Action Morphs Into Art

A vocal clique of academics, curators and critics is asking whether digital muscleman Duke Nukem deserves the same study and reverence as, say, a Degas sculpture.

The movement has given birth to college classes deconstructing the symbolism in digital dollhouses such as "The Sims," academic papers exploring the "aporia and epiphany" in shoot-'em-up games like "Doom," and exhibits at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

"Games are a powerful, artistic medium just now coming to maturity," said Rene de Guzman, visual arts curator for the Yerba Buena Center. Together with Stanford University, the gallery is hosting an exhibit called "Bang the Machine: Computer Gaming Art and Artifacts" that runs through April 4.

"They're a form of interactive storytelling," De Guzman said. "There's performance involved when you play the game. And they obviously have powerful visual elements. I think some games are, frankly, very beautiful."

It is a sensibility that strikes some in the game world as off the wall.

"Trying to strap meaning onto entertainment sometimes can be ridiculous," said Rand Miller, chief executive of Cyan Worlds Inc., a game development studio in Spokane, Wash., and co-creator of "Myst," a visually arresting game that set new standards for artistry. "When I see a magic show in Vegas, the last thing I want is a silly attempt to attach deeper meaning."

But scholars say video games are an emerging art form, whether their creators recognize it or not.

"There were lots of filmmakers in the early years who also felt that what they were doing wasn't art, that it was just entertainment," said Chris Swain, who teaches game design at USC's School of Cinema-Television, which offers a master of fine arts degree in game studies. "Over time, film became legitimized as an artistic medium because there were people who wanted to push things forward. The same will happen with games."

Until the mid-1990s, video games were relatively crude diversions. Graphics were blocky and clunky. Music was little more than repetitive ditties of pings and beeps. Plots were simple: Shoot the aliens, eat the ghosts. The focus was on high scores, not high art.