Andy Cox

one of many isles

cassandi — Mon, 23 May 2011 09:16:54 +0000

middle pic links to “pro” game: other two are originals

whatever happen’d to me posts?

cassandi — Mon, 23 May 2011 08:18:16 +0000

People should care about mental health as physical health and American society should be a bit less individual-oriented; that is, it is ridiculous we don’t readily help other adults.

Brett Martin and Video Games as Art

dhn — Tue, 17 May 2011 00:57:35 +0000

In his article, Martin brings up the issue of video games as art. While the medium is still relatively new, there does not appear to be a heavy controversy around the issue. Equipped with lush landscapes or demonic worlds, video games do a good job of simulating alternate realities. To me the question is not whether video games are art or not, but how to utilize video games in order to achieve art. Considering photography, I can see very much more how this would spur a controversy when it takes someone half a year to finish a landscape painting, and it takes another person just a moment. nevertheless, photography is an art. It requires timing, an acute understanding of light, and soul. While a photographer may never know or never need to know how to use a paint brush, his/her impact with art may be the same. The point to consider with video games, as in photography, or any other art medium, is to consider its full potential. With photography, as opposed to painting or drawing, pictures capture the reality of the moment. With photography, a person holding a cheese grater is just that, a person holding a cheese grater. This in and of itself tells a story of how and why the person is holding the cheese grater. Whereas with painting or drawing, a person holding a cheese grater would be seen as some sort of metaphorical meaning taken into some abstract understanding. This too has its advantages in effect; sometimes you want to suspend a person’s belief from the start and in these cases animation, painting or drawing would work better. When one wants to depict the actual occurence, photography would often work better. That being said, video games can gain the acceptance of the artworld as its own form perhaps in their ability to transport the player into another world. This would provoke an altered consciousness in a way that only video games are able to. How well and how thoroughly a video game is able to do this would reflect its credibility as an artform.

unity island

dhn — Thu, 12 May 2011 23:18:17 +0000

FINAL UNITY ISLAND: LAND OF PEN

Rachael — Thu, 12 May 2011 22:46:33 +0000

Unity Finished

mcartier — Thu, 12 May 2011 21:31:11 +0000

Web player linked to last photo

Thursday – Andy is running late

andycox — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:11:57 +0000

I’m running late, please finish up and export your packages…… see you soon

What We Learned This Semester

andycox — Thu, 12 May 2011 05:06:29 +0000

Well, I certainly learned a lot. I hope the rest of the class did. Here’s my list of the main items:

Our lives are embedded in a complex network of technologies (thank you James Burke). Technologies are connect to other technologies and to history, politics, and most of all the to the economy in which we live (capitalism).
Artists should be aware of technologies because a) they are a lens through which we see the world (see John Berger, b) they are an artistic tool, and c) they are important cultural phenomena in which artists (and all of us) should be interested.
We made art using post-its investigating how the technologies we use everyday are part of a rich web of connections.
We looked at how video games can be used to make art and developed a proposal for an art project using the US Army’s video game and propaganda tool America’s Army.
We learned the basics of video game programming in the Unity game development environment and we came full circle by making a connected virtual archipelago of islands, each with a technological theme.

sketchup monument screenshot

pengwen — Thu, 12 May 2011 02:58:56 +0000

Island screenshots

pengwen — Thu, 12 May 2011 02:57:23 +0000