Great talk. I learned plenty from it. Just one thing… comparing ancient indigenous art to Michelangelo and expecting the titter of recognition – that one of course is ultra-primitive ‘chicken-scratch’ and one is high art, more developed, more advanced is annoyingly ethnocentric. You do not understand the purpose of the other stuff or in what context it exists, or what sort of skill or knowledge is required to execute it – in fact much modern western art came from the copying of stuff like that by famous painters such as Picasso and Matisse. Not that this fact is needed to confer meaning or importance to the arts of indigenous people. Be careful not to misrepresent and denigrate what you do not understand and have not even bothered to name. Everybody knows Michelangelo, nobody knows where you got the rock art – unless they belong to that group of people or are specialists. Thus those artists are silenced. In doing this you also close a door for yourself – you could have learned something new from the rock art if you had listened deeply to it – not just exploited it to prove a point – thus preventing you and us from learning something new. You only confirmed what we already think we are, and what we think those others are, who made those ‘chicken-scratches’- we the developed and sophisticated – those others, the primitive and lame. You are better than that.

Kellee,

That was an amazing speech! I really hope that your aspirations for games come true. I know that I am longing for a broader spectrum of emotions from games/interactive media. Flow and Flower are pointing the way to new experiences that I can’t wait to see!

Cheers,

Paul

L. Song – thank you so much for your thoughtful response.

I wasn’t trying to evaluate the two works in terms (the cave drawing and the Sistine Chapel) of quality, but using them to set up the argument that immediately follows – the evolution of mediums from more “raw” modes of communication/historical record, into interpretive works. I think, actually, based on your feedback, that the Michaelangelo piece was probably the improper selection in that argument, not the cave drawing. I should have chosen a more modern or contemporary work by a lesser-known artist to demonstrate my point.

And part of my point is that our current understanding of video games IS annoyingly ethnocentric. The cave drawing is “chicken scratch” as much as chess is “just a game.” I meant my comment on the cave drawing to be a joke, referring to the way we view primitive art, not a serious critique of the work itself.

thanks for this wonderfully engaging speech! I could not agree more with your views. its indeed a very interesting time to work in interactive arts, games and or what ever it will be called in the future.