Games: The art of Making,
Bending and Breaking Rules.

Abstract

Game-based art has implied and explicit rules that artists expose and exploit for aesthetic and ideological purposes. The thesis develops this theory of interactivity from Noah Wardrip-Fruin’s concept of playable media, Domini Lopes’ strongly interactive art, Eric Zimmerman’s defined modes of interactivity, and Ian Bogost’s procedural rhetoric. The thesis explores the aesthetic and ideological in games from Dadaism, Surrealism, Fluxus, and contemporary artists Rafael Fajardo, Gabriel Orozco, Mary Flanagan, Francisco Ortega-Grimaldo, Wafaa Bilal, Natalie Bookchin, Voker Morawe, Timan Reiff, and Matthew Ritchie, and in the game-based and interactive works of new media artist Andrew Y. Ames.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
    1. Objective and Organization
    2. Motivation
  2. Theory
    1. Encoded Environments
    2. Modes of Interactivity
    3. Exposing and Exploiting Rules in Interactive Art
  3. Historical Precedents: The Game and Art
    1. Duchamp Dada and Chess
    2. Surrealist
    3. Fluxus
    4. Contemporary Artists
  4. Exhibits
    1. warDecks
    2. Well, Lets Just Ba-Bomb the Mushroom Kingdom, Too.
    3. Mano a Mano
    4. The Box Game
    5. Argument
    6. Rock Paper Scissors Bomb
    7. Last Resort
  5. Conclusion
  6. Bibliography
  7. Appendices
    Although the Dogma 2001 Challenge, Videogame Arts Manifesto, and the Realtime Art Manifesto are written specifically for video games many of the principles can and should apply to interactive art, both digital and analog.
    1. Dogma 2001 Challenge
    2. Video Game Arts Manifesto
    3. Realtime Art Manifesto