Dungeons & Dragons in Contemporary Art

[Tav_Behemoth]

I'm moderating a panel on the interactions between Dungeons & Dragons in Contemporary Art, and am hoping to get some suggestions for stuff that would be interesting to explore with a bunch of artists whose work is exhibited in galleries & informed by their experience playing RPGs. Some of the topics that have come up so far:

- How do artists see the way they express their creativity through roleplaying as similar or different from its expression through art?

- Richard Schechner wrote "Art and ritual, especially performance, are the homeground of playing. This is because the process of making performances does not so much imitate playing as epitomize it." Is making art like playing a game? What does the history of artists' interest in other games, like Marcel Duchamp and Gabriel Orozco, tell us?

- Zak Smith says "I think the fact that half the decent artists working today know what a beholder is as relevant as the fact that half the artists in Beckmann's time painted Pierrot." Why is this, and what does it mean about D&D's place in the culture? Do RPGs have a special appeal to artists?

- Another question raised by Zak: "Why is the alleged difference between commercial artists: Dave Trampier, Ian Miller, Gary Gygax et al. and gallery artists taken seriously at all by anyone--ESPECIALLY now that pretty much any gallery in New York will show a picture of a 3-headed dragon eating a spaceman with a laser gun if its presented properly and any game company is capable of producing trendy, self-aware, post-human Ballardian sci-fi or whatever? Is this merely a commercial reality or does it point to fundamentally different aims?"

- What's the difference between artists whose work is genuinely engaged with roleplaying games, and those who are just hipster slumming and appropriating the imagery of a subculture and childhood nostalgia? Does it matter?

- Why does it matter whether artists play the games whose imagery and themes they use in their work - is this just an issue of authenticity cred?

Some background for the panel is here, and the Doomslangers exhibition that two of the panelists were part of is also worth checking out.

 

[Wik]

Well, this is some cerebral stuff that is entirely out of my element. I'm not really going to touch the subject, because I really know nothing about it, but I can say that your panel sounds like a lot of fun! One thing:

- Another question raised by Zak: "Why is the alleged difference between commercial artists: Dave Trampier, Ian Miller, Gary Gygax et al. and gallery artists taken seriously at all by anyone--ESPECIALLY now that pretty much any gallery in New York will show a picture of a 3-headed dragon eating a spaceman with a laser gun if its presented properly and any game company is capable of producing trendy, self-aware, post-human Ballardian sci-fi or whatever? Is this merely a commercial reality or does it point to fundamentally different aims?"

This has been going on forever. Just look at Andy Warhol in the 1960s and you'll see that same conflict between commercial and "high" art. The funny thing being, most people would prefer Warhol to, say, Yoko Ono.

 

[nedjer]

- How do artists see the way they express their creativity through roleplaying as similar or different from its expression through art?

- Richard Schechner wrote "Art and ritual, especially performance, are the homeground of playing. This is because the process of making performances does not so much imitate playing as epitomize it." Is making art like playing a game? What does the history of artists' interest in other games, like Marcel Duchamp and Gabriel Orozco, tell us?

IMO art and roleplaying are indivisible. As suggested by visual or 'graphic' RPGing here.

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

nedjer, I love the idea of a RPG system designed to leave behind an intriguing set of symbols as a by-product of play! Some of my favorite pieces from the Doomslangers show are those where they preserve evidence of being used in a game, like the record of hit points lost in this one.

 

[JustKim]

- How do artists see the way they express their creativity through roleplaying as similar or different from its expression through art?

I don't know if this is really the sort of anecdote you're looking for, but for me creating art and roleplaying have one very distinct difference: I created art from my misery and roleplaying is best when I'm happiest.

I was brought up to express myself artistically, I attended an art school, I had a portfolio that I walked around, and my artistic creativity was always fed by unhappiness and a powerlessness to pursue my desires and change my situation. Over time, as I gained control over my life and I became a happier person, my compulsion to create art dwindled, my ability to get along with my fellow gamers improved, and I derived much more enjoyment investing my creative energy in roleplaying. I think that art and roleplaying fulfill the same need for me to create, but they seem to come from different places.

