Avant-Garde: A New Art Form

This was my final project while studying at the New York Film Academy. It's a short essay I wrote about the concept of the video game as a new medium for art. Whether in terms of music, art design, narrative, or even the mechanics themselves, video games have an as-yet unsurpassed potential for producing works of amazing beauty and depth.

This is not to say that games can't or don't function as a commercial venue as well - they do, and quite well at that. The commercialization of literature, film, and music is mirrored in video games, with one less facet - video games are still in their infancy, still somewhat in an experimental state. I have tried to give people my take on what has been done and could be done to produce great works of art that are themselves entertaining.

Footage I used for this movie came from:

Games
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones (UbiSoft)
Grim Fandango (Lucasarts)
Katamari Damacy (Namco)
Street Fighter II (Capcom)
Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game (Capcom)
Devil May Cry 3 (Capcom)
Devil May Cry 4 trailer (Capcom)
Guilty Gear X-2 (Arc System Works)
The Sims (Maxis)
Armored Core 3 (FROM Software)
Star Wars: Battlefront II (Pandemic Studios)
Shadow of the Colossus (SCEA)
Lilo and Stitch (Disney Interactive)
Taz: Wanted (Blitz Games)
Final Fantasy X (Square Enix)
Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner (KCEJ)
Samurai Warriors 2: Empires (Omega Force)
Tetrollapse (GameGuild)
Jagged Alliance 2 (SirTech)
Enter the Matrix (Shiny Entertainment)
Eragon (Stormfront Studios)
GunMaster Onslaught (LostVectors)

PONG (Atari)
The "footage" I put together of Pong was done with simple shapes that were manually moved around the screen, and though I did credit PONG to Atari because I did utilize Pong as a reference to the first video games, I didn't use actual PONG footage.

Movies/Series
Charlotte Sometimes (Visionbox)
Eragon (20th Century Fox)
Crash (Lion's Gate)
Noir (Bee Train)
I'm Your Man DVD Cover (Choicepoint)
Space Mutiny (Action International)
Terminator 2 (TriStar)
Star Wars (Lucasfilm)
Street Fighter: The Movie (Universal)
The Matrix Reloaded (Warner Bros.)
Enter the Dragon (Warner Bros.)

Music
"Cyberbird" by Gabriela Robin
"Vergil Battle 3" by Tetsuya Shibata
"Battle with the Colossus" By Kow Otani

Other
"Eragon" by Christopher Paolini
"Serra Angel vs. Hypnotic Specter" by Greg Staples
"The Treachery of Images" by Rene Magritte
"The Lost Jewels of Nabooti" by R.A. Montgomery
Self Portrait by Scott McCloud
"Fountain" by Marcel Duchamp

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• video
• game
• movie
• art

[lunity]

hey could you tell me the games right before and after the video of tidus opening his eye at like 1:05

[TClaymore]

The one immediately before is from the opening of Guilty Gear X-2, from Arc System Works.

The one immediately after is Devil May Cry 3, from Capcom. Hope you enjoy!

[mafurock33]

very interesting! The one critique I would make is that the essay seems to focused on defining video games as art only under the premise of how they resemble movies, tell stories, or draw the user into the world.. But if you think more deeply about art you may realize that the comparison should run deeper.. Especially with title like "avant garde,what about avant garde video games? Or impressionist games, minimilast, cubist, expressionist..is there a sublime aesthetic to video game art?.etc..

[TClaymore]

To be perfectly honest, I didn't get to cover nearly as much as I wanted, so I more or less got stuck in games as narrative device. It focused the message, but if there's anything I would advise to anyone watching it, it's to do your own further research into games of all kinds. You will find worlds of possibility for art from all angles.

Thanks for the comment! I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought it could have done so much more.

[videobuzz2008]

Excellent interpretation and great narration of movies V's games.

I think you should get together with....digitalblue2u on youtube - he is using something called internal visual surrounds which

presents the videos in a very interesting way!

[TClaymore]

I'll take that into consideration.  Thanks!

[Sesquiltera]

No, your stupid silly videogames (as they are now, they will become superior) ARE NOT ahead of their times. You really want to learn something new? Ask me if I will converse with you, then we'll see!

[Sesquiltera]

What a complete and utter dumbfuck you are! You have no idea of the meaning of the word Avant-Garde!!!

[lunity]

awesome thanks

[DamienOlsen]

I recognize how much art is evolved in the making or even in the results of video games,

Most video games are all about killing the art of killing.. think of how many art movies are not seen as art expression but as entertainment. And most people get badly intimidated in front of something beautiful, people don't know how to deal with beauty or unusual beauty.

At the same time there's another lot of people out there thirsty for beauty and also for crazy shit.

[TClaymore]

The interpretation of Avant-Garde I took is "ahead of the times." As it is right now, video games are not taken very seriously as an art form. I wanted to show some of the potential it has to be so, and some examples out there that actually already qualify.