0:00:00.490,0:00:03.908
I'd like to ask you[br]to raise your hand if you believe

0:00:03.943,0:00:06.943
that the image behind me is a work of art.

0:00:08.706,0:00:10.745
There's not much room for doubt, is there?

0:00:10.780,0:00:12.780
What about this other one?

0:00:13.415,0:00:16.636
It could impress us more or less,[br]depending on our aesthetic tastes,

0:00:16.661,0:00:20.124
but nobody will be horrified by the sight[br]of a Mondrian in a museum.

0:00:20.149,0:00:24.842
What happens if I show you a urinal?

0:00:24.867,0:00:26.426
Here come the first doubts.

0:00:26.461,0:00:27.847
It's not just any urinal.

0:00:27.882,0:00:31.263
'Fountain', presented by Duchamp[br]for entry into an art exhibition

0:00:31.298,0:00:34.295
where all works of art[br]were to be accepted.

0:00:34.330,0:00:35.708
And this one was left out.

0:00:35.733,0:00:38.929
The other commissioners charged[br]with deciding what would be included

0:00:38.954,0:00:40.592
left it aside.[br]Duchamp gave up.

0:00:40.627,0:00:44.951
A conceptual, irreverent,[br]politically incorrect work of art.

0:00:44.986,0:00:47.617
Because sometimes art[br]can be all these things too.

0:00:47.652,0:00:50.646
What about this one?

0:00:50.681,0:00:55.582
A box of washing powder,[br]and not even a real one. A replica.

0:00:55.617,0:00:57.789
But what if I told you it's a Warhol?

0:00:57.824,0:00:59.747
The faces are starting to change.

0:00:59.782,0:01:01.224
A name with value.

0:01:01.259,0:01:04.929
Another work of art,[br]a 20th-century avant-garde icon.

0:01:04.964,0:01:09.051
In this case, art which talks to us[br]about what is happening,

0:01:09.086,0:01:13.252
about commercial art[br]versus art of the elite. Why?

0:01:13.287,0:01:15.336
Because art isn't always pretty.

0:01:15.371,0:01:16.985
Art isn't always a canvas.

0:01:17.020,0:01:20.124
In fact, in its origins art[br]was much more than that.

0:01:20.159,0:01:23.278
Art was a ritual.[br]Art was politics, it was communication.

0:01:23.313,0:01:27.702
That's why art can sometimes be fleeting,[br]it can be brutal,

0:01:27.737,0:01:30.033
it can horrify us, like Marina Abramovic

0:01:30.068,0:01:32.528
and her 'Performances'[br]which seek to move us,

0:01:32.563,0:01:34.570
which seek to comment, to tell a story;

0:01:34.605,0:01:38.675
which are political, social[br]and at times religious declarations.

0:01:38.710,0:01:43.841
Or art can team up with science[br]and create a rabbit like Alba,

0:01:43.876,0:01:48.001
a fluorescent rabbit who sparked debate[br]over whether her true 'parent'

0:01:48.036,0:01:51.845
was the artist Eduardo Kac[br]or the laboratory which commissioned her.

0:01:51.880,0:01:54.008
Is this a breakthrough?[br]Is it a work of art?

0:01:54.043,0:02:01.621
With this in mind, who would say[br]that a picture like this could be art?

0:02:01.656,0:02:06.146
That maybe video gaming[br]is one of the new avant-garde art forms.

0:02:06.181,0:02:07.948
Just like Duchamp in his day.

0:02:07.983,0:02:09.961
Or like Warhol in his.

0:02:09.997,0:02:14.255
And it's not me who's saying this,[br]nor a group of fanaticized geeks

0:02:14.290,0:02:16.815
who play video games 24/7

0:02:16.850,0:02:19.176
and who know all the tricks in the book.

0:02:19.211,0:02:21.665
No, this is something[br]that is happening worldwide.

