Live, Love, & Make Art - Jessica Dorado

Video Game Artists Face Off: Ready? Fight!

In the First Corner: Robbie Cooper

Robbie Cooper is a photographer and video artist from the United Kingdom, though he currently resides in New York. The two series posted to his website deal with the virtual world versus the physical world, as well as gamer’s (in varying degrees of devotion) connection to video games and media. A quote from his website accurately describes why he places his artistic focus and attention where he does:

“Our experience in a hyperreal world…is one in which media and medium are not simply located in their own spaces, but dispersed around us, in all forms of experience. My aim with these projects is to assemble videos, text and images that record our relationship with this world. In this environment, the ways in which we relate to mediated experience become, for me, an interesting portrayal of life in our 21^st Century culture.”

Two series exploring this “hyperreal world” are displayed on Cooper’s website. The first is his Alter Ego series, which took three years to complete and required extensive traveling to locations such as Korea, China, Germany and France. In the series, Cooper photographs people (either individually or in pairs), who play virtual world video games such as City of Heroes, Everquest, Lineage, and Star Wars Galaxies. However, he not only photographs the gamers, but also their avatars. Creating a diptych image that places the gamer and their corresponding avatar side by side.

The second element to Cooper’s work in his Alter Ego series is textual. If you hover the mouse over the image on his website the images darken and text appears. Over the actual image of the gamer will be general information about the individual, as well as information about the individual in regards to their virtual life. This includes (though varies slightly) their name, when they were born, their occupation, where they live, their “average hours per week in-game,” their avatar’s name, the date their avatar was created, the virtual world game they prefer to play, the name of the server they play on, their avatar’s type, their avatar’s level, and their avatar’s special abilities or powers. Over the image of the gamer’s avatar, text written by the gamer themselves appears. It’s written in a 1^st person format, and usually involves the gamer’s thoughts / own personal view of the “hyperreal world” Cooper is exploring. They discuss why they play virtual world games, how close they believe reality is to the virtual – or isn’t, as well as how closely they associate their avatar with their real-life selves.

Some of his subjects believe their avatars are as real as they are, others state that they are very aware of the line between virtual and reality, while many fall somewhere in between. Cooper describes the purpose of his three part pieces (image of gamer, image of avatar, and text) as, “…recording the appearance of the real person, alongside their avatar, I wanted to compare each person with the identity that they’d created to interact with others online. At the same time I assembled texts written by each person.”

The second series displayed on Cooper’s website is called Immersion, which deals with “…capturing the interaction of people with the screen” (Cooper). Or more specifically for this series, capturing the interaction of children with video games. The series is comprised of videos cut together, as well as high contrast, candid, still images, of children from both the United States and the United Kingdom playing video games. As with the Alter Ego series, if the images are hovered over with a mouse, a small amount of text is also included – stating the name of the child playing and the game being played. Both the video and the images are taken from a straight on view, as if the video games are the ones watching the children play, and besides the children there is nothing else; they are framed by a black background so nothing is there to distract from their reactions to the screen. The reason behind the making of this series, as stated on Cooper’s website, is to record someone’s obvious and uncensored character as they play, or watch someone play, videogames. On a final note about Cooper’s Immersion series, it has both been expanded upon, and is ongoing. For example, a 2009 project was scheduled to take place at Bournemouth University that would record children’s reactions to war games, war on the news, war in documentaries, and war in movies. The video included within the series can be viewed at the following URL: http://www.robbiecooper.org.

Out of our readings for this semester, Robbie Cooper’s work, I believe, most closely ties to Walter Benjamin’s “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” In said piece, Benjamin writes “the camera introduces us to unconscious optics as does the psychoanalysis to unconscious impulses” (16). This aptly ties to Cooper’s work as he utilizes a camera (as his work is more driven by photographs than by the text and video he also uses) to capture what viewers might miss otherwise. Perhaps not even see. He is freezing a moment – both staged and un-staged, so that you HAVE to look at that fraction of a second preserved for you. You’re given all the time you desire to process, analyze, and decide how you feel about the image, but you have to witness that specific moment the image has captured.

The representative work I have chosen from Robbie Cooper’s work is from his Alter Ego series, and is his piece about an individual named Jason Rowe.

The reason I’ve chosen this piece is due to its more positive look on virtual world games and the people who play them. It shows a positive side to this idea of a “hyperreal world,” whereas the next artist we’re going to take a look at has a message a little more negative.

In the Second Corner: Matteo Bittanti

Matteo Bittanti is an interventionist media artist / sculpture artist who utilizes toys, cinema, videogames and the web. Originally from Italy, he’s now based (mainly) out of San Francisco - a professor in both San Francisco and Milan on top of his profession as an artist. His aim (as with most interventionist media artists) is social and political commentary.

