With all the talk I've heard of video games throughout this semester, I thought that I should say a bit about what comes to my mind on the subject. I have heard people vehemently defend some strong philosophical stance on video games. I have heard grown men squeal like little girls when just thinking about their next video game purchase. I have even heard the talk of how economically influential they are and how important they will become. After hearing and taking all of this in, I could really care less. Hard as I might try, I just don't really care.

Video games are pretty much just mindless entertainment and a way to pass the time when you can't think of much else to do. Now when I say that, I don't really mean it in a bad way. They do very well in fulfilling that purpose. I know that I spent a good number of lazy afternoons as a child with my brother, me, and good old Mario. However, when video games are taken as more than that, I find myself scratching my head in confusion.

Video games can pretty much be split up into a few categories: fighting/killing, racing, and sports. That is about it, and during all of these kinds, you are mindlessly pushing buttons attempting to get to some meaningless goal, and at the end of this, you have spent hours of your life having accomplished nothing whatsoever. Doing this once in a while to unwind I understand, but hour after hour, day after day?

And while I have mentioned sports games, watching sports on TV is not any better. Watching two groups of individuals going back and forth back and forth for a few hours is such an odd idea. How people willingly subject themselves to such torture as that is beyond me.

Whew! Confession really does feel good.

I thought that I would write a bit on the idea of video art that was presented in class. I suppose these video art examples are difficult to wrap my head around. There is no real story to speak of, which I expect from this medium. They work hard to keep things in the abstract, to disorient the audience, and to attempt to evoke a reaction based on slightly disturbing images and sound that are difficult to comprehend the meaning of.

THey could be quite interesting though. For example, the Bill Viola piece called Ascension. I realized pretty quickly that it was video of a person falling into water, but running backwards. Throughout most of the piece, I found myself trying to visualize the movement of hte bubbles if the video had been running the normal direction, which I had a hard time accomplishing. That was pretty much where my mind was at throughout almost the whole piece, the movement of the bubbles. It wasn't until the very end when I felt like the man was about to fly, which was an interesting feeling. However, I simply found myself wondering, why he had jumped in the water and what he had been doing. My mind wanted to know his story, or make up a story for him. Somehow, I'm not sure if my reaction was really the one the artist was going for. At least I could have ended up with a pretty interesting story though if I had wanted to.

Video art such as this certainly has its place, and I like knowing that artists are attempting to experiment and try new and interesting methods. However, I don't really think that I am cut out for this particular kind of art. Knowing more about what is out there, though, is a good thing, and being a little confused, well that can be a good thing too.