REALISM (Last weeks Lecture)

I find the subject of  Realism quite complex and sometimes even confusing but find it fascinating at the same time. I kinda see it as a way of looking at things by gauging how close it is to the "real thing", like realism in a game where there are super accurate reloads of a gun, which is essentially imitating reality. I found the story of  Zeuxis and Parrhasius competing to see who could imitate life more accurately highly interesting as it encourages the same idea of  Illusionism. This is also supported in Aristotle's ‘On the Art of Poetry’; man is fixated on re-representing themselves and the world around them. This is an interesting concept with my thoughts centring around how even though we live and essentially that proves that we "are" we are fixated on proving we exist by documenting everything. Of course things like pictures are taken to remind us of good times and memories but it is almost as if by doing this we're trying to reassure ourselves that we are real i.e "I have done things and I have proof of this so I was there and I am here now".

I like the concept of Realism also being (especially in creative circles) a persons adaptation of  the current reality; imitating reality or certain aspects and manipulating them into their own point of view. I found this in the hyper-realistic artwork of Ron Mueck. I think his art is absolutely amazing, the level of realism in the hair and proportions of features are astounding but even the texture of the skin looks like it would be soft to the touch, his work looks like it could just stand up at any point and wonder off! However he plays around with scale to encourage emotion or to simply make you think not just about the piece more but think deeper into the idea of morality. This makes me feel that another aspect of  Realism could even be said to be a questioning of current realities or testing boundaries.

Artwork by Ron Mueck:

I found some artwork by Mark Jenkins that was really cool, i feel it is another form of imitating life and manipulating it even to the point where the subjects are placed in real environments but some unusual situations.

http://twistedsifter.com/2009/10/art-with-packaging-tape-mark-jenkins/

In yesterdays seminar we discussed the subject of Realism in games, about how developers are obsessed with creating more and more realistic experiences either graphically or the way you interact with things like objects, other characters or environments. It has been said that games are becoming too real but I feel that first and foremost a game is what it is; a game. You dont sit down to a game and say "Hey I'm really slaying this gargantuan beast!" although the way your character is moving is super realistic or the way the blood spews out of the monster is just right. The idea of games becoming too real is obviously more relevant to games actually imitating real things that are capable of happening like war (being able to shoot people ect) but these are still not real things that everyday people are susceptible to but the debate is about whether creating games like this is encouraging peoples behaviour into thinking more in this way. Like I said before I dont really believe this, if people are going to go on mad rampages then they had tendencies to do this before hand, not too say a game (could even be classed as a simulation) could not enrich their ideas to do this but I think in no way it could possible spout entirely new ideas.
I think some of the best games adapt reality with un-real things or integrate real assets into a make believe world. This makes you want to immerse yourself  into an entirely new world because there is the spectacle of new exciting things but there are familiar things you can cling onto so you still feel connected rather than lost. This is what I feel the whole point of gaming is, you play to get lost, to discover new things. Why bother play a game that looks hyper realistic when your simply sitting there pressing buttons. This is why game play is integral, you cant just rely on something looking nice without the muscle behind it, plus once a game is "so real its like real life" it becomes boring, you dont want to wait around for things or do tedious little tasks. Games can be highly involving though and perhaps these new found hyper-realistic aspects are dragging more people in but then I think back to old games like Tetras and  maybe even things like Sonic the Hedgehog. these games had a low level of "reality" in them but were still highly addictive and you would get lost in their tiny worlds.
And to be honest when a game is created effectively, with believable and exciting content  (such as characters, environments, back story) and is capable of making you feel emotion then it should be classed a reality in its own right.