Philosophers don't like 8-bits
by Analeigh ulrich
Feeling nostalgic, many artists now find themselves with a growing affinity for “8-bit art”. The basic set up for this kind of art is creating an image in the fashion of old-styled video games from the late seventies up to the early nineties. While most people will find art like this aesthetically pleasing, Walter Benjamin would have a hissy-fit if he saw the distasteful art of today.
The types of 8-bit art used today are not to just create a playable world for us to control and cry about. The style of 8-bit is also used to create music, paintings, and even 3-D art. If we step back and really think about the colorful hypnotic images being portrayed in front of us we might find that they are in fact just copies of past objects. Of course that’s what all art is right? Yeah, nope. According to Benjamin real art has uniqueness and history. While certain types of 8-bit art can be considered unique to look at, the style its self is “stolen”. In that sense it is not unique at all. It would be considered the opposite of original to him. It is, what is considered by many people today to be art, the use of blocks of color to portray a cartoonish version of certain object most of the time. It is the copying of a style that video game systems used in the dinosaur ages to recreate the image of another image of another image. It can’t get anymore unoriginal than that if you ask Benjamin.
This guy Benjamin can be classified as just a grumpy old guy with a big mouth, and a bunch of opinions like, photography is a sham of an art because it takes no effort for a bunch of lazy vegetables to just push a button that captures a still image of what is unique and beautiful. He was a smart man though and I’m sure he knows what he’s talking about. He states that all that is considered original has over time lost this thing called “aura” becomes people are nasty thieves and copy down what is isn’t theirs. And this has been going on for ages. “Aura” is the uniqueness of a piece of art. He starts off saying old pieces of art aren’t original ANYMORE, but they were at one point. Later he says that even painting a landscape is copying like the work of Mother Nature, so it sounds like nothing we create is actually original. He also goes on a mini rant about film and photography being the epitome of unoriginal “art”. These are just capturing the images of other people or nature’s work. It also doesn’t take any effort to do.
I actually find 8-bit art cute and entertaining, but Benjamin would say otherwise. Even if it is an abstract painting of absolutely nothing traceable to something in nature it is not art. Why? Because it is a style taken from something that was made for a different purpose. It also uses technology to create the music using 8-bit sounds and that is a big no-no in his book. He would say something like, “ Hey why don’t create something a little more original big guy? So we can actually tolerate your art.” Sounds bad, but I do respect his opinions, and I can kind of see what he is talking about. I mean, when a world famous artist of any kind begins a new work of art he pulls from inspiration. It is almost impossible to not do this. Almost everyone famous today whether it is One Direction or famous directors like Steven Spielberg, they all pull from their biggest inspirations. You can see or hear similarities between arts of today and yesterday.
So while we adore the cuteness of totally unoriginal 8-bit art, Walter Benjamin can go ahead whine about it all he wants because we can’t help it dude, we just love what inspires us!
The types of 8-bit art used today are not to just create a playable world for us to control and cry about. The style of 8-bit is also used to create music, paintings, and even 3-D art. If we step back and really think about the colorful hypnotic images being portrayed in front of us we might find that they are in fact just copies of past objects. Of course that’s what all art is right? Yeah, nope. According to Benjamin real art has uniqueness and history. While certain types of 8-bit art can be considered unique to look at, the style its self is “stolen”. In that sense it is not unique at all. It would be considered the opposite of original to him. It is, what is considered by many people today to be art, the use of blocks of color to portray a cartoonish version of certain object most of the time. It is the copying of a style that video game systems used in the dinosaur ages to recreate the image of another image of another image. It can’t get anymore unoriginal than that if you ask Benjamin.
This guy Benjamin can be classified as just a grumpy old guy with a big mouth, and a bunch of opinions like, photography is a sham of an art because it takes no effort for a bunch of lazy vegetables to just push a button that captures a still image of what is unique and beautiful. He was a smart man though and I’m sure he knows what he’s talking about. He states that all that is considered original has over time lost this thing called “aura” becomes people are nasty thieves and copy down what is isn’t theirs. And this has been going on for ages. “Aura” is the uniqueness of a piece of art. He starts off saying old pieces of art aren’t original ANYMORE, but they were at one point. Later he says that even painting a landscape is copying like the work of Mother Nature, so it sounds like nothing we create is actually original. He also goes on a mini rant about film and photography being the epitome of unoriginal “art”. These are just capturing the images of other people or nature’s work. It also doesn’t take any effort to do.
I actually find 8-bit art cute and entertaining, but Benjamin would say otherwise. Even if it is an abstract painting of absolutely nothing traceable to something in nature it is not art. Why? Because it is a style taken from something that was made for a different purpose. It also uses technology to create the music using 8-bit sounds and that is a big no-no in his book. He would say something like, “ Hey why don’t create something a little more original big guy? So we can actually tolerate your art.” Sounds bad, but I do respect his opinions, and I can kind of see what he is talking about. I mean, when a world famous artist of any kind begins a new work of art he pulls from inspiration. It is almost impossible to not do this. Almost everyone famous today whether it is One Direction or famous directors like Steven Spielberg, they all pull from their biggest inspirations. You can see or hear similarities between arts of today and yesterday.
So while we adore the cuteness of totally unoriginal 8-bit art, Walter Benjamin can go ahead whine about it all he wants because we can’t help it dude, we just love what inspires us!