Can a Video Game be Art?

Here’s a relatively uninteresting article by Grant Tavinor called Video Games and the Philosophy of Art.  Can video games be art?  I don’t know.  Can a tree be art?  Can a car be art?  Can a rear end be art?  Certainly, under certain circumstances they can all be art.  But forgive my asking why do people spend so much time discussing a question that is equivalent to, ‘Can a hairbrush be art?’

In most cases I think a video game can only be art because of the player.  Any video game, no matter how crappy, can be art in the hands of… well… an artist.  Artists make art.  If you ain’t an artist you can’t get no art.  An artist can load up a copy of Grand Theft Auto on their Xbox 360 and walk into that gigantic world of violence and stand perfect still on a virtual street corner doing nothing but stare at a lamp post for days on end and turn that video game into art.  It’s magic.  Not theory.  Magic.  You know it when you see it.

Here’s a film with my own use of a video game as art.  Well, I think it’s art, but you may think it’s idiotic.  Check it out.  You’ll know it when you see it.  It contains extreme violence and nudity (just like video games!).  It’s intended for an adult audience. There’s my disclaimer.  Here’s the film.