Art for amateurs.

Modernist fine art has succeeded in chasing away most of the audience. To the point when today, art is considered by most to be stuffy, elitist, hypocritical, incomprehensible, arrogant, meaningless, etc. This doesn’t mean that people don’t still need art or enjoy an artistic experience. They just get their fix elsewhere. In cinema, in comics, in videogames. Many people are true art amateurs (in the sense of art lovers) without perhaps even being aware of it.

In a way it’s easier to make (modern) art. Even for people like me, critical of contemporary fine arts. Because art world residents are still well educated and aesthetically open-minded and even hungry for experiments, novelty, etc. It’s a bit like making work for your family. You can make a lot of assumptions about shared knowledge. And if people lack the knowledge, they will blame themselves for not having read this or the other philosopher rather than the art for being obscure.

Not so in videogames. Gamers tend to be quite intelligent, and often even sensitive, but most of them lack any sort of education or experience in culture and the arts. As a result, it is very difficult to move many of them with a piece that is rather specific or very subtle. Gamers are quite capable of experiencing deep aesthetic emotions during play but only when the game hits them over the head with the proverbial hammer. The content of the work needs to be simple and general and the delivery clear and unambiguous. Or their emotional connection with the game will dwindle.

That is the great challenge for artists using a popular medium.

Of course, one could say “to hell with the audience” and make work in the modernist tradition. The problem with that, however, is that most people who are into modern art don’t give a damn about videogames. And so your precious, subtle piece of art will cater to zero audience. Only gamers play games.

This is the situation: we are making art for amateurs. And I really suck at it.
I appreciate the pressure to make clear aesthetic statements. But I find it very difficult to give in to the expectations of simplicity in terms of content. I have no interest in making broad statements about the human condition or telling the ancient story again of the-feeble-solitary-creature-who-defeats-all-obstacles-against-all-odds-and-emerges-victorious-and-celebrated. I want to explore the less obvious aspects of our wonderful existence on this planet, point out things that we might not have noticed we have in common yet, celebrate the beauty of something we had not considered that way before, etc.

And with every step away from The Big Story, I see people getting off my bus. And I wonder where will I be driving this time. How many people will be left at the end of the ride? How far can I take you?