PASSAGE B
“The Art of Video Games,” a technologically impressive but intellectually inert exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, belongs in a history or technology museum, not in an institution devoted to art. Despite its title, it fails to grapple with questions about the definition and boundaries of art, questions that tend to make people squeamish in a democratic society that would rather everything be art than anyone feel excluded from the realms of sanctified culture.
Which is not to say that the 40-year history of video games hasn’t produced supremely sophisticated aesthetic experiences. Or that the virtual worlds summoned by designers of the best of the 80 games on display aren’t every bit as “artistic” as the best scenic design for theater or the movies. Or that people can’t have emotional reactions to the events within a game, though it is clear that this aspect of gaming is a work in progress rather than a fully achieved goal.
But is it in fact the case, as game designer Jenova Chen says, that “everything is an art”? Or are there important lines that demarcate entertainment and art? Exhibition curator Chris Melissinos hedges in the wall text that introduces the show: “Using the cultural lens of an art museum, viewers can determine whether the games on display are indeed worthy of the title ‘art.’”
Very likely, some of these games, and even more in the future, rise to that level. But the exhibition doesn’t address what distinguishes merely entertaining games from great ones, and what models designers should pursue if they want to achieve greater artistic substance.
Instead, it focuses on technology, presented as if the overriding force driving most game design is basic verisimilitude. In one display, we see basic actions— running, climbing, flying—depicted from the earliest era of design in the 1980s to the past decade in which humans and monsters move with an almost cinematic believability.
5. The author of Passage B uses the phrase “to grapple with” mainly to emphasize:
A. the degree to which Melissinos agonized overwhich games to include in the show.
B. the difficulties of defining what is and what is notart.
C. that artists have difficulty in deciding what to include in their artworks.
D. that technological innovation is overlooked by art critics.
6. It can most reasonably be inferred from Passage B that Melissinos’s intention in “using the cultural lens of an art museum” for the exhibit is to encourage viewers to:
F. consider how much the technology of video games has improved.
G. make an emotional connection with different aspects of video games.
H. change the context in which they typically think of video games.
J. reflect on how realistic the characters in video games look.
7. As it is used in last paragragh, the word driving most nearly means:
A. dispatching.
B. commuting.
C. hauling.
D. advancing.
8. Concerning the potential value of The Art of Video Games, the attitudes of the passage authors differ in that the author of Passage B is more:
F. lenient.
G. distressed.
H. indifferent.
J. skeptical.
9. Which of the following statements best describes how the passages present Melissinos’s belief about whether people should consider video games to be art?
A. Passage A suggests Melissinos believes people should consider video games to be art, while Passage B suggests Melissinos believes people should
decide for themselves.
B. Passage A suggests Melissinos believes people should consider video games to be merely entertainment, while Passage B suggests Melissinos
believes people should consider them to be art.
C. Both passages suggest Melissinos believes people should consider video games that are used for educational purposes to be art.
D. Both passages suggest Melissinos believes people should consider early video games to be art but more recent video games to be merely entertainment.
10. Which of the following questions is answered in both
passages?
F. How many video games are featured in The Art of Video Games ?
G. Which elements of The Art of Video Games came from Melissinos’s personal collection?
H. How long was The Art of Video Games featured at the Smithsonian American Art Museum?
J. Which video game designers does Melissinos consider to be the best?