When I talk about art I mean something very specific. I reject the modernist tendency to simply broaden the concept of art to include just about everything. I also reject a lot of modernist art as being just jokes, or the works of charlatans.

I enjoy art, and I find it important that art is made. But I don’t need it to be the only thing in the world. I like to be entertained as well. And I don’t think entertainment needs to be considered art to be respected. It deserves respect in its own way. Art is something else.

When I am making art, I feel like a scientist. I am exploring. Exploring a subject. And the terrain where I do my explorations is my soul. Not because I think my person is important in the art work. But because my body is the thing I have at my disposal to explore the cosmos, being, existence.

My body is not a neutral tool, like a telescope or a microscope. In fact, the way in which my body responds to stimuli is the most important source of data that informs my work. Of course, “the way my body responds to stimuli” is everything. It is the only thing that exists. Or that we know that exists. Things that we do not perceive do not exist.

The exploration that the creation of art is, then, involves minute probing for unusual, or otherwise remarkable perceptions. Asking the question How do I respond to this? And then asking the question again No, how do I really respond to this?. Until a phenomenon is discovered that reveals something. Or that has the potential to reveal something.

Art is a way to deeper understand reality. A way not encumbered by the rules that slow down science. An artist can explore much further and much deeper, much faster, following intuition. And the results of the research don’t need to be finished, or even analyzed, because the viewer always continues the exploration when interacting with the work.

Art is also hard work. And a lot of it is just getting things done, technical things, craft things. Only a part of the work involves the deep exploration described above. It’s an essential part, and one that sets art apart from everything else for me. But it would not be bearable to do this for extended periods of time. Much like the experience of artistic beauty, does it need to happen in small doses. Too much and I faint.

Following the logic from the previous post, I need to conclude that artistic games will always be slow and contain very minimal (inter)activity. Which is not entirely dissimilar to the situation in other media in which both entertainment and art are created. Rock and roll tends to be active and exciting. Classical music calm and complex. Action movies are fast and clear. Art films are slow and confusing. Adventure books and comic strips are spectacular and engaging. Literature and poetry are often modest and a bit alienating.

Obviously we can all enjoy both. In fact, art, since it requires such an effort, is often the least attractive option to pass some leisure time. As a result, we might actually spend more time with entertainment. Yet it is the art that matters most and makes the deepest impressions and makes us who we are. If this applies to most, then it follows that we need a lot more entertainment than art.

But I do feel that the entertainment needs the art in any medium. If only to explore and thus rejuvenate and expand. Even if nobody in the public would see the art directly, they would witness its indirect effects in entertainment. Unless even the creators of such entertainment reject the art. Then the medium atrophies.

Luckily sensible people make room in their lives for both. I can’t imagine living on this planet without experiencing art once in a while. That seems like a waste of a life time.

Elle est toujours au bord de ne pas écrire, elle est toujours sur le point de tout quitter, et les mots et la vie.
—Yann Andréa, Cet amour-là

I’m starting to believe that some critics from outside of the game industry were onto something when they intuited that videogames couldn’t really be art because of their interactivity. They felt that a certain passivity was required for that special art effect to take place. From experience, I cannot but confirm this. But this passivity doesn’t exclude interactivity as such. What we really need is time.

I have never felt that deeply moving aesthetic joy by casually passing by a work of art hanging on the wall. Or by listening to a piece of music while engaged in another absorbing activity. I need to calm down, slow down, take my time and concentrate. Only then does the art work release its magic.

There’s a lot of moments in Bientôt l’été when nothing happens. You’re just walking. Or sometimes just standing or sitting. But during this time of physical passivity, I feel my brain and heart working. They are exploring the work and being absorbed by it, in a manner that does not happen while being active, but that does linger for quite a while after the moment of passivity.

The problem of the outside critics is not that the interactivity as such is preventing them from being moved by the videogame. It’s that the design of the game does not allow them any time to take it all in, to process what is happening, to stretch out their emotional antennas and sense the atmosphere. This is especially problematic for people who are not used to playing games, for whom even the simplest controls require attention.

To some extent, this is a design mistake. At least in so far as the designer was hoping to provoke this deep artistic pleasure. There is an explicit assumption in the game community that the art effect of a game should be generated by the interactivity, by the game design, by the active engagement with the game’s mechanics and rule sets. Maybe this works for very experienced players. Probably because, through their high skill level, the engagement with the mechanical level does not require all their concentration.

A lot of the joy that art gives me comes from observing my own reactions to the piece. To wonder about why I feel this way or that when looking or listening to this or that, I need time. Time when I do nothing. Time to allow the emotions and thoughts to grow and wash over me, like the waves on a beach.