Integrating Games Into the Artworld: A Methodology and Case Study Exploring the Work of Jason Rohrer

The game designer Jason Rohrer has self-identified as an artist. By doing so enters his work into a critique process that, according to James Elkins, dates back to the Romantic period in which artists are evaluated by peers on an individualized basis according to the ideals and creative direction they produce in the form of written and verbal artifacts. Arthur Danto calls these artifacts “artistic identification” in his essay, “The Artworld,” written in 1964. The study applies this critique method to Rohrer’s work in the game medium and asks how it fares when subjected to what Howard Becker calls, “a continuous process of selection” through critique. It asks, finally, how can knowing this methodology help to elucidate the path for the eventual full-fledged integration of games into the Artworld.