Art history is precisely what I would like to leave behind in today’s discussion,” announced Hamza Walker, education director of the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago. “The museum and gallery must forgo its claims to ‘legitimate’ culture, as the goods can only be deemed legit by members of that culture.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Walker was introducing the latest installation at the society’s art gallery, nestled among the classrooms at Cobb Hall. Q4U, by Beijing artist Feng Mengbo, is an overwhelming, immersive version of the kill-crazy computer game Quake 3. The gallery’s windows were heavily shaded to block out daylight, and a curved, waist-high desk held three computer mice that players could use to aim and fire ten types of weapons. Beyond the desk stood a trio of 10-by-13-foot video projection screens showing the game’s deep-space dungeon, with the barrel of the weapon visible at the bottom. The player, a “first-person shooter,” can move along corridors, up and down staircases, and across plazas, engaging in an endless firefight with humanoid enemies–in this case, images of the artist. Stereo speakers delivered a steady din of gunfire and explosions, while insults and salutes from other players popped up on-screen among the fireballs, gore, and debris. The Renaissance Society also runs a server, so people anywhere in the world can log on and play; in a sense, Q4U is a throwback to the old arcade scene of the 1980s, with state-of-the-art video and audio.
Video games have become a hot issue in China: in August 2000 China Daily reported a five-day crackdown in which more than 300,000 cops closed 1,014 video arcades and 323 mah-jongg rooms, and a year later, according to Beijing Youth Daily, about a thousand unlicensed computer-game parlors and Internet cafes were shut down. But Feng didn’t seem much interested in the political implications of his work. “If Quake had turned up during the Cultural Revolution, what would be the party line on it?” I asked him as we stood by the wine table. He stared blankly and asked me to simplify my question. “What does the government say about video games today?” I asked. This time he understood, but he dismissed the question: “I do my job. I’m very private. I don’t know about those things.”