0:02:21.700,0:02:23.902
And which is being validated[br]by institutions:

0:02:23.937,0:02:26.542
institutions of art and of technology;

0:02:26.577,0:02:28.203
and museums, like the Smithsonian,

0:02:28.228,0:02:30.917
which this year dedicated[br]a several-month long exhibition

0:02:30.942,0:02:33.465
to the history of video gaming,

0:02:33.500,0:02:35.584
the cultural influence of video gaming.

0:02:35.619,0:02:38.713
The decision of which works[br]were to be included in the exhibition

0:02:38.738,0:02:40.292
went to the public themselves.

0:02:40.317,0:02:43.666
Or, for example, a museum of technology[br]like the one in Berlin.

0:02:43.701,0:02:47.683
It has a wing dedicated[br]solely to video games.

0:02:47.718,0:02:51.132
From the first console up[br]to modern-day productions

0:02:51.167,0:02:55.590
made by artists[br]who work with gaming devices.

0:02:55.625,0:02:57.641
And why not festivals too?

0:02:57.676,0:03:02.050
Like ARS Electronica,[br]a festival which takes place in Austria

0:03:02.085,0:03:04.733
and which is characteristic[br]of art and technology.

0:03:04.768,0:03:07.153
It has a category called Interactive Art

0:03:07.178,0:03:10.024
which for a while has been assigning[br]awards to video games.

0:03:10.059,0:03:13.177
Commercial video games,[br]independent video games,

0:03:13.212,0:03:15.593
devices created by artists.

0:03:15.618,0:03:18.177
These are all different ways[br]in which the video game

0:03:18.212,0:03:20.493
can come to be considered as an art.

0:03:20.518,0:03:23.300
I'm not saying that all of them[br]are art, but some are.

0:03:23.335,0:03:26.424
And it happens,[br]and it was inevitable that it would happen

0:03:26.459,0:03:28.603
because art is something unique to man.

0:03:28.628,0:03:30.936
Art is a way[br]we have of expressing ourselves,

0:03:30.971,0:03:33.565
of communicating,[br]of transmitting emotions.

0:03:33.600,0:03:35.790
Art keeps on changing with the ages;

0:03:35.825,0:03:39.155
with each society it uses different tools.

0:03:39.190,0:03:41.844
Technology was inevitable in this century

0:03:41.879,0:03:45.536
and video gaming[br]is one of the many faces it can assume.

0:03:45.571,0:03:50.424
And these are some[br]of the many faces behind these creations.

0:03:50.459,0:03:53.099
These people could be the next Warhols.

0:03:53.134,0:03:55.049
They are the ones who walk among us.

0:03:55.084,0:03:59.555
We are the ones who will say:[br]"Yes, this could be art", or "No",

0:03:59.590,0:04:02.925
and time will tell[br]if we were right or wrong.

0:04:02.960,0:04:06.483
I suggest we take a quick look[br]at six examples of video games

0:04:06.518,0:04:09.231
which are probably not quite Mona Lisas,

0:04:09.266,0:04:12.548
or Warhol's Brillo Boxes,

0:04:12.583,0:04:16.682
but which are paving[br]the way for what is to come.

0:04:16.716,0:04:20.858
Perhaps the easiest art form[br]to liken it to is cinema.

0:04:20.894,0:04:22.980
The video game goes one step further,

0:04:23.015,0:04:24.876
from the seventh art to the eighth.

0:04:24.911,0:04:26.712
Now we have interactivity,

0:04:26.737,0:04:28.704
something which some branches of art

0:04:28.729,0:04:31.133
has been striving for since[br]it left the canvas.

0:04:31.158,0:04:34.014
To remove the other[br]from the place of the observer,

0:04:34.049,0:04:36.244
to hook them in,[br]to make them the protagonist.

0:04:36.269,0:04:38.562
By its very nature, video gaming[br]has all of this.

0:04:38.587,0:04:41.863
Take Assassin's Creed, for example:[br]a 'mainstream' video game

0:04:41.898,0:04:44.983
which could be outdone[br]by the more 'indie' ones

0:04:45.018,0:04:47.024
but which has a lot going on[br]behind it all.

0:04:47.049,0:04:49.642
It took three years of work,[br]500 people developing it,

0:04:49.677,0:04:52.036
departments dedicated to photography,

0:04:52.071,0:04:54.472
to character design, to narrative.

