Final Writing Assignment

Axel Stockburger and Robbie Cooper

Axel Stockburger is an artist from London and Vienna who specializes in game art. He has done videos and photo galleries about the cosplay phenomenon, technology in relation to nature, fandoms, and gamer culture in general. As of now Stockburger works at the Department for Visual Arts and Digital Media/ Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna.

One of Stockburger’s videos, Ork Warrior, shows a Chinese fan of World of Warcraft playing the game while wearing a replica of the mask his avatar wears. In the description of the video, Stockburger says his work “plays with the borders between fiction and reality and the real world environment of this Chinese Fan.”

Ork Warrior from Axel Stockburger on Vimeo.

Robbie Cooper, originally from the UK and Kenya, is an artist working in “photography, video, and explorable 3D.” Cooper is currently working on a project called “Immersion,” which is a series of videos recording people as they play video games, watch television and browse the Internet.

Before doing “Immersion,” Cooper worked on a project called “Alter Ego,” where he took photographs of gamers in real life and then created a diptych with their online avatars and compared the two.

Both of these artists are taking a new and rapidly developing medium and seeing how its users relate to it. What’s different about this medium, though, is its interactivity with its viewers. Video games allow the viewer/participator to be a part of the art and now with Internet capabilities even allow them to contribute.

While many may not think gaming and its constituents are a form of art, looking back at the newly emerging medium of video will disprove most, if not all, arguments that video games and other interactive forms of art cannot be valued.

Marshal McLuhan, the author of The Medium Is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects, wrote about new media in the 1960’s:

Any one of our new media is in a sense a new language, a new codification of experience collectively achieved by new work habits and inclusive collective awareness. The new media are not ways of relating us to the old “real” world; they are the real world and they reshape what remains of the old world at will.

In The Language of New Media Lev Manovich explains exactly what new media entails, one of the proponents being interactivity:

New media is interactive. In contrast to old media where the order of presentation is fixed, the user can now interact with the media object. In the process of interaction the user can choose which elements to display or which paths to follow, thus generating a unique work. In this way the user becomes the co-author of the work.

With the art of video games the above has never been truer. An artist presents the gamer with options, which in turn allows the gamer to be their own artist and decide what they want to do in order to create their own experience. Cooper and Stockburger did not create these games, but they created works that attest to the gaming experience and its impact on its participators.

The artists that embrace emerging mediums are the most impactful ones. While gaming may not be the same thing now that it will be in sixty years, both Cooper and Stockburger are one of the few that are helping to shape the art form and its influence. Much like video as an art form, it will take some time for more interactive art forms to gain the respect that analog art forms have accumulated over centuries.

Cooper and Stockburger are not only showing the value of gaming as an art form, but through their works they have also showed the social impact that games have had on our lives. “Ork Warrior” and “Alter Ego,” though done through different mediums, do a brilliant job of portraying how, for many gamers; games are not just a pastime but also a part of their lives.

“Ork Warrior” was effective because seeing the gamer appear on screen wearing the mask after watching him play World of Warcraft for quite some time was a surprise. The simplicity of the video helped contrast the real world reality with the in game reality. The sound and the minimal video show how basic gaming is, but once you see the gamer playing with an Ork mask on you understand what's going on. To me, the mask is not just something the gamer is wearing, but more so an extension of himself. 

“Alter Ego,” specifically the diptych of the physically disabled man, Jason Rowe, and his avatar, was also effective because of its contrast. This photo is interesting because it portrays gaming as a way of escape from this man’s handicaps. Rowe's character can also be seen as an extension of himself, because without his character Rowe could not find himself doing many of the things he does.

“The difference between me and my online character is pretty obvious,” said Rowe in an interview with Cooper. “I have a lot of physical disabilities in real life, but in Star Wars Galaxies I can ride an Imperial speeder bike, fight monsters, or just hang out with friends at a bar. I have some use of my hands – not much, but a little.”

Modern artists and video game artists reflect society in a way that those who don’t embrace new mediums can’t. People have adapted to a world that technology is constantly changing, and while Cooper and Stockburger’s art may be entirely different, their messages of virtual and reality crossovers are the same.

Robbie Cooper "Alter Ego"

I contacted both artists through their emails provided on their blogs about why they feel their work is significant in the art world but have received no responses yet. I will update this as soon as I receive responses!

Works Cited

Cooper, Robbie. Robbie Cooper. n.p., n.d. Web. 1 Nov. 2013.

Stockburger, Axel. Axel Stockburger. n.p., n.d. Web. 1 Nov. 2013.

Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media. n.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2013

Mcluhan, Marshal. The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects. n.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2013