Sometimes people send me links about game art and say, "Hey Colette, you should post this since you're so into this stuff." For some reason, it never occured to me that a weekly column could be in order. This morning, a friend sent me an incredible link to the subject of today's column, and it clicked into place so exactly I felt like I was in Tetris. Welcome to Pixelbrushes: a series dedicated to the amazing art of video games and the people who create it.
Hit the jump for more.
[Thanks to Zack!]
This episode is dedicated to
Space Invaders, a one man multimedia project focused on marking different areas of the world with art. The
world map will show you examples of the project in action - both where its been and what areas are currently "in progress". This would be insane amazing all on its own, but in addition Invader creates what he calls "
indoor art" using mosaic bits and Rubik's cubes. Some of these are incredible -- especially the faces comprised of cube patterns. Check out the gallery for more.
How does Invader plan a city's invasion? Check out the Invasion Maps, a blow by blow guide of how the infiltration took place in each respective city. The website only shows a fraction of completed work, but more is available via Flicker. The Invader has hit 35 cities so far and shows no sign of slowing down (he claims not a week goes by without an "invasion").
All in all, a hell of an undertaking. I love the idea of the project - the artist seems really driven, and it's the kind of installation that takes dedication and creative thinking. It does seem to me more recently that there is a lot of retro game art out there, and I wonder if there can ever be too much of a good thing. What would you rather see -- a modern take on game art, or a retro one? Does it really matter, as long as the gaming culture is being paid homage to?
Contest:
6:31 PM on 04.29.2007
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Retro game art is distinct in that the games it's usually derived from are graphically primitive. The usual results of this are either the type of mosaic style pixel art this space invader chap produces or more conventional looking pieces. The appeal of pixel art is pretty understandable, I think. Apart from it being more accessible to the artist, who might have difficulty otherwise rendering things how they'd want them to look, there's a definite charm to the simplicity of it, and lots of interesting ways to produce the pixels themselves(the rubik's cube thing is awesome).
The other way of doing retro game art is to attempt to imagine details of characters and situations that would have been obscured by the inaccuracy of their low-res portrayals. Rather than simply trying to recreate what people are familiar with(as in with pixel art, or art inspired by more modern, complex games), the artist has the opportunity to impose their own ideas as to how things should appear, or the situations characters would be in. The appeal to the viewer is that of seeing interesting or amusing portrayals of belovéd characters.
But that's entirely supposition on my part. To be honest, I can take or leave game art. I mean, there are definitely plenty of game art pieces that I've thought were really good, but I think that their quality is independent of the game they're derived from, or else more akin to really great comic strips than "fine art". Games are best paid homage to by games. While I certainly won't balk at great pieces of game related art(the same way I'd have no trouble appreciating a piece of art inspired by a film), I don't feel it's a profoundly important artistic subculture.
HOLY SHIT
http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/3643/spaceinvadersga0.jpg
http://img239.imageshack.us/img239/3643/spaceinvadersga0.jpg[/img]
tags would be good.