Among all the overwhelming upheavals of the moment, there is one, which is apparently more anecdotal than many others, and deserves to be stopped: given that its total turnover is measured by the time devoted to it, video games are becoming the world’s leading cultural industry. They will overtake books, and have already overtaken cinema, music and many other art forms.
There is no doubt that the debate will be whether we can categorize video games in the cultural industry. Even if some of these games are of high artistic quality, at times with very creative universes, and even if some contemporary artists are starting to take an interest in them, they are not, strictly speaking, works of art. It could become so, as are certain films that inspire them, such as Avatar, for example. And also, because, like any work of art, it proposes a journey in an imaginary universe.
If it became an artistic activity in its own right, video games would cause a major shift in the nature of cultural consumption: so far, frequenting works of art took a limited time that was known in advance: we know the time it takes to read a book, listen to a musical work, or watch a movie. Even if we can see it again, re-read it, listen to it again, or linger endlessly in front of a painting, or in an exhibition or a museum. With video games, we have moved on to activities that can take up unlimited time: the consumer is an actor who can decide the duration of his trip and he may find new pleasures each time. Certainly, we already have the precursor by way of some interactive performances, whereby the viewer participates in the creation of the work and its duration. And with some exhibitions that encourage the viewer to live an experience, within the limits of opening hours.
This shift in cultural consumption with an infinite duration corresponds to a need of this current period: it allows to fill the increasingly long time made available by technical progress and increased life expectancy. It had to come to this.
Other forms of distraction have also arrived to fill the gap and also occupy this new time: thus, social media, which occupy a growing time: In January 2018, humanity spent one billion years on the Internet, of which 365 million on social media. And each person spends an average of more than five years of his life on social networks today compared to three years of cooking and eating. This is not only additional time but also time substituted for other activities. Thus, during the time spent each year on social networks, one could have read two hundred books or watched five hundred films.
Without a doubt, all this is not happening now by chance: it is always in times of crisis that new forms of cultural distraction are invented. Thus, the invention of the musical during the thirties. And today, once again, distraction masks the forthcoming anguish of the world.
Unless, once again, art tolls the bell of a world in peril and helps us wake up and take charge of ourselves: and, instead of forgetting the real through distraction, we choose to create art out of our lives.
j@attali.com