Corn, Beans and Squash: The Limits of Video Games as an Artform? (A Ramble)

 So, this (and a number of other topics I hope to get around to eventually) has been on my mind lately, and I thought I'd make a short post about it, to see if I can get my thoughts in order.

As I've shared before in this blog (when I was developing the video game [zu]), I've been interested in the expressive and artistic potential of video games ever since high school, and have since then been interested in learning to develop short games that express ideas or feelings in ways that other artforms cannot do. I very clearly think this is possible, otherwise I would not have developed [zu] the way I did, and previous experiences with games such as The Beginner's Guide, Disco Elysium, Night in the Woods, Kentucky Route Zero, Dear Esther, and even The Outer Wilds and A Short Hike, not to mention the works of artists like Kitty Horrorshow, Cosmo D, Bryce Bucher, among others (or the fascinating Interactive Fiction experiences crafted by artists like Steve Meretzky, Andrew Plotkin, Emily Short, Porpentine, etc... The list truly goes on), have only helped confirm this notion.

However, lately I've been working with a group of Mexican and German artists in Cologne whose work centers around teaching and preserving the traditional Mesoamerican method of the milpa, and in doing so, incorporate important topics like sustainable agriculture, agricultural history and politics, social commentary, and back-to-the-land post-colonial philosophy. These topics also feel incredibly relevant in my life right now, as last year when I was writing my Master thesis about Appalachia, I came into contact with authors like Wendell Berry and bell hooks, who have deeply influenced my Christianity and shown me the importance of tending and connecting to the land as the foundation of all human work, culture, and spirituality. Around the same time, I also was able to visit my good friend Pia in southern Spain, where she was working with a sustainable agricultural regeneration project, and whose beautiful thoughts on the intersection between agriculture, spirituality and human sexuality have also deeply influenced my own understanding of the world.

The work that the folks at Maiz TreeMedia, as the project is called, do to teach about milpa and Mesoamerican sustainable agriculture, incorporates a number of artforms that are meant to be both didactic and provoking, and include music, poetry, painting, theater, and crafts. They also, after every event they are invited to, look for a patch of land to plant a new small milpa in, and freely share maize, bean, squash, chili, and other kinds of seeds for people to plant in their own garden. Their work is also funded by programs of the German government for education in land and sustainability, and by both Protestant and Catholic initiatives for the arts and social development. I'm happy and grateful to be able to take part in such a project, and of course, the more involved I become, the more ideas I've gotten for future projects I could suggest... such as a video game that incorporates the different ideas they have around the milpa...

And now we're getting to the meat corn, beans and squash of things...

I've only shared this still-very-vague initiative (I'm not even calling it an idea yet) to two of the members I'm closest with. One of them was excited about it, and thought it would be a good idea. The second person wasn't so sure, and their thoughts about why have left me with an inner tension I'm seeking to resolve here. Of course, this is not about whether video games can actually be artworks at all, but rather, their thoughts did leave me thinking about the limits that digital art more broadly has regarding these topics.

You see, a video game would not fit within the concept of Maiz TreeMedia, because their main interest is getting people to go outside and learn about sustainable agriculture through first-hand experience. This is why planting a new milpa wherever we go is key to the work this group is doing. In other words: music, poetry, painting, theater, and crafts all provide hands-on, real-life experiences that easily incorporate feeling the actual seeds and soil, planting and preparing the actual milpa, and incorporating the smells and sensations that are so crucial to an art project like ours into a didactic experience. This, of course, immediately reminded me of the Platonic concept of "Art as Imitation", or the idea that all art merely copies the forms and shapes of reality, and thus provides only an illusion of the Forms that constitute actual reality, what in English is called "Platonic idealism" (tbh, I'm not really all too familiar with the Platonic tradition, though I would like to, as it has influenced so much of the Christian thought that interests me, for better or worse. However, this is just a small disclaimer that I'm not sure how much of what I say here about Plato's theory of Forms is accurate or relevant, and that at least I have The Platonic Tradition: Understanding Plato's Impact Through The Ages by Peter Kreeft on my backlog of books to-be-read-soon, thank you very much). But even if this association with Plato is not all too accurate, it does seem like a fundamental problem of video games, but also to a certain degree of all digital art, is that any interaction with the artwork will be necessarily mediated through a virtual technology, such as a computer. What I mean is that, you can sure simulate the action of planting a seed or plowing the land, and you can certainly simulate an environment in which to "grow a milpa", and interact with objects that share some music or poetry to reinforce the key concepts that the game is exploring. You can set rules and timers to limit the amount of interaction users have with the game, and you can certainly include multi-medial elements like video, text, audio, etc., to connect the game with the real world, you can even use VR technology to allow players to use their actual hands to interact with your game world, but in the end, all the interaction has to be mediated through the computer, unlike music and poetry that you listen to live, or real soil that you work with your real hands.

