Re: Is IF art?


Wed, 25 Oct 1995 11:49:02 -0500

On 25 Oct 1995 11:44:27 GMT, Jim Newland <76461.2144@CompuServe.COM> wrote:
>things-to-be-sat-upon, and not as a "fine artist." On the other hand, if a chair
>is both three-legged and possessed of beautiful adornments, we might say that the
>maker is a "fine artist" as well, but in doing this we are judging the adornments
>and not the chair simply as chair. This is because the chair-simply-as-chair
>provides no aesthetic pleasure to the soul, while the adornments do (and the
>adornments are not in any case any part of the "chairness" of the chair).

Does it not follow that a game-simply-as-game provides no aesthetic
pleasure, but a game can be adorned to the point of being 'fine art'?

This reminds me of a discussion over on rec.games.frp.advocacy in which
the participants argued over the definition of 'fun'. "My character's
life is full of frustration and pain. His wife died yesterday and he is
in such emotional agony. The game is emotionally satisfying and highly
enjoyable, but it's not 'fun.'" One camp says 'emotionally satisfying'
== 'fun' while another camp insists that 'fun' has a distinctive quality
quite different from 'satisfying,' 'enjoyable,' or 'exciting.'

You say a highly-adorned chair is art, yet a plain chair is not. As a
craftsman, I say a simple chair is the highest form of woodworking
art... embellishments can ruin the lines and distract the eye from
'perfect form.' Sure, in some cases, a chair is a chair. But in
others, what you call a chair, I call art. The Krenov that I call art,
a fellow craftsman calls crap and a cheap ripoff of someone else's
style. Even fellow artists cannot agree on what is art and what is not.

Art is all in the mind, mood, and referential framework. Knowing
something about furniture building, I know a good, simple chair when I
see one and I consider it art, yet the average person sees nothing but a
chair because he lacks the *background* to see the art. If you know
something about IF design, you may know an elegant story when you see
it... while I may see it as nothing but a game.

I think art is purely subjective... that there is no way to 'grade' art.
What is one man's art is another man's passing fad.

--
Carl (ravenpub@southwind.net)
* I'm not lost, I'm "locationally challenged".