Presentation - Video Game: Are they art? (Case study : Okami)

Introduction of the game:

• •Name: Ōkami
• •released date: In 2006 in Japan
• •Publisher: Capcom
• Content: This game was made by the combination of several Japanese myths and legends and folklore to tell the story of how the land was saved by Shinto sun goddess. (The white wolf)

This trailer of this game:

Content - Why Okami can be count as art?

1. The story - Legend:

According to Adams' statement, art should be expressed something and have the capacity to express ideas. In this game, the story was followed and developed by the Japanese classic legend; the main characters also were inspired from Japanese historical figures. For example, a major plot of the eight-headed serpent recreated as the character. The following pictures are the Japanese classic image of the eight-headed serpent and the new created image in Okami.

Tradition image



 

Image in Okami



Besides, the creater use a interactive way to express the Japanese classic culture, because player can have further understanding of Japanese classic legend through playing this game.

2. Brush Stroke:

Moreover, I think that the video game can be count as art, it should not only focus on science and technology, it also can integrate science and technology and cultural domain as process. Okami can achieve this point of view. It is because Okami  features a distinct visual style and the Celestial Brush, a gesture-system to perform miracles. We can discover that on the "Celestial Brush" and the scene, the traditional writing brush stroke is the main skill in this game.

The special function - "Celestial Brush", same with writing brush



The scene in Okami



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Besides, the writing brush stroke is not only for providing a visual entertainment. The creater said that he wants the player can try to appreciate the traditional drawing and the beautiful scene that create with the calligraphic brush stroke.

3. Aesthetic - Gagaku:

Okami was different from other video game, it added some special music - Gagaku, a type of Japanese classic music in the game. This music was introduced into Japan with Buddhism from China.

The music in Okami

The game coordinated the Japanese classic style in this game because music is easy to evoke traditional Japanese art as much as the graphics do and the player can feel the tradition Japanese art through this music.


References:
Grant Tavinor,The Art of Videogames (John Wiley and Sons, 2009) 
Andy Clarke and Grethe Mitchell, Video game and art (Intellect Books, 2007)
http://www.okami-game.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%8Ckami

It is reasonable to consider computer game as art?

1. How does Adams define art? Do you agree with his definition?


Accroding to Adams, he said that" literary arts: writing and drama, which are characterized by the presence of narrative. Film and television also belong to the literary arts. Then there are the fine arts: sculpture and painting, music and dance. There are also the decorative arts: wallpaper, fabrics and furnishings. Architecture is regarded by some as a form of art, and industrial design, is not really art so much as it is an aesthetic applied to utilitarian objects. The boundaries between art and non-art are not hard and fast; there is a grey area."


- literary arts: writing and drama; film and television
- fine arts: sculpture and painting, music and dance
- decorative arts: wallpaper, fabrics and furnishings
- form of art: Architecture
- industrial design: aesthetic applied to utilitarian objects


I agree that most of them of Adams' claim. And "the boundaries between art and non-art are not hard and fast; there is a grey area." is the really good point to describe the relationship between art and non-art. Art can be involve many differents elements, for example, most of the modern art work such as digital art which have the combination of internet, digital graphic, painting even games etc. Therefore, the definition of art can not be hard and it must have the gray area in it.

Bob Dob,Truce

2. According to Adams, what is needed for videogames to be considered as art?


According to Adams, there are come criteria for videogames can be considered as art. The criteria as the follows,
- Contain content: Something is being expressed and it have the core meaning.
- Have ideas: Art must have the capacity to express ideas; it must be more than merely entertaining.
- Have an aesthetic: distinct aesthetic qualities of games by assessing the appeal, meaning, richness, depth, significance, and so on.
- Make you feel things: They have to make the effort. 
- Not formulaic: art should be included innovation.


References:
Andy Clarke and Grethe Mitchell, Video game and art (Intellect Books, 2007)
http://www.perezstart.com/retro/drinks-of-kong/1665/

Screening of Gamer Revolution

a)According to the film, what are some pros and cons of playing videogames for individuals and societies?

About the pros of playing videogames for individuals is the player can earn money from the

videogames competition. If they won the competition, they not only can won the prize, but they\can also enter to the company which is specially for make money Also, they may do more exercies through the  videogame, for example, Wii Sport. 

However, it has some cons of playing videogames for individuals and societies, especially

teenagers. Nowadays, many teenagers addicted in playing videogames, it may cause some

bad effect onthem. In the video (CBC documentary, 2007) recorded that the US game creator

created agame which kill all the iranian if you want to win the game. It may cause the

discrimination of Iran and the teenagers may think that iranian is the lower grade humankind.  

b) According the film, is there any evidence that digital games can encourage
aggressive values and anti-social actions in the real world? Do you agree?

According to the film, there may have some ideas that is encourage aggressive value. For

example, some frame of this film show that the players can earn money through the competition, they must have the ambition of winning the game competition for getting the money. In all  competition, there contains competitive atmosphere, especially the result of the game is about money. Therefore, most people will have the ambition to join the competition and encourage the aggressive value.

Besides, most of the game contains the goals such as save the world, fight to the enemies etc. most of these game need us to achieve and pass all the tasks; some games even are multiple play, that means play will other players.  Therefore, most of these games must encourage the aggressive value.

