[arg_discuss] Open Source ARGs

[Mark Heggen]

 "If they just likes the colours, that's OK, isn't it?"


Of course it is OK that people enjoy art to whatever depth and in whatever
doses they so choose. The problem emerges when the artists, and others
involved, believe that lots and lots of people are experiencing the works
when in fact this is not necessarily the case. The problem lies in the
reality gap, not simply the level of audience participation.

Imagine a studio where a team of dedicated painters spend months and months
laboring tirelessly over their paintings, working out each detail
meticulously. When they finish a painting it is placed lovingly in the front
window of a gallery below their studio, where it is largely ignored by
people walking by. As the painters hears the footsteps of the people passing
by they congratulate one another on the thousands and thousands of people
who must be enjoying their hard work, when in fact very few people took more
than a passing glance at the art.

This is not a healthy system. It isn't crime or a disaster, but it is not a
good way to reach people with your art and your message, nor is it a good
way help the painters grow in their craft. Things get even worse when the
painters attempt to convince local business owners (standing in for
advertisers in the analogy) and academics that their paintings are in fact
reaching a lot of people. If you were aware of the situation you wouldn't be
right to force the painters to stop their work, but you probably ought to
let people know what was really happening.

Regarding the Sex Pistols; the notion that the Sex Pistols started their
musical career never having HEARD a full song is preposterous. The Sex
Pistols, being active participants in a culture, were deeply steeped in a
musical history and a musical zeitgeist which influenced and shaped their
own work tremendously. Someone creating an ARG without having ever played
another ARG fully is not like someone without a traditional sculpture
education teaching themselves to sculpt; it is more like someone reading the
first half of the Wikipedia article on opera and then trying to create their
own opera. This wouldn't be unholy or apocalyptic, but it would deserve a
healthy dose of skeptical attention.

_Mark