Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei

“Fights, Flights, & Frights – Inside the Storm” presents artwork from three genres of computer games: science-fiction, horror, and fantasy. The game worlds represented are those of StarCraft, Diablo, and Warcraft from Blizzard Entertainment, with pieces dating back to 1995. Despite of being released over a decade ago, each one of these games still have a massive player base. There is a debate currently raging in the intellectual community about whether or not computer games are a form of “art,” but the question has been a point of discussion for nearly a decade. The succession of recent events might finally bring a satisfying conclusion to this debate. Art is a subjective concept, without hard and fast rules to define it, and is certainly changed and influenced by context, time, and cultural factors. It was just in recent years that comics and animations have made their debut in contemporary art exhibitions. Even before that, the transition of video from recording instrument to art medium was one of the most significant events in the art history of the past century. In May of 2001, at a panel called “Storytelling and Computer Games: Past, Present and Future” Dennis G. Jerz, an Associate Professor of English - New Media Journalism at Seton Hill University commented for the purposes of comparison that “the movie camera was, for decades, a tool for the engineer and the scientist -- before artists finally figured out what the heck to do with it.” In the same way that cinema and film-making is a platform for potentially creating art, so it is with computer games. When computers were invented, they were initially for scientific use and few people had access to them. Today, they have become a household item; a platform and instrument to provide access to entertainment and the arts. The reason behind this success indubitably had something to do with the participation of artists and their streams of creativity and ingenuity. In 2004, The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS), and The Graphic Arts Council of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) launched an annual art exhibition called Into the Pixel, “an exploration and celebration computer and video game art showcasing artists who create art using video games as their medium.” Since 2006, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts has officially recognized videogames as an art form of the moving image, positioning it as the institution’s third pillar of activity. Also since 2008, the Digital Art Festival Taipei has recognized videogames by including them as an award category. Art schools around the world offer courses now in “computer game art” as a specific form of digital art or “new media,” alongside photography, film-making, illustration, sculpture, and traditional painting techniques. This exhibition utilizes artworks from multiple disciplines provided by Blizzard to depict the creative elements and storytelling behind videogame production. Over the years these games have grown and expanded, enduring in spite of the typically transitory nature of popular culture. Lastly, but by no means least, a major component of these games – not directly captured by Blizzard artists – is the community of players. Their camaraderie and creativity are demonstrated not only within the games, but also in the real world. The talent, dedication, and passion with which this group reflects upon the games and stories is always amazing and beautiful. This exhibition dedicates a space to display the outstanding artworks produced by the community of fans, created out of love of the games.