Neoludica - Debora Ferrari

The first analysis of the relationship between art and video games, from the sixties until today. Art and play: how many forms does this relationship take? Duchamp used to say that art was a game and that games were art. When video games joined the dance of the muses this relationship was further enriched. Video games are an art and in recent years they have had a crucial influence on other arts: cinema, literature, music and visual arts. They stand at the crossroads between very diverse forms of culture and product, and it is precisely the anomaly inherent in this encounter/clash that makes them so terribly interesting. Neoludica is an in-depth exploration of the relationship between art and video games, and it underlines how the video game (an interactive multimedia work) is an art form that has yet to be understood by the world of culture. The interactive dimension is a facet that has attracted art since the advent of environmental installations during the sixties, and it is a dimension that has since been developed in digital art through video installations. The video game/art contamination occurs not only on the aesthetic level, but also through those elements of language which can be defined as conceptual, such as interactivity mentioned above. Naturally, it acquires an artistic dimension when its aims go beyond mere technical prowess and explore the world of fantasy.