Making Digitally-Rendered Art out of Digitally-Rendered War
Posted on | February 21, 2007 | No Comments
Though I agree with Penn Jillette’s point – which, snarkiness aside, gets to the heart of what drives our need to tell stories – I find something of a counterpoint in Slate’s recent feature on machinima. My aesthetic pedigree can be traced directly from the breeding farms of the Midwest Liberal Arts College, where reflexive self-loathing and a deification of High Art comingle wantonly, but I can’t help but get a Montessorian frisson from seeing the proliferation of the tools of artistic expression increasingly pushed out to “the masses.” Sure, it’s categorically derivative, utterly disposable, largely sophomoric, often crudely executed, and occasionally unbearably uninteresting to anybody outside the author’s immediate clique. (Frankly, the same could be said for a lot of theatre – and a lot of improv.) The subtle distinction is that while technology may not make better art, it is allowing more people to make art, whatever the quality.
What stimulates my pleasure sensors is the idea that people – mostly kids, lets face it – who may condemn creative writing, dance, theatre, or music as “gayballs” have found an approachable outlet that pushes their creativity and their problem-solving skills. And, as it is inherently a public act – even if it’s just meant to entertain your World of Warcraft clan – it makes it a far more socially proactive use of those skills than, say, solving the RedEye Sudoku puzzle.
What’s more, this whole phenomenon is (forgive the expression) user-generated: it is, at least among a certain cultural sub-set, encompassing 14-year-old boys and 30-something improv comedians, extremely cool. As one who grew up having to practice my dark theatrical arts in a disused convent on the other side of town, I’m glad to see societal pressures working for artistic expression for a change.
“WoW South Park Style” by Amanda Albert and Heidi Jackson, Image via WoW Fan Art Page
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