Tilt Warning » art

Beatniks Koolsville

mgk — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:39:50 +0000

What looks like an Elvira & the Party Monsters conversion from the same crew who brought us the Hellacopters pin and that Earthshaker turned Metallica machine.

More pics and some video from Dirty Donny here.

Kinetic Sculpture – BMW Museum, Munich

mgk — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 22:58:17 +0000

The Kinetic Sculpture is a metaphorical translation of the process of form-finding in art and design. 714 metal spheres, hanging from thin steel wires attached to individually-controlled stepper motors and covering the area of six square meters, animate a seven minute long mechatronic narrative. In the beginning, moving chaotically, then evolving to several competing forms that eventually resolve to the finished object, the Kinetic Sculpture creates an artistic visualisation of the process of form-finding in different variations.

The Installation

“There is no art, things are made for use.”

mgk — Fri, 07 May 2010 20:58:42 +0000

One of my favorite quotes, written by a man named Antonin Artaud in his book The Theatre and Its Double

via

Roger Ebert, “Video games can never be art.”

mgk — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 01:21:33 +0000

illustration via

Let me just say that no video gamer now living will survive long enough to experience the medium as an art form.

Plato, via Aristotle, believed art should be defined as the imitation of nature. Seneca and Cicero essentially agreed. Wikipedia believes “Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more concerned with the expression of ideas…Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interaction.”

But we could play all day with definitions, and find exceptions to every one. For example, I tend to think of art as usually the creation of one artist. Yet a cathedral is the work of many, and is it not art? One could think of it as countless individual works of art unified by a common purpose. Is not a tribal dance an artwork, yet the collaboration of a community? Yes, but it reflects the work of individual choreographers. Everybody didn’t start dancing all at once.

One obvious difference between art and games is that you can win a game. It has rules, points, objectives, and an outcome. Some might cite a immersive game without points or rules, but I would say then it ceases to be a game and becomes a representation of a story, a novel, a play, dance, a film. Those are things you cannot win; you can only experience them.

Why are gamers so intensely concerned, anyway, that games be defined as art?

Read more on Ebert’s Journal, home to surprisingly robust conversation in its comments section.

Revenge from Mars playfield sketch

mgk — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 08:22:50 +0000

by design and concept guy George Gomez

West and MidWest, this Week in Pinball

mgk — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 23:45:56 +0000

Couple of events happening this week that we’re happy to make you aware of:

West
Opening Friday, February 5th, and running through March 2, at the Pacific Pinball Museum in the San Francisco Bay Area, is an exhibition defining pinball as art.

From one of the PPM’s associated websites,
Written by, Melissa Harmon, Curator, Pacific Pinball Museum:

A Short History of Pinball, Fine Art and Good Taste

Pinball, for the enthusiast, means the spirit of freedom and possibility, erotic fun without responsibility. Most pinball games in America were found in bars and arcades, which contributed to pinball’s image as lowbrow art, kitsch, and in bad taste. Because of this, pinball art has had little critical analysis. It’s ironic that the origin of pinball came in the midst of a cultural struggle to define “good taste”.

The western idea of “taste” began in France in the 1600 – 1700’s, coincidentally when the first bagatelles appeared. The French invented bagatelles which were the earliest pinball machines, made of score holes in a board. Players with cue sticks vied to push balls into the highest scoring holes. Later, pins or small nails were hammered in to the board as guides for the ball, hence the name pinball.

The French aristocrats tried to turn every aspect of their lives into art, and were in severe competition with each other as to what made good art and design. In 1777 as part of this competitive mania, the Comte d’Artois, grandson of King Louis XV, built a mansion called Chateau d’ Bagatelle dedicated to the play of bagatelle.

In Europe and America, the outcome of the struggle to define taste, and by extension what constitutes good art was temporarily settled in the 1800’s with the sweeping term “fine art”, which generally meant refined and tasteful art made by accepted artists. Forms such as advertising art, cartoons, posters and decorative art were not included.

Marcel Duchamp, the French/American surrealist shattered those fine art definitions by exhibiting a commercially produced urinal and calling it Fountain (1917).

In the sixties, led by Andy Warhol, fine art came to include many things that were once excluded. Consumer goods could become art, and a pinball machine could be seen as a cultural icon.

Recently, artists such as Budai, Dirty Donnie, Brian Holderman, Mike Schiess and William Wiley have re-themed pinball machines, making old machines into something completely new.

The Pacific Pinball Museum is dedicated to preserving the history of pinball, and encouraging cultural analysis and art about pinball.

Pinball Art: Fine Art is a study of pinball imagery and original artwork as shown in selected galleries from the 70’s through 2010.

As the folks from the PPM were the inspiration for PAPA’s own custom pinball machine project, we’re proud to have Michael Budai’s Freak Out and Brian Holderman’s Luther’s Vendetta backglass art on display as part of this first exhibit in the Pacific Pinball Museum’s new space.
—

MidWest
On Saturday, February 6th, at PAPA HQ just outside Pittsburgh, PA, we’ll be hosting the 3rd annual Cupids & Canines charity event, benefiting the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society and a proprietary charity operated by Camp Bow Wow International, Inc. called Bow Wow Buddies.

Detailed information regarding the event, including times and ticket pricing, written up by PAPA President Kevin Martin, can be found on the Cupids & Canines portion of the PAPA web site.

