Playful art | Maria Luján Oulton | TEDxRíodelaPlata
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0:00 - 0:04I'd like to ask you
to raise your hand if you believe -
0:04 - 0:07that the image behind me is a work of art.
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0:09 - 0:11There's not much room for doubt, is there?
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0:11 - 0:13What about this other one?
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0:13 - 0:17It could impress us more or less,
depending on our aesthetic tastes, -
0:17 - 0:20but nobody will be horrified by the sight
of a Mondrian in a museum. -
0:20 - 0:25What happens if I show you a urinal?
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0:25 - 0:26Here come the first doubts.
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0:26 - 0:28It's not just any urinal.
-
0:28 - 0:31'Fountain', presented by Duchamp
for entry into an art exhibition -
0:31 - 0:34where all works of art
were to be accepted. -
0:34 - 0:36And this one was left out.
-
0:36 - 0:39The other commissioners charged
with deciding what would be included -
0:39 - 0:41left it aside.
Duchamp gave up. -
0:41 - 0:45A conceptual, irreverent,
politically incorrect work of art. -
0:45 - 0:48Because sometimes art
can be all these things too. -
0:48 - 0:51What about this one?
-
0:51 - 0:56A box of washing powder,
and not even a real one. A replica. -
0:56 - 0:58But what if I told you it's a Warhol?
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0:58 - 1:00The faces are starting to change.
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1:00 - 1:01A name with value.
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1:01 - 1:05Another work of art,
a 20th-century avant-garde icon. -
1:05 - 1:09In this case, art which talks to us
about what is happening, -
1:09 - 1:13about commercial art
versus art of the elite. Why? -
1:13 - 1:15Because art isn't always pretty.
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1:15 - 1:17Art isn't always a canvas.
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1:17 - 1:20In fact, in its origins art
was much more than that. -
1:20 - 1:23Art was a ritual.
Art was politics, it was communication. -
1:23 - 1:28That's why art can sometimes be fleeting,
it can be brutal, -
1:28 - 1:30it can horrify us, like Marina Abramovic
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1:30 - 1:33and her 'Performances'
which seek to move us, -
1:33 - 1:35which seek to comment, to tell a story;
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1:35 - 1:39which are political, social
and at times religious declarations. -
1:39 - 1:44Or art can team up with science
and create a rabbit like Alba, -
1:44 - 1:48a fluorescent rabbit who sparked debate
over whether her true 'parent' -
1:48 - 1:52was the artist Eduardo Kac
or the laboratory which commissioned her. -
1:52 - 1:54Is this a breakthrough?
Is it a work of art? -
1:54 - 2:02With this in mind, who would say
that a picture like this could be art? -
2:02 - 2:06That maybe video gaming
is one of the new avant-garde art forms. -
2:06 - 2:08Just like Duchamp in his day.
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2:08 - 2:10Or like Warhol in his.
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2:10 - 2:14And it's not me who's saying this,
nor a group of fanaticized geeks -
2:14 - 2:17who play video games 24/7
-
2:17 - 2:19and who know all the tricks in the book.
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2:19 - 2:22No, this is something
that is happening worldwide. -
2:22 - 2:24And which is being validated
by institutions: -
2:24 - 2:27institutions of art and of technology;
-
2:27 - 2:28and museums, like the Smithsonian,
-
2:28 - 2:31which this year dedicated
a several-month long exhibition -
2:31 - 2:33to the history of video gaming,
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2:34 - 2:36the cultural influence of video gaming.
-
2:36 - 2:39The decision of which works
were to be included in the exhibition -
2:39 - 2:40went to the public themselves.
-
2:40 - 2:44Or, for example, a museum of technology
like the one in Berlin. -
2:44 - 2:48It has a wing dedicated
solely to video games. -
2:48 - 2:51From the first console up
to modern-day productions -
2:51 - 2:56made by artists
who work with gaming devices. -
2:56 - 2:58And why not festivals too?
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2:58 - 3:02Like ARS Electronica,
a festival which takes place in Austria -
3:02 - 3:05and which is characteristic
of art and technology. -
3:05 - 3:07It has a category called Interactive Art
-
3:07 - 3:10which for a while has been assigning
awards to video games. -
3:10 - 3:13Commercial video games,
independent video games, -
3:13 - 3:16devices created by artists.
-
3:16 - 3:18These are all different ways
in which the video game -
3:18 - 3:20can come to be considered as an art.
