By stephensurlin on December 2nd, 2009, 1:18 am 0 Comments
Here are some links for you to see how I’ve interconnected these popular networking sites. The Rhizome page has more information on my project. My ongoing online intervention is a performance piece. I’ve created an ‘online’ musical persona; and with this group I will explore the aesthetics, processes and potential for “human” interaction and expression of self to others (this self is hopefully made more distinct through hacktivist ideologies and practices, like the manipulative quality of HTML).
Close Range is the highly anticipated game that consists solely of constantly shooting people point-blank in the face. This immersive first person shooter presents you with an infinite amount of faces to plow through, in the intense challengeless single-player mode. The game’s content can last weeks, and with replayability, it’s one of the best games ever made. The game brings a deeply complex and detailed world that sends an infinite stream of faces to shoot. It gives you freedom to where you can shoot people in the face (such as the ear or the eyes), too, for different possibilities of killing. Your face shooting is also graded and added to an addicting and amazingly compelling score system. You play as AJ, a shady character with a mysterious past who needs to explode hundreds and thousands of faces on a quest to rescue his kidnapped brother. It has a variety of weapons at your disposal such as a Combat Shotgun, Revolver, Uzi, and more!
Critics Say:
“The best game I’ve seen all year…maybe ever.” – Former Electronic Gaming Monthly staff
I find the satirical prowess of ‘The Onion’ is very hard hitting and sharp ,they seem to touch on a massive variety of popular cultural activity and happenings. I find the act of satire is similar to a “remix” of the original idea or intention. The reinterpreted depiction of first-person-shooter culture causes a critical reading to the “ridiculousness” of the extremes that game culture and game technology is possibly evolving towards.
By EmilyH on September 14th, 2009, 1:29 am 0 Comments
A clip of the I Shot Andy Warhol video game created by Cory Arcangel
While I was exploring the “New Media Art” website, an artist named Cory Arcangel caught my interest. This was probably because when I began to Google his name, the first project that was recognized, was his piece titled I Shot Andy Warhol (above). Personally, I tend to enjoy any project that Warhol is a part of, but this was very different.
Cory Arcangel, who was born in 1978 and currently resides in Brooklyn, is a digital artist. He studies the relationship between technology and culture. This involves hacking and manipulating technologies, such as video games, software and films in order to challenge conventional thinking and consumerism art. He usually finds flaws in the technology and creates new meanings using humour.
For his project, I Shot Andy Warhol, Arcangel hacked an old Nintendo game called “Hogan’s Alley’ and replaced the targets with pictures of the Pope, Flavor Flav and Andy Warhol. This project was featured in many museums during the peak of new media technology.
I think that Arcangel uses an interesting process in which he dismantles and recodes the videogame, however, this is not one of my favourite pieces. I somewhat understand why the fairly random characters (Flavor Flav, the Pope) are featured in the game and why the player must only shoot Warhol. Perhaps Warhol is portraying everything Arcangel makes fun of, including pop culture. Either way, I enjoy some of his other works, such as Super Mario Clouds and Sweet 16, much more than I Shot Andy Warhol.
By mikealpiccinin on September 14th, 2009, 1:14 am 0 Comments
Natalie Bookchin used video games as a form of art, creating The Intruder which is both a comment on the violent nature of video games, and based on a short story by Jorge Luis Borges of two brothers love for the same women, and the harsh treatment that is given to her. This story is retold as both brothers sharing her at the beginning, then ending up selling her to a brothel leading to her death, and the brother’s reconciliation after her passing.
Bookchin’s description of the art game is, “looks like a game but in fact is a critical commentary on computer games and patriarchy.”
The Intruder is a video game of ten different smaller games. Shown throughout the video game are the alternate paths is which a women is bombarded with various forms of abuse expressed through narrative passages. In one of many of Bookchin’s renditions of video games, she incorporates the game of Pong a game where shown is a replica of a two dimensional ping pong table is displayed on screen. Each player must hit the ball back and forth, defending one side of the screen. The ball symbolizes the women being exchanged that from brother to brother.
Brookchin brings forth the relationship between literature and video games, and the question of the womens’ role in the story. There is an obvious parallel between violence towards women within the short story written by Borges, displaying the sexism contained in most video games, being directed towards males. From this it is clear that there is a direct correlation that coincides in the art that Natalie Bookchin portrays between women abuse and violence within video games.
