An Open Field: Informal and Anti-Formal Approaches to Videogame Art History

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dc.contributor.advisorAdler, Daniel A.
dc.contributor.authorBailey, Andrew Remington
dc.date.accessioned2021-11-15T15:52:34Z
dc.date.available2021-11-15T15:52:34Z
dc.date.copyright2021-08
dc.date.issued2021-11-15
dc.date.updated2021-11-15T15:52:34Z
dc.degree.disciplineArt History and Visual Culture
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThe last two decades have seen the emergence and formalization of game studies as an academic discipline as well as a repeating cycle of debates over videogames legitimacy as an artistic medium. Using a speculative conceptual framework assembled from art history, media studies, and game studies scholarship, this dissertation investigates the ways that formalist analysis and institutional formalization have acted to influence the way that videogames have been created, presented, and discussed as art objects. As videogame art exhibitions have become increasingly common over the last twenty years, so too have the debates over best practices for videogame curation, collection, archiving, and preservation. The central question of this dissertation is not how videogames have been defined as art, but rather how these kinds of definitions have specifically impacted the way that videogame artists and curators choose to orient their practices. In order to unpack the ontologies and aesthetics of contemporary videogame art, it is necessary to examine particular instances of its production and distribution in a variety of commercial and institutional contexts. This dissertation focuses on a collection of game art, art games, and videogame art exhibitions that were all produced between 2010 and 2020. The project is organized into a series of case study chapters that include the work of Bennet Foddy and Cory Arcangel within the context of failure and trash games; the autobiographical work of Angela Washko and Nina Freeman through the lens of mixed realism; the work of David OReilly and Ian Cheng as examples of lively, self-playing videogame art; and finally, Marie Foulstons recent eclectic work as a videogame art curator. Each of these case studies is used as a counterexample to productively disorient previous definitions of videogame form and to argue for a more explicitly fluid and mutable reconfiguration of the art history of videogames.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/38769
dc.languageen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectFine arts
dc.subject.keywordsVideogame art
dc.subject.keywordsGame art
dc.subject.keywordsArt games
dc.subject.keywordsArtist's games
dc.subject.keywordsExperimental game design
dc.subject.keywordsIndie games
dc.subject.keywordsGame history
dc.subject.keywordsVideogame history
dc.subject.keywordsMedia archeology
dc.subject.keywordsGame studies
dc.subject.keywordsFormalism
dc.subject.keywordsAnti-formalism
dc.subject.keywordsCory Arcangel
dc.subject.keywordsBennett Foddy
dc.subject.keywordsFailure
dc.subject.keywordsTrash games
dc.subject.keywordsPlayability
dc.subject.keywordsPlay
dc.subject.keywordsAngela Washko
dc.subject.keywordsNina Freeman
dc.subject.keywordsMixed realism
dc.subject.keywordsAutobiographical art
dc.subject.keywordsMagic circle
dc.subject.keywordsIan Cheng
dc.subject.keywordsDavid OReilly
dc.subject.keywordsWorlding
dc.subject.keywordsMesocosms
dc.subject.keywordsMultistability
dc.subject.keywordsPlayerless games
dc.subject.keywordsSelf-playing games
dc.subject.keywordsMarie Foulston
dc.subject.keywordsVideogame curation
dc.subject.keywordsVideogame art exhibitions
dc.subject.keywordsDigital art
dc.subject.keywordsPostdigital art
dc.subject.keywordsNew media art
dc.subject.keywordsInternet art
dc.subject.keywordsPost-internet art
dc.subject.keywordsMuseums
dc.subject.keywordsGalleries
dc.titleAn Open Field: Informal and Anti-Formal Approaches to Videogame Art History
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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