8 BIT: Art & Video Games & Frankenculture
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I went to see the premiere of 8 BIT last night and frankly, I’m not entirely sure what I got. 8 BIT bills itself as a documentary about art and video games, which it certainly is, but it covers more distinct territory than that. The focus falls on artists whose work comes from the raw material of video games: specifically, early video games and their hardware. As a film it isn’t always accessible to either the average gamer or the art crowd, which is good – like its subjects, 8 BIT seems to be about making something new out of ideas and components of the culture we may not think of as creative tools.
Take for instance the work of Cory Arcangel, one of the best artists featured. His piece, “Totally F*cked,” is a modded version of Super Mario Bros that when plugged into the NES produces an art piece just like the screen shot pictured above, only live. Totally f*cked, indeed.
Make the jump and follow me into 8BIT land.
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I went to see the premiere of 8 BIT last night and frankly, I’m not entirely sure what I got. 8 BIT bills itself as a documentary about art and video games, which it certainly is, but it covers more distinct territory than that. The focus falls on artists whose work comes from the raw material of video games: specifically, early video games and their hardware. As a film it isn’t always accessible to either the average gamer or the art crowd, which is good – like its subjects, 8 BIT seems to be about making something new out of ideas and components of the culture we may not think of as creative tools.
Take for instance the work of Cory Arcangel, one of the best artists featured. His piece, “Totally F*cked,” is a modded version of Super Mario Bros that when plugged into the NES produces an art piece just like the screen shot pictured above, only live. Totally f*cked, indeed.
Much of 8 Bit focuses on musical creations, which is either awesome or painful depending on your proclivities. I, for instance, discovered that I most definitely do not have a deep soul-level resonance with chiptune, or music written in in the emulated squawks and chirrups of ancient gaming devices that seemingly predate plastic. Some exceptions were Bit Shifter, who made some great sounds and was totally hot to boot, and the almost-subtle trip-hop vibe and unhinged vocals of Tree Wave. Others fared less well, like Glomag who looked and sounded like a Saturday Night Live parody of lame bullsh*t hiding behind an aging avant garde ethos. Some of the 8-bit-inspired art in the film is even stranger, such as the oddly cuddly antics of furry duo TeamTendo (our furry readers might love them, though…yes, we know who you are, you adorable little strangelings) and Bubblyfish.
Gorgeous, pretentious and probably brilliant artist/author Alex Galloway makes more than a few appearances, but to be honest I was too busy looking at his pretty face to listen to the words he was saying, which I was fairly sure sounded pompous and self-aggrandizing anyway.
The popular face of the film belongs to Village Voice contributor, New York Underground Film Festival godfather and all-around ubercritic Ed Halter, who holds things together with an intelligible narrative composed of video game history (which is deeper and more involved that you’d guess) and running commentary on both the emergence of video games as a significant aspect of our culture and, not unrelated, as an increasingly meaningful reservoir for creative expression.
Artist Tom Moody keeps it more accessible with some pragmatic commentary, while artist/scholar Mary Flanagan approaches the topic from a more theoretical level, which is incredibly helpful to an informed outsider but also frustrating simply because theory, especially when coupled with too much deconstructionism, can pretty much be death to art and creative thinking. Maybe that’s just the chip on my shoulder. Flanagan, at any rate, asks some really important questions about the impact of games and gaming technology on our culture and, therefore, on ourselves, and she seems eager to stress how important is it not to allow these questions to go unanswered. Peel away the temporary DIY art-trends and this moment with Mary Flanagan is the secret heart of 8 BIT.
The film spends a little too much time proving it knows it’s beyond modernism and postmodernism, which is both an easy out and obvious, and therefore boring. I would have liked a little more talk about what the creative movements going on in 8 BIT mean for the future of this strange crossroads between games, technology, and art, and a little less PoMo (or po-PoMo, I guess), but on the whole 8 BIT rocked my world. If you’re an art dude, a game girl, a culture maven, a theory freak, or just plain interested, you’ll be glad you saw it.
Now let’s just hope there’s a DVD release or something, so you can see it.
tiny dancer
Posted to on 12 October 2006
Other stuff like this: 8bit, bit shifter, chiptune, cory arcangel, ed halter, glomag, mary flanagan, moma, teamtendo, tom moody
