04.18.2011
Analysis by: Emily Greenquist
Vanitas
(Tale of Tales, Part 2)
"Vanitas" was commissioned
for the Art History of Games symposium
and exhibition
Savannah College of Art and Design / Georgia Institute of Technology Program in Digital Media
Savannah College of Art and Design / Georgia Institute of Technology Program in Digital Media
“Vanitas” is a contemporary variant on a classic art style, which contemplates the fleetingness of life.
Within a wooden drawer, three objects appear in randomized combination for the player to touch, study, and shake. Using the iPod Touch, the physical game play is like an adult rattle; however, the psychological game play is more complex. At times I felt like I was opening someone else’s locked drawer, a window into their secret desires, and at others I felt like the objects were my own; I was an amoral princess, lazily playing with my golden ball or, in this case, my pretty little death things – [a playing card, a dice, a note fragment], [a wine bottle, a key, a coin], [a skull, a skull, an egg].
Within a wooden drawer, three objects appear in randomized combination for the player to touch, study, and shake. Using the iPod Touch, the physical game play is like an adult rattle; however, the psychological game play is more complex. At times I felt like I was opening someone else’s locked drawer, a window into their secret desires, and at others I felt like the objects were my own; I was an amoral princess, lazily playing with my golden ball or, in this case, my pretty little death things – [a playing card, a dice, a note fragment], [a wine bottle, a key, a coin], [a skull, a skull, an egg].
These objects are found in traditional vanitas - still life paintings of the 16th and 17th century, typically associated with Northern Europe:
A vanitas painting contains collections of objects symbolic of the inevitability of death and the transience and vanity of earthly achievements and pleasures; it exhorts the viewer to consider mortality and to repent. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
In “Vanitas” (the game), the viewer is indeed asked to contemplate life while viewing the objects; however not to “repent,” rather to heal:
Sometimes, when you're depressed, it's good to see something depressing. A contemplation of the fleetingness of life. To help appreciate what you have. A meditative experience. A spiritual toy. A reminder of the preciousness of life. (Tale of Tales)
These reminders of “the preciousness of life” occur with each closing and opening of the drawer; objects transform, decay: the wine bottle breaks, the lady bug dies, a flower blooms and wilts. Everything dies, and like the Tale of Tales “The Graveyard,” there is nothing the player can do to prevent this death. In “Vanitas” we conquer the gravity of death by idly playing with it.
However, having recently lost my father to cancer, I have a meditation of life and death already in my immediate thoughts, and playing “Vanitas” is
not the remedy. From my current perspective,
the emotional intentions of “Vanitas” are best absorbed when one is without great loss, so that one is reminded that they are lucky to be so unburdened.
The intellectual implications of “Vanitas” I found more rewarding. This is not simply an “art game” it is Art. Art, even still life paintings, can be brought down from their roped space, played with, and better understood. With this modern answer to the traditional vanitas, games now participate in the grand History of Art.
Play Vanitas
The intellectual implications of “Vanitas” I found more rewarding. This is not simply an “art game” it is Art. Art, even still life paintings, can be brought down from their roped space, played with, and better understood. With this modern answer to the traditional vanitas, games now participate in the grand History of Art.
Play Vanitas
Special Thanks
To: Jo Ortel, my masterful and inspiring art history professor.
What do you think?...
Check back for regular updates to the games and links sections,
and offer your thoughts and recommendations at the suggestion box.
and offer your thoughts and recommendations at the suggestion box.