Game art

For the past decade, virtual reality has been the domain of an elite group of researchers. Artists who wished to explore the medium were forced to form creative alliances with Universities, private research centers such as Interval Research, art centers in Europe and Canada, such as Ars Electronica in Austria and the Banff Centre in Canada, and even the military. But the advent of rapid acceleration in the computer game industry has virtually overnight opened up the artistic potential of real time 3D to a wider array of creators. Personal computer and console hardware can now take on the graphics processing muscle power formerly relegated to high-end supercomputers, and game companies have begun to make their game engines available to a gamers "Modding," "skinning," and "patching" have become popular pastimes for game hackers, but they have also made real time 3D graphics available to a new generation of digital art-makers. These artists are operating independently or in small collectives to create bold new visions for what real time 3D can be as both an artistic medium and a form of popular culture. Much like the early days of video art, this often edgy work is subverting the corporate and mass culture framework of gaming and taking real time 3D to new dimensions. This panel presents a group of emerging artists at the leading edge of the game art movement, each of whom will present recent work and discuss his or her work methodology.