TEDxUSC - Kellee Santiago - 3/23/09

Are Video Games Art? Game innovator Kellee Santiago insists that games are more than entertainment.

As a student in the MFA Interactive Media program at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, Kellees research focused on game design, interactive narrative, and physical and gestural interfaces for digital media. She has produced and managed a number of interactive projects including Im Gonna Kill the President! A Federal Offense at PS122, and The Angel Project at Lincoln Center. While at USC, she teamed up with fellow student Jenova Chen to develop the student-created game, Cloud. The critically acclaimed game led them to found their own studio, thatgamecompany, which landed a three game deal with Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc. to develop downloadable games for Playstation Network. thatgamecompanys mission is to create games that push the possibilities of what games can communicate.


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• Category

  Science & Technology

[djsenkus]

She couldn't have picked a worse first example to convince people.

[Steve Shaw]

I suggest you play 'Journey', the newest output from the speakers own studio. It's a wordless parable on the intersection of lives as we travel our individual paths. It's quite a profound and moving experience, and one entirely impossible in any other medium of expression.

[Weaksauceization]

1. Opinion

2. Minority

3. Biased towards books

4. Idiot.

[bravo915]

she misspelled Wikipedia. jesus lady....

[Jaser200]

The industry is there to make $ but I could list tons of developers out there that aren't out to make $ but to make an experience. Some of them even have that as a motto. $ is simply a necessity to continue their artistic dream.

Also, would you argue that because some of Leonardo da Vinci's most famous paintings were sold or because Michelangelo or others were hired to sculpt or to paint no emotion or creativity was put into them? Can they not be High Art that was presented as commercial art?

[LuminousBrolaire]

I can see where both are coming from. Video Games ARE technically art, but we have to tell the difference between art and FINE art. Flower and Braid are no where near Crime and Punishment and 1984 in terms of storytelling and themes.

[CharlieTooHuman]

Well, I don't particularly enjoy the things that art considered "high art." I appreciate the skill and talent, but I don't find myself caring enough to listen to Mozart compositions on my way to work... Or to spend thousands of dollars on a trip to Paris just to see the Mona Lisa.

"High art" to ME is anything that interests me or plays with my emotions. I label ART according to what I think it is, not what other people consider it. A video game with good storytelling is ART in my book.

[Neukku]

Bravo! This was excelent. I'm actually using this as reference in my essay about "video games as art".

[Daniel Rosa]

Man, this is 100% the opposite of what every game-developers are making today, with their countless sequels of action games.