November 27, 2024: Games As Art And Literature

[kkc]

Originally Posted by Shostak

For well over a decade, I’ve been fermenting a vague concept for an exhibition at the art museum where I work that would explore RPGs as an art form.

The people who want to exhibit video games as art have puzzled over this same problem. I'm sure you've already sussed out that the main problem is that most art requires only a passive audience or observer, whereas interactive games demand a level of participation. To fully appreciate the artistic value of any game (electronic or otherwise) requires that you play it and not just look at it, and for some people that's more work than they're willing to commit to.

There is such a thing as interactive theatre, where people come into a performance space knowing that they'll be asked to answer a nun's questions or guess who committed a crime at the end. Can we set the same kind of interactive expectation for an art exhibition, where everybody who comes in can expect to have to roll dice and imagine a role to play?