the Chinese Communist Party in 1934 by intertwining images of Chinese propaganda with iconic symbols of western culture like Coke cans and with fantastical monster enemies, all in the pixel art side-scroller fashion. In the installation, the viewer/player is surrounded by huge screen projections and is thrown directly into the action. I’m actually glad I got to read Claudio’s post right before making mine because I completely agree that video games immerse the user/viewer in a much more interactive way than other art forms might – games invoke a unique kind of investment in the outcome and message of the work.

Games in Art – Art in Games

December 7, 2020

Game: “A game is a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool.Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements(…). Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interaction.”

Art: “Art is a diverse range of human activities involving the creation of visual, auditory or performing artifacts (artworks), which express the creator’s imagination, conceptual ideas, or technical skill, intended to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.”

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Many artists base their work on the intent of involving the viewer, or the subject, in certain ways. Artists look for evoking feelings or emotions in a certain way. However, most traditional media fail to involve users completely. Even though the work of more progressive artists such as James Turrell or Olafur Eliasson play with viewer’s perception and aim to interact with them in a more active, immersive way, they are still passive installations just meant to be contemplated.

Games, on the other hand, need the interactive component to exist in the first place. Without a person actively interacting with it, there is nothing. They owe their very existence to the spectator who interacts with them and thus, they become the perfect tool for artists to gain their viewers’ active participation. This opens the door for more effective ways to communicate with the spectator and evoke emotions through art.

Even though there are some niche artists exploring these paths now, I believe that as digital literacy becomes more accessible through new and more user-friendly tools and programming languages, we will start to see games thriving as a new, more widely accepted media for art.

Feed the Head

December 6, 2020

Feed the Head is an online game that takes the player through a surreal, exploratory experience. I discovered it when I wandered around a list of time wasting websites. There’s no explanation, just a navy-blue silhouette of a head that transforms unexpectedly as you hover and click around it. It’s an old game, running on Adobe Flash, which is no longer supported by modern browsers, but still an absolutely mind-blowing pile of weirdness.

Video game art in writing on TV

December 6, 2020

I know, this is quite a blog post title. Video games, art, writing, and TV all in one blog post? Yeah, that is going to be a lot but the connection I have here is an incredibly specific one.

In the Netflix hit series House of Cards — which must be recognized in conjunction with the inappropriate behavior of its star Kevin Spacey — a well-known novelist, Thomas Yates, writes a review of a video game called Monument Valley. Spacey’s character, President Francis Underwood, happens upon the review and is taken with its power. Yates’ review reads:

“Whoever you are, whoever you think you are, believe also you’re a silent princess. Your name is Ida, your journey is one through a forgotten landscape of twisting staircases and morphing castles, atop floating stones defiantly crossing an angry sea, within dimly lit caverns cobwebbed with ruins, M.C. Escher could only grasp at in a dream state.”

The rest of the review, which only flashes across the screen at times, mentions the beauty in the games’ design and the power in it. The game itself, however, sees almost two minutes of screen time. Yes, that’s right. A video game, which I may add is in no way partnering with the show, being played is shown for two minutes in what is widely considered to be one of the most successful shows of the past decade. Why and how is this possible? The answer is in the beauty of design of the game — as well as Yates’ writing that serves as a metaphor for Underwood’s journey throughout the show — and how the game is something Underwood goes to in times of struggle to balance himself and calm himself.

For me, there are levels of art here. There’s the show, the writing of the review in the show, and then there’s the video game itself. When all partnered together, the results are fairly astounding.

Obviously, the game as a metaphor is a wild success and the scenes in which Underwood plays Monument Valley are seen as some of the most impactful of the season, as they offer a behind-closed-doors look into the President’s life. But also the artsy game’s time on air — partnered with the writing about it (art writing, if you will…) — led the game, which costs $3.99 in the App Store, to make it to the top of the chart less than 24 hours after House of Cards season 3 was released.

Flappy Bird in a museum

December 5, 2020

I started off on Wikipedia’s “List of video games considered artistic”, a curated list based on game designers and art critics, which was already a weird place to be. Who gets to definitely decide what is ‘artistic’ or not? As I was scrolling through the list, one game in particular caught my eye: Flappy Bird. I remember how the game became instantly famous overnight. Everyone and their mother was addicted to the incredibly simplistic game, to the point where the creator eventually had it taken off the app store. But despite its success, should it really be considered art? According to Wikipedia, the “arcade-style mobile game [is] now present in both the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of Modern Art.” This raised another series of questions because I’ve been grappling with the idea of video games as art for a while now. While I do agree that game designers are artists, is it the type of art that can be imagined in galleries and prestigious museums? I tried to look further into whether it had been exhibited, etc., but I couldn’t find too much more on the subject. But who knows- as digital media and entertainment becomes more popular, maybe we’ll start seeing pop culture start to mesh with the world of fine art.

Meme Museum — A Walmart Louvre or Something More?

December 4, 2020

https://www.behance.net/gallery/91873459/VR-The-Meme-Museum

Above is a link to a project started by Michael Szabo a digital artist and animator. His goal was for his students to create an environment (a virtual museum) where contemporary comedic art could be displayed and interacted with through virtual reality (VR).

In this environment, contemporary art—digital memes—could be consumed in a sort of historical context, much like navigating a normal museum and perceiving the pieces as historical artifacts. As the pieces themselves are digital forms, applying them to this scene is not difficult.

To me, this project poses an interesting thought experiment about the future. If we are to imagine the digital museum of the future, what would it look like? Are physical spaces necessary for digital art? Since we consume this art on a daily basis I think it’s fitting that it could eventually be an experience curated for at-home viewing through VR goggles. And since there is no space constraints in a virtual environment, the idea of what a museum is could change. Take for example the possibility that you gamify the museum. It could become a large maze in which you are taken back through time and experience the contemporary art of the time while trying to find your way out.

Then why stop there? Digital art that we normally consume on a 2D screen limits the possibilities. But with this 3 dimensional space that doesn’t have to abide by our physical laws, the artistic freedom is limitless. The very idea of what art creation and curation represents could be turned on its head. The experience of passively observing a stationary piece would be replaced by full immersion and interactivity.

But, as is common for the discourse around digital art, the question of value and ownership arise. This art is easily replicable. Simply copy and paste the source code and boom you have an exact replica down to the pixel. Does this then nullify the transactional value that a piece of art may have? Memes are widely circulated and that’s why their presence is so stated. Would digital art in this new environment then mimic that process?

There are many questions to be asked about the future of digital art and history, but with every new digital technological advancement, the horizon changes. I for one am excited about the possibility of paradigm shifting engagement with art and hope to be part of the generation that gets to experience it.

Flower

December 3, 2020

I was searching for artistic games and came across the game Flower. It immediately caught my eye as I thought the graphics were really calming and artsy, and I was like…is this really a game? Flower is a video game developed by Thatgamecompany and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was primarily intended to arouse positive emotions in the player, rather than to be a challenging and fun game. The game allows the player to control the wind as it takes a single petal around the world, giving everything it touches a breath of new life. You then create a floral trail that flows through the world that you have created as you guide the petals against the wind. The game involves colorful flowers and the graphics gives off a very relaxing feel which gives that sense of life as you play the game.

Reviewers praised the game’s music, visuals, and gameplay, calling it a unique and compelling emotional experience. It was named the “best independent game of 2009” at the Spike Video Game Awards, and won the “Casual Game of the Year” award by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences.