RealtimeArtManifesto

ElegantMedia

RAM.pdf

Abstract

1. Realtime 3D is a medium for artistic expression.
   Games are not the only thing you can make with it. And modification of commercial games is not the only option accessible to artists.
   Realtime 3D is the most remarkable new creative technology since oil on canvas. It is much too important to remain in the hands of toy makers and propaganda machines. We need to rip the technology out of their greedy claws and put them to shame by producing the most stunning art to grace this planet so far.
   (And claim the name “game” for what we do even if it is inappropriate.)
   
2. Be an author.
   Do not hide behind the freedom of the user to ignore your responsibility as a creator. This only ends in confirming cliches.
   Do not design in board room meetings or give marketeers creative power. Your work needs to come from a singular vision and be driven by a personal passion. Do not delegate direction jobs. Be a dictator.
   Ignore the critics and the fanboys. Make work for your audience instead.
   Embrace the ambiguity that the realtime medium excells in. Leave interpretation open where appropriate but keep the user focused and immersed the worlds that you create.
   
3. Create a total experience.
   All elements serve the realisation of the piece as a whole. Models, textures, sound, interaction, environment, atmosphere, drama, story, programming are all equally important.
   Do not rely on static renderings. Everything happens in real time. The visuals as well as the logic.
   Create multi-sensorial experiences. Simulate sensorial sensations for which output hardware does not exist (yet).
   Make the experience feel real (it does not need to look real). Do not imitate other media but develop an aesthetic style that is unique.
   Make the activity that the user spends most time doing the most interesting one in the game.
   
4. Embed the user in the environment.
   The user is not disembodied in virtual space. But takes the body into the experience. The avatar is not a neutral vessel but allows the user to navigate not only through the virtual space but also through the narrative content. Interaction is the link between the user and the piece. Provide for references (both conceptual and sensorial) to connect the user to the environment. Reject the body-mind duality. The user is the center of the experience. Think “architecture”, not “film”.
   
5. Reject dehumanisation: tell stories.
   Stories ground people in culture, stimulate their imagination, teach them about themselves and connect them with each other. Stories are a vital element of society.
   Embrace non-linearity. Let go of the idea of plot. Realtime is non-linear. Tell the story through interaction. Do not use in-game movies or other non-realtime devices to tell the story. Do not create a “drama manager”: let go of plot! Plot is not compatible with realtime. Think “poetry”, not “prose”.
   
6. Interactivity wants to be free.
   Don’t make games. The rule-based structure and competitive elements of traditional game design stand in the way of expressiveness. And often, ironically, rules get in the way of playfulness (required for an artistic experience!).
   Express yourself through interactivity. Interactivity is the one unique element of the realtime medium. The one thing that no other medium can do better. It should be at the center of your creation.
   
7. Don’t make modern art.
   Modern art tends to be ironical, cynical, self referential, afraid of beauty, afraid of meaning, afraid of technology, anti-artistry. Furthermore contemporary art is a marginal niche. The audience is elsewhere. Go to them rather then expecting them to come to the museum. Contemporary art is a genre, a format: think for yourself instead!
   (If you have to, make art games and not game art.)
   
8. Reject conceptualism.
   Make art for people, not for documentation. Make art to experience and not to read about. Use the language of your medium to communicate all there is to know. The user should never be required to read a description or a manual.
   
9. Embrace technology.
   Don’t be afraid of technology, and least of all, don’t make art about this fear. It’s futile. Technology is not nature. Technology is not god. It’s a thing. Grab it. Use it.
   Software is infinitely reproducable and easy to distribute. Reject the notion of scarcity. Embrace the abundance that the digital allows for. The uniqueness of realtime is in the experience. Cut out the middle man: deliver your productions directly to the users. Do not rely on galleries, museums, festivals or publishers.
   
10. Develop a punk economy.
    Don’t shy away from competition with commercial developers. Your work offers something that theirs does not: originality of design, depth of content, alternative aesthetics. Don’t worry about the polish too much. Get the big picture right. Embrace punk aesthetics. Make short and intense games. Think “haiku”, not “epic”.
    Do not rely on arts funding exclusively. Sell your work directly to your audience. And use alternative distribution methods that do not require enormous sales figures to break even.
    

Outline

Premise : That real-time 3d interactives can be an art form unto themselves. What Real-Time Art is and what it could be.

• we do not render!
• what we make are not necessarily games.
• not about the individual elements but the total effect of the environment. the sum of its parts. In the end it is judged by the quality of authorship not by its individual elements.
  • models → textures → sound → interaction design → environment design (atmosphere/drama/story) → programming
    all of this without hierarchy. no element can be singled out. all equally important.
  • the idea is to create a (simulated) multi-sensorial experience (not only a picture, or only a game, or only a soundtrack); interaction is pivotal to “put the user in the environment”; the user is not disembodied but is provided with a device (similar to a diving suit or astronout’s outfit) which allow him or or to visit a place that would otherwise not be accessible.
    • You bring your body with you to this place, or at least your memories of it as they are stored in your brain.
      • Strictly speaking, our output media only allow for the reproduction of visuals and sound. But real-time interaction and processing can help us to achieve simulation of touch, smell and taste as well, through visuals and sound.
        • In fact, force feedback already provides for a way to communicate with touch. And as soon as smell and taste can be reproduced, those media can quickly be incorporated into our technology.
    • This place is not necessarily alien. It can deal with any subject.
      • On the contrary: providing references (both conceptual and sensorial) provides for links between the environment and the user. Since interaction is pivotal, these links are very important.
    • It should feel real, not necessarily look it.
      • pre-modern painting is a good example: you would not mistake it for a photograph but still the objects sem like you can touch them, feel them; much more so than on any photograph
• collaborative work process and Authorship: there must be an author.
• develop a unique language for the real-time 3D medium and not fall in MacLuhan’s trap (which predestines the content of every new medium to be the old medium)
  • imitate life and not photography, drawings, comic strips or even old school games
  • look at renaissance: they did not imitate cave painting but they wanted to simulate life
  • realism does not equal photo-realism!
    • in a multisensory medium, realism is a multisensory experience: it has to feel real
      

position on storytelling :

