Games and Bugs Come Together as... Art?

[josemlopes]

I'm Commander Shepphard and this art is my favourite art in the citadel!

I lol'd.

To someone who doesnt know what they are looking at in these screenshots (ie, someone who doesnt really play games and isn't aware of glitches like these) I can see how it could become art. The example screenshot could become the centre of a debate about how the unfinished view represents society's lack of attention to matters beyond its immediate grasp. Or something similar.

However, because its just a screenshot of a glitch it doesnt have the same effect. Its no different in my eyes from those art installations where people put a crumpled shirt on the floor and call it art. To be short, "Without artistic merit".

Yup, the guy that took the picture didnt had that in mind so you cant really say that you see that and understand it. It is just a glitch, it isnt critesising anything and never will. That falls into speculation and over-thinking. Like you said, it doesnt have "artistic merit".

 

[shaboinkin]

I wouldn't call that picture a glitch or a bug. He's just in a part of the map that doesn't need to have those walls of the building rendered due to the player never actually passing through there. That's intentional. Why waste time loading up that part when you won't be going there?

 

[Tim Latshaw]

I guess it can be seen as a form of photography and I respect that. Just like real photography, not every shot is going to have much merit.

 

[Swaki]

hes selling framed copies -.-, for me art has always been something that inspired awe, in any sense, and i guess the imperfection of mankind's creations can be art aswell, but it still needs to be spectacular, the tower of pisa is probably the wildest known example of this, but bugs in a program, something i can easily find myself (if i buy the game at launch, one would hope it would be impossible after a month or two) dont fit my description.

i thought this idea of "intriguing simplistic" (lazy) art died out in the mid 90s, its to soon for a reboot.

Edit; i am a slow poster, i will stop half way through a post because i suddenly thought that brad bird wrote and directed a movie about a talking dog, turns out it was a cartoon series and apparently a good one at that, anyway, allot of people have posted their opinions since then saying that they liked it or found it to be inspiring, so im calling "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet" on it, had that picture not been called "the façade" but instead something less pretentious like "half-life 2 is a bug filled suck fest" or maybe just been on a blog about "hilarious" bugs would you still have found it to be art?

you can always over analyse anything into art, the "get down" meme is a prime example, it could be a symbol of how people caught in the middle of war or being face to face with their own mortality will always feel like they have no control over anything, in the right hands it could have been high art, instead it spawned a meme and a smaller dance craze.

 

[Exocet]

So wait,I've been an artist all these years by taking screenshots of hilarious bugs?
I'm going to release each of them,and I expect payment for every single one!

 

[icyneesan]

He could probably fill a entire Art Gallery with glitches just from Fallout New Vegas

 

[righthanded]

I don't get it, it must not be art.
Anyone could have done that, it must not be art.
This is art? it must not be art.

So many people are so fucking dumb; it's unreal. I guess I deserve to be reminded of this since I did click on the comment button.


Anyways. Interesting concept if you consider video-games are a form of self expression or an art-form itself.

 

[The_Echo]

I would accept that image as art if it were made by the 'artist.' However, since all he did was photograph a glitch he found--something just about anyone can do, right down to the pixel--I fail to find the art in it.

 

[SFR]

Uh, that's not really a glitch (the picture shown). Unless you mean he got outside the map through an exploit. He could have just nocliped, though, which would make it not a bug.

This does remind me of a few circumstances I created and then photographed in my most recent playthrough of HL2, though:

I actually managed to get to the top of that.

FWI, there's normally not wood walls and crates here.

 

[tlozoot]

I kind of want to buy a print of one of these. Would fill a gap on my wall. Anyone know how much?

 

[blankedboy]

Really, ANYTHING is art these days.

This post is art!

That is because Art can come from anything. It is objective.

You mean "subjective". It's the complete opposite, how could you miss that? oO

 

[SFR]

I would accept that image as art if it were made by the 'artist.' However, since all he did was photograph a glitch he found--something just about anyone can do, right down to the pixel--I fail to find the art in it.

Well, the same could be said about regular photography, I suppose.

 

[ComicsAreWeird]

The whole "i could do that" argument is silly. Art is not only about the end result, but also the thought process and the intention of the author. Those pictures convey emotion and the composition is good. Dadaism and Surrealism come to mind when i look at the shots.

So...is it art? Hell yes.

 

[Sporky111]

Glitches are cool, and his shots are good but - I could do this. Anyone could do this, and probably do it better than this guy. I'm not saying what he does isn't good as a hobby, but by no means does it deserve an exhibition. This is astoundingly stupid.

Then again, it's probably better than anything at Modern Art museums.

Well, most art isn't about "well, I could do that". It's about the fact that this artist saw the glitches, saw the potential, and went out of his way to capture it. It's about pushing boundaries and doing new things and making people think differently.

That being said, I'm not particularly fond of these shots aside from Facade 1 and Facade 2, and Junkyard 2010. There could have been more done with it, there could have been more interesting composition and subjects.

 

[The_Echo]

I would accept that image as art if it were made by the 'artist.' However, since all he did was photograph a glitch he found--something just about anyone can do, right down to the pixel--I fail to find the art in it.

Well, the same could be said about regular photography, I suppose.

True, but it's a bit more difficult. Where game photography takes place in a relatively small world (unless we're talking about Elder Scrolls here), normal photography can be taken from our whole bloody universe. Coupled with stuff like weather, natural lighting and so on, it makes it mighty difficult to snap the same picture twice in the real world.

 

[Zeekar]

I'm Commander Shepphard and this art is my favourite art in the citadel!

I lol'd.

To someone who doesnt know what they are looking at in these screenshots (ie, someone who doesnt really play games and isn't aware of glitches like these) I can see how it could become art. The example screenshot could become the centre of a debate about how the unfinished view represents society's lack of attention to matters beyond its immediate grasp. Or something similar.

However, because its just a screenshot of a glitch it doesnt have the same effect. Its no different in my eyes from those art installations where people put a crumpled shirt on the floor and call it art. To be short, "Without artistic merit".

Yup, the guy that took the picture didnt had that in mind so you cant really say that you see that and understand it. It is just a glitch, it isnt critesising anything and never will. That falls into speculation and over-thinking. Like you said, it doesnt have "artistic merit".

Art does not have to be saying anything to be art. Are photographs not art? There may be a difference between good art and poor art, but to say "no artistic merit" is another can of beans altogether. That this person had the vision to see screenshots of videogame glitches as beautiful and share them with us in the fashion that he did; that is what makes it art.

I, personally, don't really see the draw of painted bowls of fruit -- vice versa, I'd totally hang a print of behind the invisible barrier of Vice City on my wall. Just goes to show the extent of subjectivism in art.

 

[SFR]

I would accept that image as art if it were made by the 'artist.' However, since all he did was photograph a glitch he found--something just about anyone can do, right down to the pixel--I fail to find the art in it.

Well, the same could be said about regular photography, I suppose.

True, but it's a bit more difficult. Where game photography takes place in a relatively small world (unless we're talking about Elder Scrolls here), normal photography can be taken from our whole bloody universe. Coupled with stuff like weather, natural lighting and so on, it makes it mighty difficult to snap the same picture twice in the real world.

But the director makes each playthrough of L4D2 different each time! lol

 

[SadisticPretzel]

Seem when I read 'bugs' I thought he meant the creepy, alive kind...I should have remembered that I'm on a video game website.