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The latest in art publishing, reviewed by art information
professionals and published on a bimonthly basis.

Works of Game: On the Aesthetics of Games and Art

by John Sharp. MIT Press, April 2015. 146 p. ill. ISBN 9780262029070 (cl.), $19.95.

Reviewed September 2015 Joan Jocson-Singh, Order Unit Librarian, Butler Library, Columbia
University Libraries, jmj2176@columbia.edu

Part of MIT's Playful Thinking series, Works of

Game, by John Sharp, offers an insightful and
thoughtful look at the visual art within video games.
Sharp's background as associate professor of Games
and Learning at Parsons-The New School for Design
informs this work with a visionary look at how
game-based art creates an aesthetic.

Referencing influential game design case studies,

Sharp identifies three creator groups whose work
moves from conceptual ideas to virtual realizations
within game creation; they are game art/artists,
artgames, and artists' games.

The first group, game artists, appropriate subjects,

storylines, and objects from video games to create
their own art. Sharp references the work of game
artist Julian Oliver, who used a video game engine
bug from Quake III that distorted images to make
colorful abstract visual art, illustrating the idea of
using games for purposes other than recreation.

Sharp then explains the emergence of the second group, artgames, as games designed to be a
medium for artists working to explore their craft, referencing games like Passage, Castle
Doctrine, and Train. More aligned with traditional art-making, they are aimed at imparting both
a functional goal for the player as well as an experience which imparts a social, intellectual, or
noble insight. Artgames engage both player and creator with a sense of exploration and
investigation, as well as reflexivity that other forms of expression—like poetry, music and
painting—previously occupied.

Finally, Sharp discusses the emergence of artists' games as the product of a coalescence of
engineers, artists, and players, merging the two previous groups' approaches of game art and

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 ARLIS/NA Reviews
ISSN 2374-4723 | arlisna.org/arlisna-reviews
The latest in art publishing, reviewed by art information
professionals and published on a bimonthly basis.

artgame. Sharp argues that this group's contemporary art and game communities produce a
new aesthetic in which a game's intersectionality with art, performance, design, purpose, and
production are satisfied. For this, Sharp discusses videogames like Bill Viola's The Night Journey
and Mary Flanagan's Giant JoyStick, artists' games that address self-exploration and
collaboration.

Throughout, the text engages with questions like, "What tools are necessary to make it?" or
"What are the techniques and principles that lead to the best works?" Asking such questions
brings into focus considerations relevant to each of the three groups, illustrated by anecdotal
evidence of innovation and imaginative game aesthetics.

Totaling 146 pages, the book fits alongside its brothers, with each volume addressing a variety
of game-related topics that should appeal to an audience from novice to seasoned academic.
The back of the book includes chapter notes, as well as a bibliography and works cited section.
Overall, the book is a compelling text for both academics and game culture aficionados who are
interested in concepts of game design and contemporary art.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To
view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO
Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.