Q: Can you describe
the process of making the game?
A: Many of the 3D games today are shipped with a level editor, where you
easily can design your own game environments. The editor that we used
is called WorldCraft and is similar to a CAD program for architects. The
architecture of the museum was represented from drawings. Artworks, walls,
floors and other significant details were documented and from that we
made our own textures for the game. We decided to keep the original framework
and logic of the game, for example the Artificial Intelligence of the
monsters, even though it is possible to change all parameters of the game.
Q: What programs did you use when making the museum?
A: WorldCraft, the level editor for Half-Life, and Photoshop to make the
textures to the level.
Q: You have done several other computer game museums, can you tell
us more about them?
A: The first museum what we represented was the Arken Museum of Modern
Art in Copenhagen, 1996. We were invited to a big Nordic exhibition, The
Scream, where we were asked to show our Web project Join Hands but we
didn´t find any sense in showing an Internet piece in a museum.
Since the museum was recently built and had a somewhat superficial architecture.
We thought it interesting to do something that dealt with the whole idea
of the exhibition space. The interior had a lot of fake details, like
big metal panels and doors. This fake hi-tech style corresponded a lot
to the computer game aesthetics. When we found the game Duke Nukem3D which
had a level editor, we decided to transform the actual space into a game
environment. Later in spring 1997 we were invited to the show Funny Vs
Bizarre at The Contemporary Art Center of Vilnius, where we did a similar
work based on the 1968 Soviet architecture of the art center with its
significant floor mosaic textures.
Q: What´s your relation to the architecture of the museums that
you have worked with?
A: After spending more time in the virtual museum than the real one, we
know every square meter of the space as a game environment. When we visit
the real museum it becomes surreal, as if it was a replica of the game.
The appearance of the real museum makes us sick with all its complex details.
Q: Wouldn´t it be a good idea to make the monsters look like
curators and critics?
A: It´s important for us to keep a simplicity in the concept: the
Museum versus The Game. And since you mentioned this we guess you already
have this metaphor in mind when you are playing or looking at the piece
as it is. This we guess that you already have this metaphor in mind when
you are playing or looking at the piece as it is.
Q: The computer game contains a lot of explicit violence, how do you relate
to this?
A: Looking at art is always connected with anger and frustration, the
idea of destroying can be very pleasurable. The moral aspect of the game
can not be isolated from the violent reality we are living in. The development
of computer game technology is moving towards more realism, interaction
and complexity. Hereby they will of course affect us more.
Q: In 1995 you made Join Hands, one of the first art projects on the
Internet in Sweden. Is it true that it was censored?
A: Well, it was censored by the server administrators who thought that
parts of the content could be read as child pornography. Join Hands, including
the whole Art Node site who hosted our project, was shut down without
notice. The administrators demanded that Join Hands was removed before
Art Node could have their site running again. We simply moved the project
to another server.
Q: Do you have any problems with copyright issues concerning the computer
game and the art works?
A: Most copyright problems are connected to commercial activities - but
as an artist, the use of existing imagery must be considered as a quotation
with an artistic intention. In the context of the game the original pictures
become a part of a bigger framework and can therefore not be looked upon
as individual art pieces. The resolution quality is so low that you must
look upon the pixelized images as a representation of the artwork itself.
Q: Do you play computer game yourselves?
A: Of course, this is a part of the research process, and playing a good
game can be really interesting and fun.
Q: What is you relation to the game culture?
A: On the Web there is a lot of activities around the games; forums, editing
tutorials, etc. Every game has its own support and fan-sites. When making
the game we had a lot of help from gamers on the Web. The game culture
is very seductive, entering a noisy arcade hall gives great inspiration.
Playing shooter games over Internet is great fun but we got addicted,
so we had to stop playing.
Q: Is it possible to get a copy of the museum game?
A: No.
Q: How did the
museum staff react on your project?
A: In the beginning we planned to have the game on Internet, but the security
chief refused to give us the drawings of the museum. He was afraid that
someone might use the game to plan a raid against the museum. This was
an interesting aspect, since we knew about US Marine Corps and the Secret
Service using network games for training purposes. They used the computer
game Doom in which they represented an embassy to simulate a possible
rescue scenario. Apart from this, the museum has responded with allot
of interested in the project. For example when when we demonstrated the
piece to one of the staff who found great joy watching the Gerhard Richter
painting getting smashed into pieces.
Q: Technology plays
a large part in your work, what is your view on the relation between art
and technology?
A: Turning a computer game in to an art work points out technology and
gives a good starting point to understand the complexity and fast development
of technology. Technological changes that we are surrounded by are hard
to fully grasp. When we are lost we are also morally disarmed. A concrete
example like an art work can be an important exponent to regain reality.
When technology now are changing both our means of perception and reality
this kind of examples are going to become important for us to get a perspective.
Let us give you an example of such a perspective: The war industry has
always pushed the technology forward and since the exploding market for
personal computers and Internet, the market has been flooded with such
technology. The violent shoot´em-up games use the simulation technique
invented by the war industry.
Q: Would you describe
the Art world or the Institution as a game?
A: The range of human interactions in the our game is very limited, the
rewriteable program code of the game contains the basic lab for understanding
the Art world through game theory. A living game simulation of the Art
world could be made to understand it´s internal relations and laws
like institutional settings and interactive strategies of humans. In this
perspective the Art world or the Institution could be look upon as a number
of reprogramable
entities in interaction.
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