Game Art: Tom Durley's "I'd Rather Be Playing Tetris" (2007)

The most interesting artworks in the field of Game Art are often conceptual. An example is Tom Durley's I'd Rather Be Playing Tetris (2007), which sits under the umbrella of participatory art. In this piece, the audience was given the chance to either play a game of Tetris, which was set up in one room, or listen to a short talk delivered in another room".

Durley further elaborates:

"The audience were not told what the talk would be about and would not be able to hear it subsequently if they had chosen the video game, equally those who had chosen to listen to the talk would not have been allowed to play Tetris."

The Tetris in question is the 1989 NES game in its original form, not a hacked/modded version à là Cory Arcangel (consider, for instance, Super Slow Tetris, 2004). The talk in question was based on Durley's essay "Video Games and Relational Aesthetics", which attempted to examine the possible similarities between video games and some current art practices - this was part of a dissertation on the concept of fun in art.

What were the results? Durley explains: 

The audience was forced into having to make a decision that they would perhaps make quite often, yet not quite so obliquely - they had to choose between having fun (and being entertained) or listening to a talk about art. The group divided fairly evenly when presented with the opportunity, and both parties seemed slightly frustrated at only being allowed one of the two experiences. I found this audience tension very interesting and something which I became keen to elaborate on.

LINK: Tom Durley