Moreover, I think that digital game won't have the anti-actions in the real world. As I said before, some of the game are multiple players mode, they can play with other players. It also can raise the connection with other people. Besides, the film show that there are some competition in Korea. The players seems became an star of playing game, they also have lots of chances to have interactive with others. Therefore, I won;t think that digital game will have the anti-actions in real world, even there may raise the interaction with the real world.  

 

c) Should governments have the right to ban certain games? Why or why not?

I won't think that government should have the right to ban certain games.

Majority of people will think that some type of games may raise the negative effects to teenages even the society. For example, a game which is first-person game. The players need to follow the beat and use the knife to jump over the fingers. (Link of this game: http://www.asiadog.com/game/violence/12.shtm) and the game which fighting with others till one of them died. (Link of this game: http://www.asiadog.com/game/fight/1.shtm)

However, I don't think the society or teenages' mind can be changed by those violence games easily, there must have other more violent things which exist in the society through other media such as movie. I think that the society must have those things, you cannot ban all of them easily.
Besides, their parents even can teach them through those games. What can do and what they should do. It may be a good chance for educating the teenages.

Technologised Bodies

Which artist’s work do you find the most interesting?
I think that Stelarc's work - "Exoskeleton" is the most interesting work.

About Stelarc(Stelios Arkadious), he is a Greek-Australian performance artist. Stelarc has a concept that " The human body is obsolete." Therefore, most of his works are consisting of  robotic or other modern technology with his body. Moreover, he explores whether or not the human body is an adequate biological form through his work,

"The body is neither a very efficient nor very durable structure. It malfunctions often and fatigues quickly; its performance is determined by its age. It is susceptible to disease and is doomed to a certain and early death. Its survival parameters are very slim - it can survive only weeks without food, days without water and minutes without oxygen" (Stelarc, 1998).

About "Exoskeleton", it's a six-legged, pneumatically powered walking machine has been constructed for the body. The locomotor, with either ripple or tripod gait , moves fowards, backwards, sideways and turns on the spot.

Why I think this work is most interested?

It's because the work recall the figure that appeared in the movie - "Spider man 2". He is Dr. Octopus. He also insert a machine in his body. And he control the machine by himself, it's similar to Stelarc's work.

Individual reserch topic

The Title: Videogames – But are they art?

Ōkami

1. Key quotes

2. Key Links.

3. Key Books and Articles.

4. Case Study.

• Who is the maker of the game? The director is Hideki Kamiya

• When was it produced/released? 2006

• What is its name? Ōkami

• Describe it in detail
  Ōkami combines some of Japanese myths, legends and folklore to tell the story of how the land was saved from darkness by a white wolf, the Shinto sun goddess - Amaterasu. It features a distinct visual style and brush, a gesture-system to perform miracles. The most important element in the game is the game features the calligraphic brushstroke to make the images.

• For you, what is interesting/unusual/thought-provoking/aesthetically pleasing/puzzling about this artwork/website/game? [you may choose your own adjectives! These are just some suggestions]. Explain in detail.

• What key issue(s) or question(s) does this artwork/website/game raise? Explain these thoroughly, making use of quotations and paraphrases from your readings, and other examples, as appropriate 

Online Identity

1. How many online identities do you have? What are they like?

I have lots of online identities such as forum, facebook, MSN, ICQ, e-mail, youtube and xanga.
2. In what ways are they different to your "in person" identities?

There are lots of differences to my "in person' identities. As these identities are not the real identity, therefore I can express my own feeling freely. It's so different to my real personality, I am too shy to express my own feelings in the real life. Sometimes, I won't show my gender, even I will change my gender to male.

3. What are some benefits of expressing one's identity online?

These identities are benefit for me to do many things. For example, I can talk with my friends through MSN, ICQ and facebook, it is quite convenient for me to talk on internet and won't need to holding the phone to talk with them. Besides, I can communicate with strangers and share somethings that I won't have brave to talk in reality.

4. What are some risks?

To me, I will consider the privacy. When we create an account on some forum even msn, these website may require us to provide our personal information such as real name, telephone number even address. For example, the most popular website - facebook also have this problem. According to kurtvonmoos.com, it reported that "Facebook is import all the names and phone numbers from your phone’s address book and upload them to your Facebook Phonebook app on Facebook.com."

References link: http://kurtvonmoos.com/facebook_steals_contact_info/

Do video-sharing sites enhance or worsen creative culture?

People always argue that whether the video-sharing sites such as youtube, youku even facebook enhance the creative culture or not. To me, those video-sharing sites can enhance the creative culture and our development of creativity indeed.

According to Roman Marek, he said that "the virtuality of the internet maximizes accessibility. It almost seems like there are no external boundaries for the creativity of the community...", I agree what he said is the internet is accessibility, people can access to it and share their idea freely. They won't have any boundary to stop their creativity, except the illegal things. Therefore, all the people can surf the internet and get the new idea from others. It is the free-sharing world indeed. It's not same as the reality, we don't know how to public your own work / idea to others.

Moreover, I also agree that "people are sharing enormous amounts of audio-visual material — they are participating in a circulation of ideas. This circulation of ideas results in a process you may label as collective creativity." by Roman Marek. If people share their idea to others and it will be a circulation of creativity, that's mean "collective creativity". In the internet, it must be collected many ideas from all of us because have contributed the ideas even only a sketch.

Therefore, I would say that these video-sharing sites such as youtube, youku even facebook enhance the creative culture can enhance the creativity and the creative culture.