Adding to this, video games about agriculture only very rarely interrogate the philosophical and metaphysical background within which they operate. Taking Stardew Valley as an example, which is a game that even textually criticizes the material realities of capitalism and industrial agriculture... even there, the ways players interact with the land: expanding resources, accumulating capital, and automating agricultural processes, often fall squarely within the logic of the system they themselves are trying to critique. More often than not, in agricultural simulation games like Stardew Valley and the whole genre of "cozy games" which sprung after its release, the approach to managing resources, labor, and even community often center around gameplay loops that reward the player with more and more accumulation, where any communal aspects are usually incorporated clearly for the sole gratification of the player, and for the player character to act as mediator and hero for the community that fosters them throughout the game. While not all agricultural games are like this (I can immediately think of the mini-game in Die Gute Fabrik's Mutazione as a good counter-example), it will be important to consider and challenge this legacy in video game epistemology of escapism when developing a milpa game that is consistent with Maiz TreeMedia's artistic concept.

Now, the problem that I have actually seems to be better described as how to incorporate a "milpa video game" into Maiz TreeMedia's concept? Can there be a game that successfully, artistically communicates the experience of planting a milpa? Or that can explore the complex and often tragic history of agricultural colonialism and displacement that followed the Spanish conquest of Mesoamerica from early modernity into today, and into the future? Or that successfully provokes players to become more educated and involved in the chains of food production that affect their daily lives? I mean, I personally believe so... In fact, I'm sure it should be possible to do this, just as there are books and documentaries that achieve the same things. Video games as an artform can participate in this process using their own strengths, although it will be important to also recognize their weaknesses as digital art, which I discussed above. However, any attempt at making a worthwhile project like this will have to interrogate some assumptions about existing video game development philosophies, and make a convincing claim to people who are not familiar with video games as an artform at the same time...

But on the other hand, many cultural and political institutions already exist precisely to fund projects similar to this, and I at least know that something like the Medienkunstförderung of the Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft NRW, or the Film und Medien Stiftung NRW, would be a potential source of funding for a project along the lines of what I've discussed above. (Again, this is just a vague notion, I have no concrete ideas at this stage yet). There are also many artist collectives and development studios in Mexico that would probably be interested in developing something like this, I'm sure... And even then, a few years ago, Maiz TreeMedia published a comic book artistically depicting the history of agriculture and colonialism, like I mentioned above, and this also has the same fundamental "weakness" that a video game would have: the art is unavoidably mediated through the piece of paper on which it's printed.

I don't know... I genuinely just needed to place my thoughts somewhere, which is precisely what this blog is increasingly here for (my writing does not feel as sharp in this piece as it does usually). I think that through this, I've ultimately decided that it would be a good idea to go through with proposing and defending this project, and probably insisting again and again in the value of such an endeavor when I'm inevitably met with resistance. Of course, I also first need to spend some more time getting involved in Maiz TreeMedia, and become a part of the community inside the collective, but also learn more about video game development and design while I do so. There are already other projects we have ahead that motivate me, so like everything, I can be wise and patient, and see where this goes. I also already have one ally in this proposal, so maybe it will be less difficult than I expect. Perhaps, if there is a lot of resistance to the idea, I can suggest preparing a demo and a written pitch, and use this project more like a marketing tool for the artist collective (Kollektiv Tonalli, which is the name of the parent organization of Maiz TreeMedia), to invite people to become aware of our work, and invite them to attend one of our events, which usually take place outdoors either way, so there would probably be no video games either way lol... And even if this doesn't work out with them, I'm sure there are other people and artists in the region who would be really interested in such a notion, to push the limits of video games as an artform. What's cool about this, and what makes me most excited, is the potential to really explore the artistic possibilities of this form in ways that have seldom been explored before. No matter what, I'm looking forward to seeing where this project might go next!