One of the most-derided opinions film critic Roger Ebert ever had was one that, to him, probably seemed like the most anodyne: video games were not art.
“Let me just say that no video gamer now living will survive long enough to experience the medium as an art form,” Ebert proclaimed in a post to his website on April 6, 2010. It was the kind of statement that, while innocuous to a critic who regularly interrogated the broader popular culture, set off a firestorm of backlash among the gaming community.
In a follow-up post a few months later, Ebert wrote, “I was a fool for mentioning video games in the first place. I would never express an opinion on a movie I hadn’t seen. Yet I declared as an axiom that video games can never be art. I still believe this, but I should never have said so.”
Oklahoma Contemporary Arts Center just held the grand opening for its newest visiting exhibition and multimedia art installation, “Open World,” where visitors and Oklahoma Contemporary members will be able to experience the medium of video games as an art form from now until Feb. 21.