0:04:54.507,0:04:56.984
Here, Renaissance Italy[br]has been reconstructed.

0:04:57.019,0:04:59.303
They worked with historians, architects,

0:04:59.338,0:05:01.642
specialists in this era.

0:05:01.677,0:05:05.433
It's the only method we have today[br]to explore these places.

0:05:05.468,0:05:08.921
A while ago there was an exhibition[br]in the Museum of Decorative Art

0:05:08.956,0:05:10.890
on paintings from that period.

0:05:10.925,0:05:15.655
Line after interminable line[br]waiting for a glance into that time.

0:05:15.690,0:05:19.529
It's the same thing here.[br]We're being taken along for a journey

0:05:19.564,0:05:22.941
where we are the ones[br]who travel through the story.

0:05:22.976,0:05:25.371
We are the protagonists of this tale.

0:05:25.406,0:05:29.641
And just like Hollywood[br]has a flipside like Cannes festival

0:05:29.676,0:05:33.251
or Berlin's Golden Bear, with entries[br]which try to tell another story,

0:05:33.286,0:05:36.181
transmit another experience,[br]which have multiple meanings;

0:05:36.206,0:05:38.022
video games have that too,

0:05:38.057,0:05:41.594
with companies which present themselves[br]as purely artistic.

0:05:41.629,0:05:45.605
This is the case with That Game Company,[br]a Californian enterprise

0:05:45.640,0:05:50.280
which says it develops video games[br]which are like interactive poems.

0:05:50.315,0:05:52.710
This is its most recent work, Journey.

0:05:52.745,0:05:56.090
The journey of the hero,[br]present in every narrative.

0:05:56.125,0:05:58.676
Every book and every film[br]talks about this journey.

0:05:58.711,0:06:01.029
Perhaps a journey unique to each player.

0:06:01.064,0:06:04.503
We wake up in the desert,[br]alone in the vast emptiness

0:06:04.538,0:06:07.529
with nobody to keep us company,[br]and a light to follow.

0:06:07.564,0:06:11.041
In Journey, the meaning[br]will be different for every player.

0:06:11.076,0:06:14.221
You enter into a painting,[br]you enter into a poem.

0:06:14.256,0:06:16.546
You are the one[br]who walks among the verses.

0:06:16.581,0:06:21.284
And sometimes another character appears,[br]which is someone who is online

0:06:21.319,0:06:24.925
at that precise moment,[br]who is undertaking their own journey,

0:06:24.960,0:06:26.223
their own destiny,

0:06:26.258,0:06:29.468
and who connects with us through sound.

0:06:29.503,0:06:31.280
We don't have a familiar language,

0:06:31.315,0:06:33.370
we can't chat, we just emit sounds.

0:06:33.405,0:06:35.951
We sing, we communicate,[br]we keep each other company.

0:06:35.976,0:06:39.817
And when the other player disappears,[br]he takes away a little token...

0:06:39.852,0:06:42.643
and we're left alone[br]to continue our journey.

0:06:42.678,0:06:45.683
All fairly sensible up to here, it seems.

0:06:45.718,0:06:48.240
It's aesthetic, we understand it.[br]It's not so crazy.

0:06:48.265,0:06:52.525
But what happens if we get[br]just a little more experimental?

0:06:52.568,0:06:56.116
Daniel Benmergui, Argentinian.[br]Works with narrative.

0:06:56.151,0:06:58.541
How do we tell a story?

0:06:58.576,0:07:02.384
In this instance, he takes up the theories[br]of the Russian constructivists.

0:07:02.409,0:07:04.250
He picked on the nobodies.

0:07:04.285,0:07:10.026
This storyteller won[br]the Nuovo Award in the IGF,

0:07:10.061,0:07:14.075
the Independent Games Festival, this year.

0:07:14.110,0:07:17.650
The prize par excellence[br]for experimentation in a video game.

0:07:17.685,0:07:22.205
In a comic-strip style,[br]he sets out a storytelling for us.

