PhD Thesis:
Art and Thought-provoking Entertainment
My PhD research started with the hypothesis that Art and entertainment can coexist together without diminishing each other. This idea began during my time in my master’s degree, but the focus of my thesis back then was in the playful character of some selected pieces of Art.
This was a generative research that I led during my PhD program in Brasília University (UnB, Brasília, Brasil). The objective of this study was to understand the relationship between two apparently opposite fields, Art and entertainment.
Background and Goals
Since the Pop Art in the Sixties the Art and the Mass Media culture were mangled in some ways. Now art, media and entertainment have some overlaps between each others fields. In this specific research I was trying to discuss the art in the realm of videogames, that are the exponent of the entertainment industry, and how, in the same time, the entertainment influences art today.
I was questioning myself about what is so charming about triple-A games or indie games, why use 8-bit visuals even though there are other options available, and the profile of those who consume these games, or what they look for in each of them, since the same user can consume both types.
-
Understand what relevant worldwide scholars talk about this subject.
-
Show each phase of the research in congress to discuss and validate with colleagues and peers.
-
Understand how Art and entertainment work together and the nature of this relationship.
-
Understand the difference in profile between consumers of different styles of games.
Methods
This was a mixed method research, but the main methods were the qualitative and evaluative research through Design Thinking, or The Double Diamond process: discovering, defining, developing and delivering. I also conducted many interviews.
The Discovery is a huge part of the process because we have huge amount of others researches to read and analyze them. After the analyze step we start defining what findings will fit better in our project and help us develop our research. We deliver our final thesis in the end of the four years period, but during the whole program we deliver small portions of it.
Development
Games are such a large universe that labeling them as just one thing is useless, just like visual arts, there are so many forms of expression that it will never please everyone.
Being aware of this segmentation of the product, and art is a product too, is knowing who to communicate with and how to communicate, this improves retention, player engagement, LTV.
Why couldn't a game like Monument Valley be considered a work of art, if in some way it draws inspiration from and expands on the magical universes created by the renowned artist Escher?
Key learnings
-
This subject was more freely and openly discussed outside of Brazil.
-
Art and Entertainment can coexist together and I proposed a new terminology “thought-provoking entertainment”, that is an entertainment that isn’t just for pleasure itself, but aims for more, just like an art piece.
