art press 2 Issue on Video Games: Surfaces and Depths

The February-March-April 2013 issue of art press 2, titled "Jeux vidéo, surfaces et profondeurs," explores the impact of video games on contemporary art and culture. The editorial notes that since the 1980s, when Super Mario's mustache compensated for low-resolution pixels, video games have evolved into highly realistic, illusionistic universes that now permeate the visual arts, as seen in galleries and art fairs. Many artists, even non-gamers, are influenced by video game aesthetics—framing, synthetic décors, shadowless light—and structurally by elastic time, non-linear narratives, and bugs as "poetic accidents." The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York recently acquired ten historically significant video games. The issue does not aim to legitimize video games artistically or provide an exhaustive survey, but rather examines their effects across disciplines such as cinema, philosophy, art history, criticism, installation, and museography. It seeks to overcome two opposing views: condescending hierarchies that place video games below other image domains, and resistance to analyzing their visual and sonic components due to a narrow focus on ludic criteria. The goal is to immerse readers in video game images—their multiple surfaces, ageless characters, and enchanting décors—and reveal how they transform our relationship to reality, imagination, and memory, ultimately rediscovering the pleasure of play.