0:07:22.240,0:07:24.633
In this case, Adam has to die.

0:07:24.668,0:07:26.452
We have Adam and a tombstone.

0:07:26.487,0:07:28.832
If we put Adam in the first frame

0:07:28.867,0:07:32.531
and the tombstone in the second,[br]Adam goes 'kaput'.

0:07:32.566,0:07:37.566
Sometimes it is inspired by cinema,[br]such as Indecent Proposal, for example

0:07:37.601,0:07:40.657
Here we have a happy couple,[br]but if we add a treasure chest,

0:07:40.657,0:07:42.740
the couple will break up.

0:07:42.765,0:07:46.361
Our protragonist's decision is up to us:

0:07:46.396,0:07:48.476
whether he will choose love or money.

0:07:48.511,0:07:49.820
It's all experimentation.

0:07:49.855,0:07:53.875
It may or may not seem like art,[br]we'll see, but it is happening.

0:07:53.910,0:07:57.660
And art, as we said before,[br]can also be political.

0:07:57.695,0:08:01.190
Art can have a strong message to convey.

0:08:01.225,0:08:05.344
At one point, muralists in Mexico[br]went out into the streets;

0:08:05.379,0:08:07.831
they went out into the streets to talk[br]about politics,

0:08:07.856,0:08:10.488
to educate and make people[br]aware of what was happening.

0:08:10.513,0:08:14.607
Here, Gonzalo Frasca from Uruguay[br]presents us with September 12th,

0:08:14.642,0:08:17.526
inspired by the events of September 11th.

0:08:17.561,0:08:21.035
He puts us in a random town[br]in the Middle East.

0:08:21.070,0:08:24.486
Civilians walking around,[br]and some of them are armed.

0:08:24.521,0:08:28.185
A telescopic sight, and no objectives.[br]There are no rules.

0:08:28.220,0:08:30.163
It's down to us to decide what to do.

0:08:30.188,0:08:32.917
Our first instinct is to kill the bad guy.

0:08:32.952,0:08:35.284
But what happens is that we shoot

0:08:35.318,0:08:37.785
and in the missile blast, there[br]will be casualties

0:08:37.821,0:08:40.191
who did not have to be the ones to die.

0:08:40.226,0:08:43.207
The civilians will gather to mourn[br]their dead relatives

0:08:43.241,0:08:46.446
and they too will become terrorists.

0:08:46.481,0:08:49.409
Violence breeds violence, it's simple.

0:08:49.444,0:08:52.761
But being told this is not the same[br]as being fully aware,

0:08:52.796,0:08:56.245
as becoming responsible[br]for these actions ourselves.

0:08:56.280,0:09:00.411
'Serious games', games[br]which are related to social reality,

0:09:00.446,0:09:01.921
to what is happening to us.

0:09:01.946,0:09:04.306
Video gaming moving towards education,

0:09:04.341,0:09:08.386
video gaming as a tool to connect us[br]with the younger ones,

0:09:08.421,0:09:11.554
who are practically born[br]with joysticks in their hands these days.

0:09:11.579,0:09:16.102
Or, an experimental video game[br]developed in this case by a musician.

0:09:16.137,0:09:21.658
Deep Sea, a diving suit,[br]a gas mask which isolates us completely

0:09:21.693,0:09:24.838
from our surroundings,[br]and a pair of earphones.

0:09:24.873,0:09:26.530
We are at the bottom of the sea.

0:09:26.555,0:09:29.168
Our mission is to escape[br]from the savage beasts

0:09:29.203,0:09:30.745
which are pursuing us.

0:09:30.780,0:09:33.907
Our resources are a joystick[br]and the sounds we hear.

0:09:35.426,0:09:36.771
It's about the experience.

0:09:36.796,0:09:39.796
At one point when art[br]came out of the canvas,

0:09:39.821,0:09:42.390
it started to work with the body,[br]with emotions,

0:09:42.425,0:09:44.195
with feelings and sensations;

0:09:44.220,0:09:46.877
the 'performances' and the 'happenings'[br]began to appear.

