I don’t know why but in the last week I’ve seen multiple people treat experimental art like vegetables you must eat before you can engage in discourse or interact with “the fun stuff” and I’m so tired of it. It’s boring and frequently comes from folks who don’t engage with the material anyway and just want to use it as a cudgel to beat on other things. This is mostly a video game blog but this happens with all mediums. It feels like it’s the only purpose this art serves as and it’s depressing not only as an artist (I will let myself be a little pretentious here) who wants people to look at my work and by other folks as well, but they’re depriving themselves of so much joy if they only see it through this lens.
When I see something that I haven’t seen done before in film, music, games, and other mediums I become so filled with a love of art that it drives me to seek out more. The first time I heard Wolf Eyes I thought “What is THAT? That’s not very good.” but I kept listening because there was something there that I found compelling. And then I kept coming back to it and every time I understood it a little better and why they were creating art this way. Every time a new batch of games from DOMINO CLUB is released, I see interactive fiction designed in a way I’ve never seen before. I used to be so condescending about LARPs, especially the experimental ones, before I realized that even if something wasn’t for me personally, it was really cool that people were inventing new ways to do storytelling. It’s like when Pere Ubu says they’re like a cup. I love seeing new approaches to things I thought I knew and want to see the cup from every angle.
It reminds me of when I first started crate digging for music, where every discovery made me feel like a kid with a bowl full of candy. I never want that feeling to end and will always be searching for the next thing that gives me that jolt of energy. I cringe sometimes when people use the word “fun” to describe art, since art is not always fun, but I guess I will be a bit cringe and say that it is fun to always be searching for folks taking big swings with their art. It doesn’t always land for me but when it does I feel the need to tell everyone about the brilliant thing I just saw.
If that doesn’t interest someone, that’s fine too. I’m not always in that mood for that either and maybe I just want to watch some old Doctor Who, but I don’t get why someone would pretend to be interested in it only when they can beat on something else and can’t be appreciated as it’s own standalone thing. Just don’t engage with it at all if that’s the case. I mean, I’m not above wanting the numbers and if you want to play through all of my stuff, then go ahead. But there’s no need to bring it up only in the context of some video game discourse.
Anyway, a bunch of critics on Bluesky have said to blog stuff like this out instead of just posting, which is convenient since it’s something I’ve been doing for experimental games for the last few years anyway.