Duchamp and Default Dan

Brief History Lesson

In the 1920s, war was something that concerned virtually everyone. During that time society, as a whole, was faced with a war that was far greater than anyone in history had experienced until then. And, as artists tend to do, a movement was born from the overwhelming nationalism that resulted from the war. Perhaps the most interesting of these movements born is Dada.

There aren't rules in dada... necessarily. It is an art form based on dismantling rationalism, patriotism, and logic, all things that saturated WWI Europe. The movement wasn't specific to any medium, like Baroque or Realism. You could use anything to create your chaos filled piece.

How does Dada relate to gaming? Well, when I first watched Game Grumps playthrough of Default Dan, a very familiar (and famous) piece of art came to mind.

Duchamp Fountaine" by Marcel Duchamp - Original picture by Stieglitz. 

Licensed under Public Domain viaWikimedia Common

Fountain's history is a pretty interesting one. If you don't already know about it, essentially, Duchamp got a urinal in the mail, signed it "R. Mutt," dated it, and submitted it to an art show to an institution where he was a board member. The urinal never made it to display and Duchamp resigned. Duchamp was breaking all of the rules, never before had such an object been called "Art."

How Gaming Fits In

Default Dan [spoiler alert... maybe?] takes everything you've ever learned about video games, and smashes it to the ground. I know, you spent your childhood collecting coins to save Princess Peach, but in this world those coins will kill you. Those spikes are the only way you'll reach that super high platform, and falling into the abyss may be your only option.

Kikiwik Games (Default Dan's developer) hardly had a new concept on their hands. However, it was the first game that I've seen that made me reflect so much on a specific genre of art in relation to a video game.

I highly doubt Kikiwik created the game in order to dismantle the industry trends in platforming side scrollers, but to rather dismantle these trends in order to create a game that is challenging only because it breaks you of old habits. While Default Dan probably isn't a game we will be studying in our collegiate game studies courses, I do think that it is a game that is a first draft in a new genre of gaming. It is the recognition and study of these new and current genres that will put gamers, developers, and game artists on the same level as those who study Renoir or Picasso.