-
3:21 - 3:23I'm not saying that all of them
are art, but some are. -
3:23 - 3:26And it happens,
and it was inevitable that it would happen -
3:26 - 3:29because art is something unique to man.
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3:29 - 3:31Art is a way
we have of expressing ourselves, -
3:31 - 3:34of communicating,
of transmitting emotions. -
3:34 - 3:36Art keeps on changing with the ages;
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3:36 - 3:39with each society it uses different tools.
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3:39 - 3:42Technology was inevitable in this century
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3:42 - 3:46and video gaming
is one of the many faces it can assume. -
3:46 - 3:50And these are some
of the many faces behind these creations. -
3:50 - 3:53These people could be the next Warhols.
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3:53 - 3:55They are the ones who walk among us.
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3:55 - 4:00We are the ones who will say:
"Yes, this could be art", or "No", -
4:00 - 4:03and time will tell
if we were right or wrong. -
4:03 - 4:06I suggest we take a quick look
at six examples of video games -
4:07 - 4:09which are probably not quite Mona Lisas,
-
4:09 - 4:13or Warhol's Brillo Boxes,
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4:13 - 4:17but which are paving
the way for what is to come. -
4:17 - 4:21Perhaps the easiest art form
to liken it to is cinema. -
4:21 - 4:23The video game goes one step further,
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4:23 - 4:25from the seventh art to the eighth.
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4:25 - 4:27Now we have interactivity,
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4:27 - 4:29something which some branches of art
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4:29 - 4:31has been striving for since
it left the canvas. -
4:31 - 4:34To remove the other
from the place of the observer, -
4:34 - 4:36to hook them in,
to make them the protagonist. -
4:36 - 4:39By its very nature, video gaming
has all of this. -
4:39 - 4:42Take Assassin's Creed, for example:
a 'mainstream' video game -
4:42 - 4:45which could be outdone
by the more 'indie' ones -
4:45 - 4:47but which has a lot going on
behind it all. -
4:47 - 4:50It took three years of work,
500 people developing it, -
4:50 - 4:52departments dedicated to photography,
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4:52 - 4:54to character design, to narrative.
-
4:55 - 4:57Here, Renaissance Italy
has been reconstructed. -
4:57 - 4:59They worked with historians, architects,
-
4:59 - 5:02specialists in this era.
-
5:02 - 5:05It's the only method we have today
to explore these places. -
5:05 - 5:09A while ago there was an exhibition
in the Museum of Decorative Art -
5:09 - 5:11on paintings from that period.
-
5:11 - 5:16Line after interminable line
waiting for a glance into that time. -
5:16 - 5:20It's the same thing here.
We're being taken along for a journey -
5:20 - 5:23where we are the ones
who travel through the story. -
5:23 - 5:25We are the protagonists of this tale.
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5:25 - 5:30And just like Hollywood
has a flipside like Cannes festival -
5:30 - 5:33or Berlin's Golden Bear, with entries
which try to tell another story, -
5:33 - 5:36transmit another experience,
which have multiple meanings; -
5:36 - 5:38video games have that too,
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5:38 - 5:42with companies which present themselves
as purely artistic. -
5:42 - 5:46This is the case with That Game Company,
a Californian enterprise -
5:46 - 5:50which says it develops video games
which are like interactive poems. -
5:50 - 5:53This is its most recent work, Journey.
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5:53 - 5:56The journey of the hero,
present in every narrative. -
5:56 - 5:59Every book and every film
talks about this journey. -
5:59 - 6:01Perhaps a journey unique to each player.
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6:01 - 6:05We wake up in the desert,
alone in the vast emptiness -
6:05 - 6:08with nobody to keep us company,
and a light to follow. -
6:08 - 6:11In Journey, the meaning
will be different for every player. -
6:11 - 6:14You enter into a painting,
you enter into a poem. -
6:14 - 6:17You are the one
who walks among the verses. -
6:17 - 6:21And sometimes another character appears,
which is someone who is online -
6:21 - 6:25at that precise moment,
who is undertaking their own journey, -
6:25 - 6:26their own destiny,
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6:26 - 6:29and who connects with us through sound.
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6:30 - 6:31We don't have a familiar language,
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6:31 - 6:33we can't chat, we just emit sounds.