Though he has many series posted to his website, I have chosen to look at a series he did collaboratively called Game Arthritis. The series documents eight fictional diseases produced by eight different video game technologies. Two photos placed side by side in a diptych image represent the diseases – one zoomed out image depicting the patient with the disease, and one zoomed in image of the physically visible effects of their ailment. The diptych image is then accompanied by a textual description (written as if it were a medical / professional document), and an illustrated medical diagram (also appearing to be for professional / medical use).

According to Bittanti, “‘Game Arthritis’ presents a ‘What if’ scenario in which techno-pathologies and physical deformities allegedly caused by an excessive use of digital games are presented as ‘real.’” Partially based in science, yet very exaggerated, the series blurs the line between scientific evidence and fiction.

Although another artists photographed the series, and Bittanti did not draw the medical diagrams, he played a large part in the concept for the series, and is also responsible for the descriptions of the eight diseases that accompany the photographs and the medical diagrams. As a final side note, the series title serves as a pun to “Game Art,” commenting on the ongoing debate as to whether or not game art is real art.

Out of our readings for the semester, Bittanti’s work most closely ties to our fourth assigned reading “Tactical Media” by Rita Raley. Bittanti’s work is the same as the work discussed and analyzed in Raley’s piece in that it is full of satire, often humorous, and sometimes veiled just expertly enough to give birth to that “shock factor.” Similar to our Interventionist Media Project #5, Bittanti’s work is not just about making art, but also about delivering a message to his viewers.

The representative piece I have chosen from Bittanti’s work is the image/text/diagram that accompanies the fictional disease “3D Optical Disorder (3DOD), displayed below:

Comparison & Contrast

An area where Bittanti and Cooper have common ground is in their use of diptych images. Although Cooper uses it as a means of comparison and Bittanti uses it just as an aesthetic preference, it is not an extremely common method of displaying photographs, so it is interesting that they both used the method (even if for different reasons). Another similarity between Bittanti and Cooper is their choice of mediums; both artists use photography and text as a very large and necessary part of their series. However, in regards to their series separate from the series containing the chosen representative works, this is also an area of contrast for the two artists. Where Cooper uses video, Bittanti does not. And where Bittanti uses sculpture, Cooper does not. The most obvious similarity between the artists, however, is that both of their series, as well as their representative works, deal with the genre of “game art.” A genre that is relatively new, as well as somewhat debated in regards to its validity in the art realm. An interesting point to be made in regards to all of this is how Bittanti addresses this stigma on the genre he is utilizing by turning his series title into a pun. Cooper, by contrast, ignores the stigma entirely. Suggesting he either is unaware of the stigma (doubtful), or attempting to increase its validity through his use of the genre to “make good art” (Whittenberger, Peter).

The biggest contrast between Bittanti and Coopers work is intent. In making the series Game Arthritis, Bittanti is working as an interventionist media artist. He is purpose driven, he has a point to make, he has perspectives he wants his viewers to see, and he has social / political commentary to make. By contrast, Cooper’s intent is more exploratory. He is curiosity driven, he is interested in asking questions, as well as learning and understanding people and their relationship to this “hyperreal world” he references. This intent likely alters their audience. Bittanti’s audience would be everyone and anyone he could reach, with specific emphasis on reaching those who play video games or whose children play video games. Cooper, on the other hand, might have an audience more consisting of “willing” viewers. He is not trying to convince his audience, as Bittanti does, at least not so forcefully. His viewers are more than likely interested in the same ideas and questions he is. Searching for the same answers he is.

A final contrast between Bittanti and Cooper is the amount of collaboration present in their series. In Copper’s Immersion series, the video portion of his series is collaborative. However, in his Alter Ego series, Cooper only collaborates with his subjects. Of a much more collaborative nature is Bittanti Game Arthritis series. Bittanti is only partially responsible for concept (though he played the largest role) as well as responsible for the disease descriptions. Photography, illustrations, and part of the concept were all portions of the series accomplished by collaboration.

Conclusion

Though their work differs in many ways, mainly in intent, both Matteo Bittanti and Robbie Cooper’s work deal within the genre of game art. By doing this, the artists are paving the way to make game art a valid and accepted genre within the art community. Both artists use the internet as their main platforms for displaying their artwork, Bittanti attempting to reach as many viewers as possible (to change minds), and Cooper attempting to reach an audience curious about the same social questions he’s interested in. As both artist’s series and representative works are undoubtedly well made, their contribution to the acceptance of this genre is by no means miniscule.

Works Cited