• humans need stories: reject dehumanisation
  • stimulates imagination (and therefore improves the capability to change)
  • grounds people in their culture (and removes the alienation that causes aggression)
  • teaches people about themselves
  • connects humans with each other
• do not reject stortelling because it is not straightforward
  • embrace the ambiuguity: it is enriching
  • the realtime medium allows for telling stories that canot be told in any other language
• realtime is not suitable for linear stories: embrace non-linear!
  • reject plot: realtime is a poetic technology
  • populate the virtual world with narrative elements that allow the player to make up his or her own story
  • the bulk of your story should be told in realtime, through interaction
    • do not use in-game movies or other devices (exclusively, to tell your story)
    • do not fall back on a machine to create plot on the fly: let go of plot, plot is not compatible with realtime
  • interactivity design rule number one: the thing you do most in the game, should be the thing that is most interesting to do
• The quarrel between ludologists and narratologists in academic circles is besides the point because they both start from the assumption that story implies plot and thus linearity.
  • The narratologists are wrong in thinking they have to squeeze the realtime medium into a linear frame.
  • And the ludologists are wrong when they say that telling stories in games is impossible or irrelevant, that all that matters is “gameplay”.
    • Just imagine a hack and slash game where a gardener pouring water on the flowers, instead of a brave knight slaying down the evil foes with his gigantic sword: the gameplay would be exactly the same but would the experience?
  • The narratologist are right in saying that humans need stories and will find stories in everything.
  • The ludologists are right in saying that all the matters is gameplay, if you extend gameplay to mean all interaction in the game. Because it is through this interaction that the realtime medium will tell its stories.
    

relation with other art-game projects and machinima: but its not that
We are advocating making art-games, not game-art.
Game art is just modern art: ironical, cynical, afraid of beauty, afraid of meaning

• Adam Killer - http://www.tmpspace.com/ak_1.html
• Jodi
• art > technology
  • technology-based art should not be about technology: it should be about life, death and the human condition
• embrace technology, make it yours
  • Don’t be afraid of technology, and least of all, don’t make art about this fear. It’s futile. Technology is not nature. Technology is not god. It’s a thing. Grab it. Use it.
  • use machines to make art for humans, not vice versa
• don’t parody things that are better than you
  • parodies of commercial games are ridiculous if their technology, craft and artistry do not match up with the original
    • don’t settle yourself in the position of the underdog: surpass them! go over their heads! dominate them! show them how it’s done!
      

relation with commercial games: artistry vs. design, artistry + design. designing products vs. designing experiences.
Games are conservative, both in design as in mentality. They eschew authorship, pretending to offer the player a neutral vessel. But the refusal to author results in a mimicing of generally accepted notions, of television and other mass media. Banality.

• rejection of pure commercialism
• individual elements of games made with craft and care are artistic products but the overall effect is not art.
• some commercal games have artistic moments, but we need to go further
  • step one: drop the requirement of making a game
    • the game structure of rules and competition stand in the way of expressiveness
    • interactivity wants to be free
• “game” stands in the way of “play”
  

position within (and without) modern art in general: but its not that.

• putting the artistry back in Art.
• rejection of conceptualism
  • make art for people, not for documentation
  • make art to experience and not art to read about
  • use the language of your work to communicate its content
    • the audience should never be required to read the description, your work should cmmunicate all that is required to understand it
• we make software!
  • infinite reproducability (there is no original; uniqueness is not required; the uniqueness is in the experience)
  • distribution is easy through the internet or portable data containers (no elitism; no museums, galleries, or festivals required; from creator to audience without mediation -and from the audience back to the creator, through the same distribution media)
• contemporary art is a marginal niche
  • the audience is elsewhere: go to them rather than expecting them to come to the museum
• contemporary art is a style, a genre, a format, more influenced by fashion trends than choice
  • think for yourself!
    

position on production & distribution:

• sell your product
  • don’t rely on government support or the arts world (galleries, museums, festivals)
  • communicate with your audience directly: cut out the middle man
    • let the audience support your work
• embrace a punk aesthetic
  • you will never have equal amounts of resources as the commercial developers do, yet the audience will compare your product to theirs
    • make sure you have something to offer that they do not
      • originality of design
      • depth of content
      • alternative aesthetics
    • increase density, reduce volume (or something like that -Ueda)
      • make short and intense games:
        • think haiku, not epic
        • think poetry, not prose
    • use alternative distribution methods that don’t require huge sales numbers to break even
      • self-publishing, digital distribution
      • avoid retail and traditional games publisher because together that can take up to a 95% cut, requiring you to sell hundreds of thouseands of copies to make your money back
    • where possible, use non-commercial arts funding and distribute your game for free
      • but don’t become to dependant on government funding: it is unreliable
        

about our work: 8, The Endless Forest, 144, Drama Princess, Het Appartement

More

Added after writing the 10 points summary of the “Abstract”.

• The situation is the story.
  • Choose your characters and environment carefully so that the situation immediately triggers narrative associations in the mind of the user.