Entry 4 Anti-Art and Anti-Gaming

Games by their nature facilitate the reason for their existence. They facilitate the rules and means by which participants interact with them and they devise their own contextual framework. Be it entertainment, strategy, a-political, or otherwise. Traditional art forms such as cinema and paintings on the other hand facilitates the progressive rediscovery of its medium’s existence. Game culture by its design is rigid, commodified, and transparent with its motivations. However in recent decades artist have begun a culture of anti-gaming that seeks to penetrate deep into the identity of interactive experiences. These artist are using glitches and mods to expose subjective experiences within otherwise definitive games. Alexander Galloway refers to these antigaming glitches as “ Glitches in the graphics engine that break the illusion of representational modeling. Eddo Stern calls these glitches “artifacts””(Galloway, 2016). Once such group led by Dr. Montembeault from the University of Montreal aims at “Mapping Glitches Trajectories in Game Design Space: From the Poetical to the Political” (Montembeault).

In his website there is a section entitled ‘curiosities’ that documents many of the most eccentric artifacts. Many of these artifacts including the one displayed above demonstrate that anti-representational versions of games, in this case SuperHot. Much like gestural drawing practices these visual distortions break down form and space into only its necessities. Galloways describes this destruction of form “The interest is not in modifying game play, but in modifying the representational space. Spaces once designed for player interaction, in fact spaces that only gained meaning through interaction, are transformed into spaces to be seen and watched, rather than played.” (Galloway, 2006)

Artist achieve these glitches by interrupting the one-to-one conversation between game designer and consumer.

Any modification made to enable these artifacts can best be understood at the noise source represented in the diagram above. Many art movements sought to become cultural noise sources, from Dada to counter cinema movements. Games serve as one of the most interesting mediums to implement these noise sources, because of the nature of games technology. Game engines. These engines are technological marvels that designers spends years to ensuring the structural integrity of the system. Therefore, in the tech-space these systems make the perfect digital grounds for artist begin the early movement of countergaming.

Works Cited:

Galloway, Alexander R. Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture. University of Minnesota Press, 2006.

Montembeault, Hugo. “Bug Hunter — Art Manifesto.” Bug Hunter — Art, www.thebughunter.ca/manifesto.

(Montembeault)