0:09:46.902,0:09:49.717
Creating movement,[br]appealing to other sensitivities.

0:09:49.752,0:09:52.836
Marta Minujín is an icon over here,

0:09:52.871,0:09:55.192
you'll probably have heard of 'Mayhem',

0:09:55.227,0:09:58.479
where you would walk through[br]a kind of scenario where things happen.

0:09:58.504,0:10:01.138
It was a step beyond the visual.

0:10:01.173,0:10:03.957
It meant entering into the experience[br]with your whole body.

0:10:03.982,0:10:07.139
But we were still witnesses.[br]Here, we are protagonists.

0:10:07.174,0:10:10.461
On top of this, new possibilities arise

0:10:10.486,0:10:13.523
for people with sight problems,[br]for example.

0:10:13.558,0:10:16.010
The idea is simply to start working

0:10:16.045,0:10:18.586
with all these capacities we possess.

0:10:18.621,0:10:23.385
Finally, Pain Station,[br]developed by artists.

0:10:23.420,0:10:26.916
In their university graduation thesis

0:10:26.951,0:10:29.739
they come back to Pong,[br]one of the first video games.

0:10:29.774,0:10:32.535
A game of ping-pong.[br]You have your hands ready

0:10:32.570,0:10:35.417
to play table tennis on a tablet.

0:10:35.452,0:10:37.589
The problem is that[br]for every ball we miss,

0:10:37.624,0:10:40.375
for each shot we can't return,

0:10:40.410,0:10:44.454
the second hand placed on the board[br]will receive a punishment.

0:10:44.489,0:10:46.633
They get burned, they receive lashings.

0:10:46.668,0:10:50.784
This game is on display[br]in the museum of Berlin

0:10:50.819,0:10:54.548
as a contemporary development[br]of artists working with video games.

0:10:54.583,0:10:58.729
At the limits of what is ethical,[br]the limits of gaming, the limits of art.

0:10:58.764,0:11:02.134
But this is the idea,[br]to push the boundaries.

0:11:02.169,0:11:06.370
And it is important to bear in mind[br]that all of these proposals

0:11:06.405,0:11:08.455
are bringing back the value of games.

0:11:08.490,0:11:10.622
Something which perhaps we had put aside,

0:11:10.657,0:11:13.951
which we thought was for children,[br]but isn't for children.

0:11:13.986,0:11:16.061
Games are for grown-ups too.

0:11:16.096,0:11:17.270
Games can be serious.

0:11:17.305,0:11:20.386
Games laid the foundations[br]for all cultures and societies.

0:11:20.421,0:11:22.861
Games make us socialize,

0:11:22.896,0:11:24.858
they make us connect with others.

0:11:25.135,0:11:28.629
And games, on the artistic side,[br]can take certain liberties.

0:11:28.664,0:11:31.472
They can explore, they can experiment,[br]they can be risky,

0:11:31.507,0:11:35.558
irreverent, provide new experiences,[br]open doors.

0:11:35.593,0:11:37.059
That's what this is about.

0:11:37.094,0:11:40.262
To be attentive, not to sit tight[br]in our comfort zones,

0:11:40.297,0:11:42.304
yearning for bygone ages and better times

0:11:42.339,0:11:44.640
when we understood everything we saw.

0:11:44.675,0:11:46.739
Not to be stuck[br]like Woody Allen's character

0:11:46.774,0:11:49.791
in Midnight in Paris[br]dreaming about travelling through time.

0:11:49.826,0:11:53.910
Realizing that all around us,[br]change is starting to happen,

0:11:53.945,0:11:58.170
that it's up to us to wake up[br]this internal curiosity,

0:11:58.205,0:12:00.544
to change our viewpoint,[br]start seeing again.

0:12:00.579,0:12:03.722
That there are[br]fundamental changes happening,

0:12:03.747,0:12:06.935
that video games are one[br]of the possible new faces of this change.

0:12:06.960,0:12:10.547
And perhaps this is an easy way[br]to come closer to this idea.

0:12:10.582,0:12:13.089
I invite you all to return to play.

0:12:13.124,0:12:14.325
(Applause)