Raiding Photographically

[eronrauch]

I don't know, honestly, this has been an artistic issue I can't quite wrap my brain-meats around... These totally overloaded and nigh-chaotic images of MMORPGs in full swing, with the interface left on as well the text, etc. are utterly fascinating to me. The really, in some ways, are astounding documents of the sheer visual data that we, in contemporary society, subject our selves to for pleasure (Philip K. Dick anyone?), but yet, I can't quite figure out what do with them artistically. As a lawyer at the recent "Culture of Virtual Worlds" conference mentioned, the law applies differently in the space of games (think how few or no prosecutions arise from thrown elbows and injuries from tackles that happen on the court or field) but does that mean that the art world may function very differently when it comes to the space of games? After all, Duchamp supposedly gave up making art to play chess, since it was superior to painting... yet continued to make art but not show it as contemporary scholarship has shown again again despite the massive mythology around his work in the dada scene... Part of me just wants to make a large, gorgeous print of the following image and tell the photo/art world to rot! But I'm very confused...



"Suicidal Tendencies Raids Karazhan"
Inkjet Print, 2008