Video Games as Art

Video Games as Art

Topic:   Video games as an art form

Specific Purpose:   To inform my audience why video games are an art form


I.                     Introduction:

A. Attention Device: Are videogames an art form? The debate of this question can be lively, but it's not unique. The same debate has raged in recent history with the pop art paintings of Andy Warhol and with the birth of rock and roll music. The debate stems in part from the difficulty of defining art; people hold passionate opinions and subscribe to a wide range of theories. These opinions and theories are often challenged when a new medium or technique appears, and people need reevaluate their personal and preexisting definitions of art.
B. Tie to the Audience:   I won't attempt to define art for you.
C. Thesis/Preview
I’d like to discuss video games by juxtaposing contemporary video games with some traditional art masterpieces and illustrating how the evolution of videogames as a creative medium mirrors the growth and maturation of motion pictures.
 
Transition: Videogames can share many common characteristics with art masterpieces.

II.                 Body

Main Point 1: Self-expression is probably the most universally accepted characteristic of the fine arts.
A. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
1. A leading postimpressionist artist whose paintings, lithography, and posters contributed much to the development of Art Nouveau in the 1890s.
2. vibrantly depicted the seedier underground nightlife of music halls, cabarets, and brothels, specifically the infamous Moulin Rouge, in Montmartre, Paris in the 1890s
3. In his paintings he was giving his audience a voyeuristic glimpse of places where he hung out.
4. Through these works he was letting people know how he viewed his own social status and the types of people he associated with.
 
B. Shigeru Miyamoto
1. Japanese video game designer who is called “the Walt Disney of Electronic Gaming” by game designer Will Wright, in a November 2006 issue...