But is it art?

[Wrestlevania]

What happens when you munge 1,000 unique player replays from a chaotic and freeform racing game like TrackMania Sunrise?

You get The 1k Project II.

And, whilst people continue to debate the merits (or not) of "video games as art", I think this is breath-takingly beautiful.

[elmuerte]

the overal composition wasn't great

[MrHoatzin]

I'm having a hard time seeing what role beauty serves in the are games art dialogue. Why would you even remotely invoke it here? I'm curious about your reasoning. It intrigues me.

ICO is beautiful, but its artistry has nothing to do with beauty as such, and directly.

On a purely aesthetic level, that was one competent video simulation of something and it was well edited, and the tune is snappy (never much listened to Moby). It may be a lot of fun even--which it is!--but aside from that...

[Wrestlevania]

I'm having a hard time seeing what role beauty serves in the are games art dialogue. Why would you even remotely invoke it here? I'm curious about your reasoning. It intrigues me.

1,000 unique human experiences expressed through a single form, facilitated exclusively and intentionally by a video game.

Does it for me.

[MrHoatzin]

Are you sure it is not just a simulation with all those cars handled by ai? If it was actually some sort of log of the paths traveled by 1000 people who played this game (or if they actually played this at the same time sans clipping) the start would not be that uniformly fan-like, I would imagine it would be a lot more randomized. It is just a silly simulation. A simulation could evoke the human experience, but I don't think this one does. It looks more like a simulation of insect behavior.

[Wrestlevania]

If it was actually some sort of log of the paths traveled by 1000 people who played this game (or if they actually played this at the same time sans clipping) the start would not be that uniformly fan-like, I would imagine it would be a lot more randomized.

No, granted that aspect is suspect.

But even if it was choreographed, would it cease to be 'art' - if indeed you consider it 'art' in the first place?

[MrHoatzin]

At that point, I think, the intent of whoever made this comes into play. If it is supposed to speak to the randomness and chaos of the Human Experience (which I don't think it does or is, since there is so much pattern to be observed), it would benefit more from an earnest and unchoreographed presentation and methods. If the experiment of having a 1000 people's trajectories be combined in Trackmania actually resulted in those weird results and those odd patterns, it would be an interesting thing to outright state and try to explain or stress in such a way to expect a reaction.

It can be crap art. But I don't think it is even reaching for any kind of art. It is comfortable in being a toy, a cool thing. Is it not better for it to be a really cool toy than a bad piece of art?

[baconian]

it looks like an ad to me. Can an ad be art?

[miffy495]

It's fucking cool, but it isn't art. Or if it is art, it's the equivalent of a black velvet painting of Elvis wailing into a microphone.

[brkl]

I like Black Velvet. I think Black Velvet is art.

[castorp]

It may/could be art - it gives room for some airy interpretations; the '1,000 unique human experiences' would work, I guess - but it isn't a game anymore. It's a video using a game's engine. I think being a game (player-input - more than Play/Stop/Rewind) is a number one prerequisite for a game-that-is-art.

Oh, and it's pretty stunning. Thanks for that.

Edit: is there a place to download it?...or a, uhm, way...?

[Wrestlevania]

Edit: is there a place to download it?...or a, uhm, way...?

You could try installing Greasemonkey and then loading the GameTrailers.com Direct Download Videos user script.

Didn't work for me though.

[brkl]

I think it's obviously art, there's really no question about it. It's merit can be debated, although I think it's originality sets it far, far above a black velvet painting of Elvis. But yeah, it's not a game.