I am not saying that I think people can outgrow art, or that there's a direct correlation between art and misery (although I think the latter could be strongly argued). But for me, the major difference was that I made art best when I was unhappy and I roleplay best when I'm happy.

It may or may not be relevant that I prefer not to have a lot of visual cues when at the gaming table. I love books with beautiful art, I just prefer to leave the actual roleplaying experience up to language and imagination.

 

[Qwillion]

Tav

I might suggest talking to Jonathan Roberts "Torstan" our cartographer he did a showing of fantasy cartography at the SoHo gallery of digital art.

Fantastic Maps | The fantasy cartography of Jon Roberts

 

[nedjer]

nedjer, I love the idea of a RPG system designed to leave behind an intriguing set of symbols as a by-product of play! Some of my favorite pieces from the Doomslangers show are those where they preserve evidence of being used in a game, like the record of hit points lost in this one.

That's exactly what you get with visual play in terms of PC sheets/ campaign records/ adventure layouts. Most of our playtesters go from plain text to typography and sketches, with sets of coloured pencils really adding to the designs. (I use Lyra Rembrandt Polycolours a lot as they give artist features at a lowish price). Also tried soft and hard pastels, watercolour and brush pens. Doesn't matter if you're not 'skilled', as the icons are deliberately easy to sketch and kind of template a structure/ composition when players are looking for a hand to get started on visual play.

Time has gone into making a full set of digital images, as we wanted anyone have the option of a crisp professional look on a cheap PC, and to start playing around with animations and digital objects ourselves. It was also consistent with offering up modern formats, i.e. html and burn a custom PDF.

From an artistic perspective the game's underlying design is maybe of interest for using the familiar approach of offering different layers of function and interpretation. For example, it's specifically structured to kick-start and support open-ended/ 'player choice' play alongside on-going co-design, including the images. This is done through a design model which is essentially a cognitive model: semantic and visual language, modular, neuronal, . . . theoretically this 'fine tunes' or 'aligns' gameplay to the cognitive mechanisms behind learning, enjoyment and creativity.

Now we've a settled version some interesting effects are cropping up in play. Kids who take 2 minutes to make a PC and want to spend another hour re-arranging the images and colouring them in before going into play - with a PC there'll already really attached to. At the other end of the scale, my 'adult' group use gestures, temporary tattoos and stick-its a lot; allowing them to 'go dark' and play real fast.

I'll stop before your ears melt, (bit over-enthusiastic by nature), and finish by mentioning another option opened up by blending RPGs and art. There would seem to be a potential for gamers and small publishers to move into a wider range of ecommerce and microcommerce options using multimedia RPGs. Offering custom slot-in artwork for decoration or use in play, making up fonts and icon sets, selling digital 'object' clusters, designing 3D objects for prototype printers, offering PC and campaign lifestream design templates, drop-in animations, campaign website designs . . .

 

[Tav_Behemoth]

nedjr, I don't know much of anything about art - in theory this is why I make a good moderator, because I'll ask the obvious questions - but I used to be a neuroscience grad student; I encourage you to melt my ears about cognitive models in this thread or a separate one!

 

[nedjer]

nedjr, I don't know much of anything about art - in theory this is why I make a good moderator, because I'll ask the obvious questions - but I used to be a neuroscience grad student; I encourage you to melt my ears about cognitive models in this thread or a separate one!

Little encouragement required. Bit tired right now after a surgical dude went radical on me with a scalpel earlier today, but I'll return shortly.

 

[nedjer]

nedjr, I don't know much of anything about art - in theory this is why I make a good moderator, because I'll ask the obvious questions - but I used to be a neuroscience grad student; I encourage you to melt my ears about cognitive models in this thread or a separate one!

Fueled by the doctor's medication, Lemsips and the whisky I had to drink to get rid of the taste of the Lemsips . . . HERE. Plays a bit fast and loose, probably rambles . . . batten down the asbestos earmuffs