"Video games can never be art." - Roger Ebert. Ebert's whole statement hinges up on what his definition of art is. Since we all know that art is a highly subjective thing, the statement, without the context collapses under it's own weight. In a later article he does state that when he was talking about art he was talking about the work of one person. (Hmm. I'm don't really know of any solo movies. But that's probably because I'm not a movie critic.)

My thinking is that Ebert was speaking in terms of what I call High Art. This is the stuff that is praised by elites, connoisseurs and critics (read: art snobs). For the most part high art is esoteric and often times initially inaccessible to a greater audience. High Art earns it's pedigree more by consensus over time. When something is lauded throughout history as the highest expression of the media's form it comes to define it. It comes to a point where not just art but whole classes of media cannot even rank by high art's classical standards. Thankfully, this is not all there is to art.

If we are not talking about high art we are talking about everything else. And I am happy to report we are immersed in art. Good art. Lasting art.

If video games cannot be art, neither can movies, illustrations, industrial design, novels, fashion, any song you hear on the radio, etc. While there might be the inclination to discount a particular work as artless, I don't think you can bar any one media. There are shining examples of art in any category -even if it's genre is often characterized by it's lowest common denominator.

It is a question of evolution; artistic, technological and social. The bleeding edge of video games is what this world is producing today, right here, right now, under the same motivations, inspirations and expressions as classical artists of the past. In some ways video games have a degree of evolution on the fine art as it's not a complete work unless the viewer becomes participant.

It occurs to me that maybe that can be viewed as a drawback: The fact that a video game cannot stand on it's own -it must be played. One of the most frequent things that I've heard about the greatest pieces of art is that there is this subtle engagement between art and viewer.

I dunno. I'm running out of gas here and losing focus -pregnant peoples do that. I don't play video games enough to be a worthy advocate but I do know that the wholesale discounting of this field as never being able to achieve art is a bit backward.

Either Ebert is stuck in a "why-you-kids-don't-know-what-real-art-is"-shaky-fist mode or he just doesn't get it.