Running the tournament at this event will be 2005’s PAPA 8 World Pinball Champion Bowen Kerins. Trent Augenstein will be on hand defending his C&C 2009 title.

As this is one of only two times annually PAPA is open to the public, and considering the fact that the #1 question we’re asked about PAPA is “Why open only once a year?” Pinball player’s and hobby enthusiasts alike ought to seize the opportunity to access the PAPA collection for the only time we’ll open our doors before PAPA 13 – the World Pinball Championships, August 12-15, 2010.

Another first world problem Halloween.

mgk — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:01:55 +0000

Dave Kinsey’s Red Barren, 2009

via OMG Posters!

Almond milk’s where it’s at.

Raised on Cartoons, Candy, and Video Games

mgk — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:20:46 +0000

Arthur Ganson’s Machines, Kinetic Sculpture

Arcade (noun)

mgk — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 16:00:17 +0000

Entry from the Oxford English Dictionary online:

Arcade (noun)

1. A vaulted place, open at one or both sides; an arched opening or recess in a wall. Obs.

1644 EVELYN Diary (in Italy) 8 Nov., In the arcado..stand 24 statues of great price.
1762 H. WALPOLE Vertue’s Anecd. Paint. (1786) I. 187 The application of loggias, arcades, terrasses and flights of steps, at different stages of a building.
1782 WARTON Hist. Kiddington 6 On the opposite side is a small arcade or receptacle for holy water.
1823 NICHOLSON Pract. Build. 580 Arcade, an aperture in a wall with an arched head; also, a range of apertures with arched heads.

2. ‘A continued arch’; a passage arched over; a walk formed by a succession of arches having a common axis, and supported on columns or shafts. Also applied to an avenue similarly arched over by trees or shrubs; and extended to any covered avenue, esp. one with rows of shops or stalls on one or both sides.

1731 POPE Mor. Ess. II. 35 Shall call the winds thro’ long Arcades to roar.
1815 WORDSW. Wh. Doe IV. 45 And shades Of trellis-work in long arcades.
1829 T. ALLEN Antiq. Lond. IV. 302 A passage, with a range of shops on each side, called Burlington Arcade, which..is one of the most fashionable promenades
1849 RUSKIN Sev. Lamps ii. §15 Pictured landscapes at the extremities of alleys and arcades
1862 THACKERAY Four Georges iii. 142 A garden, with trim lawns, green arcades and vistas of classic statues.

3. Arch. A series of arches on the same plane: ‘a series of arches, either open or closed with masonry, supported by columns or piers.’ Parker Gloss. Arch. ‘In mediæval architecture, an ornamental dressing to a wall, consisting of colonnettes supporting moulded arches.’ ( arcature.)

1795-1807 J. CARTER Anc. Archit. Eng. I. 20 Arcade on the third story of the keep of Rochester castle..In the third story the wall is cut through by four magnificent arches.
1830 R. STUART, Dict. Arch., Arcade, a series of apertures or recesses with arched ceilings or soffets. The use of this word is very vague and indefinite.
1849 RUSKIN Sev. Lamps v. §12 In the uppermost arcade..the arches, the same in number as those below, are narrower than any of the façade.
1861 PARKER Goth. Archit. (1874) I. iii. 67 The small Arcades..are frequently used as decorations of the walls.

4. Special Comb. arcade game, a (mechanical or electronic) game of a type orig. popularized in amusement arcades.

1977 Washington Post 10 June (District Weekly) 10/1 Since Gunchers is located on Georgetown’s night life strip, we weren’t sure that the atmosphere would be suitable for children, but its pinball machines and penny arcade games presented party possibilities.
1978 Washington Post 21 July (Weekend Suppl.) 7/3 Another ten cents will animate any number of 50-year-old arcade games of shooting, hitting or shaking.
1983 Listener 20 Oct. 37/4 Laser Vision’s interactive feature has been snapped up by the cut-throat arcade games industry in the USA.
1984 Personal Software Winter 44/1 The adventures of Pat the Postman is a twenty screen arcade game for the 48K ZX Spectrum.

Arcade (verb)
To furnish with, or form into, an arcade. Hence arcaded ppl. a.

1805 W. TAYLOR in Ann. Rev. III. 61 A long arcaded court.
1860 All Y. Round No. 46. 457 In Stamboul, as in London, a bazaar means an arcaded covered walk.
1861 A. BERESFORD-HOPE Eng. Cathedr. 19th C. vi. 221 That expanse [of wall] may be arcaded, and if the arcading-shafts are of coloured materials, so much the better.

Images are of the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, built by Giuseppe Mengoni between 1865 and 1877, Milan, Italy

Well, well, well. What do we have here?

mgk — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:33:14 +0000

via Dirty Donny’s blog – Street Walking Cheetah with a Hand Full of Crayons

What appears to be a tricked out Earthshaker with lead guitarist Kirk Hammett at the helm.

And here are artist Dirty Donny and lead singer/rhythm guitar player James Hetfield with the custom Metallica machine.

Pictures likely do this game little justice, as this time around they’ve surely hacked the game’s original sound ROMs to now rock Metallica in place of the game’s original earthquake ridden road trip sound track. So, fresh ART and MUSIC? This is a serious step up, in technological scope, from the Hellacopters custom redress. These guys are making moves, and that’s rather inspiring.

Word is this custom pinball machine will be on display at the Pacific Pinball Expo in California, first weekend of October. Don’t suppose we’ll get a closer look or listen before then…