Is it Art?

Can videogames be considered art? Discussions on artistic merit are hugely important given our current legislation. I will attempt to briefly summarise what I know of our current censorship law from my legal degree in layman’s terms to illustrate this questions importance. Our ‘Films, Videos and Publications Classification Act’ is a gateway law. The first gateway is s3(1) and is known as the ‘subject gateway’. This establishes that to be censored the film must deal with matters such as sex horror, crime, cruelty or violence. Once it passes this test it must be established whether the material would be “injurious to the public good” if released. It is at this point that Artisitic merit becomes important. If artistic merit can be shown this offers a defence against allegations of public injury and thus allow censorship to be avoided. Most video games deal with matters of sex and violence, so are videogames defendable as art?

Determination of artistic merit is an imprecise process. There are simply no objective standards for measuring aesthetic quality there is a quote is like from Alix Sharkey of the Guardian News paper who stated “The line between art and abuse, between what's bracingly unflinching and what's simply unbearable is always shifting. Every few years another movie comes along that pushes the limits of what audiences can endure... In 1986 it was the matter-of-fact carnage of "Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer." In 1992 heated arguments arose over the severed ear in "Reservoir Dogs. Yesterday it was "Jackass” Exemplifying that analysis of film’s artistic qualities is an imprecise science and a question that is constantly in flux. www.guardian.co.uk/film/2002/apr/14/filmcensorship.features.

The article by the Guardian focused on a film Baise Moi which followed the journey of two women on a violent rampage after one woman is raped. Baise Moi contains both graphic violence, potentially genuine drug use and real rather than simulated sex. Yet New Zealand and international authorities considered the film to be artistically defendable. The film was deliberately made in a pseudo documentary style with grainy filtering and lighting giving a disquieting result which played on the audiences emotions. Director Despentes stated in regards to the amount of consideration the cinematography had received, “everybody said, "Oh, of course, it's so easy to shoot a low-budget movie on DV with no lights and two ex-porn stars..." In fact every single decision was a risk, every idea was dangerous, a step into unknown territory. Everything was a struggle, every idea had to be haggled over, because there was no money”. The amount of contemplation that went into the cinematographic values negate the film being classed as merelt pornography. The film’s aural and linguistic components offer a completely different interpretation than pornography for the film. The audience do not view sexualized images separate from the film, but within the context of the narration which the director has specifically created. Lead actress Trinh Thi said in an interview with the Sunday Times that "This movie is not for masturbation, [thus it] is not porn”.

Art is often defined as a quality, production or expression, comprised of aesthetic principles, of beauty, appeal or some significance. Baise Moi fits into such a definition and surely Videogames can fit into this definition also. I have found a paper by Aaron Smuts which gives strong examples of games that can and should be considered art. (http://www.contempaesthetics.org/newvolume/pages/article.php?articleID=299). Smuts gives the example of The Max Payne game which includes periodic graphic-novel cut scenes to advance the narrative as well as extensive dialogue. These film elements help to render Max Payne worthy of the title ‘art’. Any violence was considered and utilised only where necessary to advance the conspiracy theory narrative and give character development. Games are indeed a great production, many game designers put a huge deal of thought into narratives and interactions. When an enemy is shot in a game he bleeds a certain way because the designer has created him to bleed in that way. Every decision is a constant choice much like cinematography choices in film mediums. As we have discussed in class Censors need to actually play the games to grasp the full experience of a games narrative. While watching a game, strippers like those in Grand Theft Auto appear merely smutty. When playing the game a slightly different context can be understood. Such smut or violence does not stand alone; instead it is part of a larger picture, part of the overall story.

Greater attention needs to be given to the defence of artistic merits. If a push for this is not given than gamers run the risk of having great games unnecessarily censored.