BY DR TONY MONDA
Apart from the core subjects of visual arts like painting, sculpture, installation and conceptual works, – since the advent of computers, art schools have included gaming and video art and design in their curriculums.
Recent debate in the international art world has been centred on the definition and validity of video games as an art form.
With the acceleration of technology one often wonders, will there come a time when we will visit the Tate Modern, Guggenheim or MoMa, etc., to view the best or most conceptually challenging video-games, Or watch and play ‘Grand Theft Auto’, Clash of the Titans, etc, in a gallery auditorium?
Most video games made in our time, especially post 2010, have a level of violence which makes one cringe, especially if one is of a sensitive disposition. Besides what cultural values do these violent Euro–American video games really espouse?
In contrast, a fellow Zimbabwean animator-artist and scholar, Solomon Maramba has created video animation in which African values are espoused and promoted. At a recent conference in Stuttgart, Germany, Maramba delivered a study paper on African Animation where he introduced our morally upright Zimbabwean content in animation videos to the international film world’s influential leaders and scholars – Perhaps this is the way to go.
Meanwhile the international Euro-centric computer gaming world is awash with criticism and controversy about the violent content in many video games which have inspired violent behaviour in today’s youth.
What is the longevity of a video game vis-a-vis a work of art like Leonardo De Vinci’s Mona Lisa or Venus De Milo or Pablo Picasso’s les Demoiselles D’Avignon or Guernica; or Salvador Dali’s Persistence of Time? All of which are still aesthetic and historical academic fields of research and study – long after the passing of their creators.
Anyone who has played a video game is aware of its addictiveness. But, coupled with this addiction, are the levels of violence depicted in the games today; which eventually and inevitably desensitize the senses to the extent that our children no longer appreciate the genius of hand-made work and the still-image of visual art. A further detrimental effect of video games is the sense of violence it instils in a child. An example is the reported case of a 6-year-old child who killed his 4-year-old brother in a mock imitation of a scene he had seen on a video game.
There are many socio-psychological and visual arts factors that come into play. Futurism as a visual art movement brought in dynamism and speed to art at about the same time that film animation was coming to the fore. However, today the world can actually experience art through virtual imaging – as with 2D and 3D cinema.
Earlier, in Zimbabwe and South Africa, when the 2D and 3D cinematic format was first introduced by cinema houses in Southern Africa, many of the patrons’ screaming children complained about the mind-altering effects this new visual format had on them.
At the time I wondered if cinema houses should not have introduced the 2- and 3D formats gradually to allow for the audiences visual and psychological adjustment to the experience. As it was, films that were genuinely intended for children, in due course turned into dreadful horror experiences due to the intensity of the 2D and 3D film formats. This goes to show the psychological power of virtual moving images.
For the visual artists it is important to realise that the development of the mass-market and the lucrative nature of products such as such as video-gaming may soon make some forms of visual art appear as an obsolete endeavour of the past centuries.
However, I repeat – what is the longevity of a video game vis-a-vis a work of art like the Leonardo’s Mona Lisa or Venus De Milo, or Picasso’s les Demoiselles D’Avignon or Guernica, and Dali’s Persistence of Time – all of which are still aesthetic pleasing to behold and attract millions of captivated audiences each year?
Over the next decades, artists who still work in the traditional media may either see the significance of their efforts radically changing in the ever-growing digital world, and even become obsolete, or, on the other side of the scale, see the eventual demise of gaming, due to the over-production of video games. Time will tell.
Mainstream Euro-American video gaming and film culture is based on an ideology of violence, money worship, cheap thrills, unsubstantiated self-imposed status, and of a victory over their victims. As such, African parents on the Continent and need to be aware that our children are vulnerable to the whims of fanatical video game designers and programmers. The games are not always innocent fun. The unique experience of animated gaming, the combination of synchronous sound and very graphic visualization can be harmful to young and impressionable minds and consciences.
Art is about preserving the humanities, not about conjuring cheap, violent thrills. It would be interesting to have the views and opinions of animators, visual artists, art critics, art lecturers, connoisseurs and curators on the notion of video games as works of Art. As African artists let us have your say – do these visually projected Euro-centric values erode the true virtues of African humanity – Hunhu/Ubuntu?
Let us shun the promotion of violence in the arts by creating wholesome Afrocentric games!
Dr. Tony Monda holds a PhD. in Art Theory and Philosophy and a DBA in Post- Colonial Art and Heritage Studies. tonym.MONDA@gmail.com
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