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6:33 - 6:36We sing, we communicate,
we keep each other company. -
6:36 - 6:40And when the other player disappears,
he takes away a little token... -
6:40 - 6:43and we're left alone
to continue our journey. -
6:43 - 6:46All fairly sensible up to here, it seems.
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6:46 - 6:48It's aesthetic, we understand it.
It's not so crazy. -
6:48 - 6:53But what happens if we get
just a little more experimental? -
6:53 - 6:56Daniel Benmergui, Argentinian.
Works with narrative. -
6:56 - 6:59How do we tell a story?
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6:59 - 7:02In this instance, he takes up the theories
of the Russian constructivists. -
7:02 - 7:04He picked on the nobodies.
-
7:04 - 7:10This storyteller won
the Nuovo Award in the IGF, -
7:10 - 7:14the Independent Games Festival, this year.
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7:14 - 7:18The prize par excellence
for experimentation in a video game. -
7:18 - 7:22In a comic-strip style,
he sets out a storytelling for us. -
7:22 - 7:25In this case, Adam has to die.
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7:25 - 7:26We have Adam and a tombstone.
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7:26 - 7:29If we put Adam in the first frame
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7:29 - 7:33and the tombstone in the second,
Adam goes 'kaput'. -
7:33 - 7:38Sometimes it is inspired by cinema,
such as Indecent Proposal, for example -
7:38 - 7:41Here we have a happy couple,
but if we add a treasure chest, -
7:41 - 7:43the couple will break up.
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7:43 - 7:46Our protragonist's decision is up to us:
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7:46 - 7:48whether he will choose love or money.
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7:49 - 7:50It's all experimentation.
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7:50 - 7:54It may or may not seem like art,
we'll see, but it is happening. -
7:54 - 7:58And art, as we said before,
can also be political. -
7:58 - 8:01Art can have a strong message to convey.
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8:01 - 8:05At one point, muralists in Mexico
went out into the streets; -
8:05 - 8:08they went out into the streets to talk
about politics, -
8:08 - 8:10to educate and make people
aware of what was happening. -
8:11 - 8:15Here, Gonzalo Frasca from Uruguay
presents us with September 12th, -
8:15 - 8:18inspired by the events of September 11th.
-
8:18 - 8:21He puts us in a random town
in the Middle East. -
8:21 - 8:24Civilians walking around,
and some of them are armed. -
8:25 - 8:28A telescopic sight, and no objectives.
There are no rules. -
8:28 - 8:30It's down to us to decide what to do.
-
8:30 - 8:33Our first instinct is to kill the bad guy.
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8:33 - 8:35But what happens is that we shoot
-
8:35 - 8:38and in the missile blast, there
will be casualties -
8:38 - 8:40who did not have to be the ones to die.
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8:40 - 8:43The civilians will gather to mourn
their dead relatives -
8:43 - 8:46and they too will become terrorists.
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8:46 - 8:49Violence breeds violence, it's simple.
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8:49 - 8:53But being told this is not the same
as being fully aware, -
8:53 - 8:56as becoming responsible
for these actions ourselves. -
8:56 - 9:00'Serious games', games
which are related to social reality, -
9:00 - 9:02to what is happening to us.
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9:02 - 9:04Video gaming moving towards education,
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9:04 - 9:08video gaming as a tool to connect us
with the younger ones, -
9:08 - 9:12who are practically born
with joysticks in their hands these days. -
9:12 - 9:16Or, an experimental video game
developed in this case by a musician. -
9:16 - 9:22Deep Sea, a diving suit,
a gas mask which isolates us completely -
9:22 - 9:25from our surroundings,
and a pair of earphones. -
9:25 - 9:27We are at the bottom of the sea.
-
9:27 - 9:29Our mission is to escape
from the savage beasts -
9:29 - 9:31which are pursuing us.
-
9:31 - 9:34Our resources are a joystick
and the sounds we hear. -
9:35 - 9:37It's about the experience.
-
9:37 - 9:40At one point when art
came out of the canvas, -
9:40 - 9:42it started to work with the body,
with emotions, -
9:42 - 9:44with feelings and sensations;
-
9:44 - 9:47the 'performances' and the 'happenings'
began to appear. -
9:47 - 9:50Creating movement,
appealing to other sensitivities. -
9:50 - 9:53Marta Minujín is an icon over here,
-
9:53 - 9:55you'll probably have heard of 'Mayhem',
-
9:55 - 9:58where you would walk through
a kind of scenario where things happen. -
9:59 - 10:01It was a step beyond the visual.
-
10:01 - 10:04It meant entering into the experience
with your whole body. -
10:04 - 10:07But we were still witnesses.
Here, we are protagonists. -
10:07 - 10:10On top of this, new possibilities arise
-
10:10 - 10:14for people with sight problems,
for example. -
10:14 - 10:16The idea is simply to start working
-
10:16 - 10:19with all these capacities we possess.
-
10:19 - 10:23Finally, Pain Station,
developed by artists. -
10:23 - 10:27In their university graduation thesis
-
10:27 - 10:30they come back to Pong,
one of the first video games. -
10:30 - 10:33A game of ping-pong.
You have your hands ready -
10:33 - 10:35to play table tennis on a tablet.
-
10:35 - 10:38The problem is that
for every ball we miss, -
10:38 - 10:40for each shot we can't return,
-
10:40 - 10:44the second hand placed on the board
will receive a punishment. -
10:44 - 10:47They get burned, they receive lashings.
-
10:47 - 10:51This game is on display
in the museum of Berlin -
10:51 - 10:55as a contemporary development
of artists working with video games. -
10:55 - 10:59At the limits of what is ethical,
the limits of gaming, the limits of art. -
10:59 - 11:02But this is the idea,
to push the boundaries. -
11:02 - 11:06And it is important to bear in mind
that all of these proposals -
11:06 - 11:08are bringing back the value of games.
-
11:08 - 11:11Something which perhaps we had put aside,
-
11:11 - 11:14which we thought was for children,
but isn't for children. -
11:14 - 11:16Games are for grown-ups too.
-
11:16 - 11:17Games can be serious.
-
11:17 - 11:20Games laid the foundations
for all cultures and societies. -
11:20 - 11:23Games make us socialize,
-
11:23 - 11:25they make us connect with others.
-
11:25 - 11:29And games, on the artistic side,
can take certain liberties. -
11:29 - 11:31They can explore, they can experiment,
they can be risky, -
11:32 - 11:36irreverent, provide new experiences,
open doors. -
11:36 - 11:37That's what this is about.
-
11:37 - 11:40To be attentive, not to sit tight
in our comfort zones, -
11:40 - 11:42yearning for bygone ages and better times
-
11:42 - 11:45when we understood everything we saw.
-
11:45 - 11:47Not to be stuck
like Woody Allen's character -
11:47 - 11:50in Midnight in Paris
dreaming about travelling through time. -
11:50 - 11:54Realizing that all around us,
change is starting to happen, -
11:54 - 11:58that it's up to us to wake up
this internal curiosity, -
11:58 - 12:01to change our viewpoint,
start seeing again. -
12:01 - 12:04That there are
fundamental changes happening, -
12:04 - 12:07that video games are one
of the possible new faces of this change. -
12:07 - 12:11And perhaps this is an easy way
to come closer to this idea. -
12:11 - 12:13I invite you all to return to play.
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12:13 - 12:14(Applause)
- Title:
- Playful art | Maria Luján Oulton | TEDxRíodelaPlata
- Speaker:
- Maria Lujan Oulton
- Description:
-
This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.
Maria Luján Oulton approaches videogames as new artistic expressions that hide a design, aesthetics and a purpose, and that communicate concepts. Her motivation may be found in her own words: “I find emotion in art, the goose bumps, the amazement or even the disgust one a piece of art is a true creation of the spirit.” - Video Language:
- Spanish
- Duration:
- 12:28
Helene Batt edited English subtitles for El arte en juego | Maria Luján Oulton | TEDxRíodelaPlata | ||
Maggie S (Amara staff) edited English subtitles for El arte en juego | Maria Luján Oulton | TEDxRíodelaPlata | ||
Amara Bot edited English subtitles for El arte en juego | Maria Luján Oulton | TEDxRíodelaPlata | ||
Amara Bot edited English subtitles for El arte en juego | Maria Luján Oulton | TEDxRíodelaPlata | ||
Amara Bot edited English subtitles for El arte en juego | Maria Luján Oulton | TEDxRíodelaPlata | ||
Amara Bot edited English subtitles for El arte en juego | Maria Luján Oulton | TEDxRíodelaPlata | ||
Amara Bot edited English subtitles for El arte en juego | Maria Luján Oulton | TEDxRíodelaPlata | ||
Amara Bot edited English subtitles for El arte en juego | Maria Luján Oulton | TEDxRíodelaPlata |