And isn't nature wonderful....

But is this art, as 17th century civil war rock group The Levellers once said.... now, in a month that brought us a new labour leader, a row about halal meat, a papal visit, and other such malarkey, we now have discussion in New Scientist magazine no less, as to whether video games can be art...

Now, those of you who know the Beard will be aware of his non-predeliction for the pastime that is video gaming... despite of, or possibly due to his enthusiasm for proper roleplaying games, such as Dungeons and Dragons and The Call of Cthulhu, the beard has yet to find a video game, regardless of console, concept or construction, that grabs his attention for more tahn a few moments... even the highly regarded Lego Star Wars achieved only a half hour... despite the hirsute one admitting a liking for both Lego and Star Wars....but I digress...

A brief discussion with a certain young electrical salesman of my aquaintance who does play such things only served to reinforce my own opinion... we both acknowledged the level of skill involved in the design of such games, and the artistic merit of some of the illustrations, for want of a better word... but as i said at the time, that's just having art in something, not something being art... for example, if someone in the amazingly tedious Holby City happens to be carrying The Haywain, does that make the antics of some peopel pretending to be in the medical profession art? I don't believe anyone would say so... which brings us to the nub of the matter... in order to say whether a game itself qualifies as art, we need to see it as a whole thing, an entity complete in itself....which of course leads to the Beard's answer...

It depends....

Which I will admit is neither useful nor enlightening... but then is art? What, for example, is art? Is a play by Shakespeare art, or is it simply artistic or artful? And believe me, there is a difference.... now, I think that art is a very personal thing... and it means different things to different people... now, lets take The Laughing Cavalier... is it art? Now, personally, and this is just my view, I have to say its not.... and neither is the painting that most people think of as the Mona Lisa... that is the one in the Louvre, as opposed to the proper one which is, if I remember correctly, somewhere in the south of England.... honestly... what Paris has is La Gioconda, which is a totally different painting altogether... and doesn't even match contemporary descriptions of the Mona.. but I digress..

The fact is that The Beard is of the opinion that neither of the two works mentioned are in fact art... well executed, definitely, works of immense skill, indisputably... but not art... whereas putting traffic cones on a sculpture in Leicester is... which brings us back to the question of what is art, and can video games be it...??

Well, as I say, it depends... in the mind of the Beard, art is something indefinable, and if we manage to actually define it, well, I for one will be slightly displeased... some would disagree that books or movies can be art... or that buildings can be, or the work of committees... but I believe that art, like beauty and Ed Milliband, is in the eye of the beholder... that is, if the observer experiences it as art, then it is art... now some would argue that art should be deliberately created... whereas I would argue that things can become art totally without their consent... but regardless of this, I think art should have some element of expression in in on the part of the (intentional or unintentional) artist... but most of all, it must resonate in the observer...

Now, lets take the Laughing Cavalier.... while not belittling illustration, which i believe to be a useful, intricate and difficult skill, the Cav is an illustration. It was basically equivalent to going and having your photo taken, and skilled and beautiful as some photos are, its not often that portrait photography is accused of being art.... now, some illustration can be art, but a lot isn't... in the case of the Cav, there wa sno deliberate expression of feeling, and although I can admire the skill, it resonates not one jot...

Now, lets take the Humbercones... for those who don't know, these are big green baize cones on a traffic island in Leicester... art? Definitely... overpriced not very good art? Possibly... as I say, that's very subjective... now, as for the "vandals" who regulary place stolen traffic cones atop these green things... well, I would call them artists too... this is after all an act of self expression, and it connects with a lot of people...it even has a hint of irony about it...

So, the Beard's conclusion is that a video game could be art, if it is seen as such... but I must add that just as I have never seen a book or movie that I would describe as art, so have I never seen a video game that qualifies... but you may have....

Now, as I may or may not have mentioned, the Beard has nothing against halal meat.... it keeps better and doesn't leave a smelly residue in plastic bags... and as for the method of slaughter, well, it wasn't that long ago that everyone killed animals in the same way... the only difference being that we left half the blood in the animal rather than waiting for it to be fully drained... and studies in Germany suggest that stunning the animals first may actually lead to more distress than cutting their throats without stunning... and a lot of halal slaughterers stun anyway...

In a related thing, a study of those strange beings known as people has shown what the Beard has already known for a long time... that faced with information that challenges a persons moral stance, that person is more likely to change morals rather than behaviour... for example, finding out that chickens farmed for a restaurant are kept in small cages does not lead to people boycotting said establishment... it instead leads to people saying to themselves, "well, if we didn't farm intensively, we couldn't grow enough food..."

Now, the Beard has always remained true to his morals.. but then they were always pretty low anyway... I've always been pro battery hen, pro factory farm, and pro genetic modification... after all, people have got to eat, and I have no wish to go back to a time when eggs and chicken and indeed meat are seen as luxury items... and as I don't like meat with blood in it (on the rare occasions I eat a beef steak, it has to be well done, with no blood at all...) then I have no problem with halal meat... and to those who say they have religious objections, well, try saying a prayer to your god over the meat... and to those christians who say that god won't accept that, well, please remember that when you're decorating your christmas tree (Isaiah anyone?)... and don't go into any Indian restaurants... or buyt New Zealand lamb for that matter... lets be honest, Christians should be eating kosher meat, and halal is identical... as are the Muslim, Judaic and Christian Gods... so they should have no problems with each other foods... unless the spectre of tradition and hypocrisy creeps in... as if it would....

But it grows late, and the Beard grows shaggy.... it remains only to say that I hope Ed Milliband decides what to be, and that until we all become artful without dodging, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A worrying time...

is usually five in the morning, unless the Beard is still asleep... but today the Beard, while ascending to the heights of Foel Fras, and indeed ascending to the heights on Foel Fras with the incredibly beautiful FMB, was struck by a sudden nagging concern... triggered by a memory of a Russian girl in a supermarket.... of which more later... or even now... to cut a short story long, said girl was astounded many moons back at the great British idea of putting on a tin a picture of the foodstuff in said tin... until she saw the cat food and was horrified... now, the Beard thinks, what if she had seen baby food... but this led the Beard to worry about labeling... for example, we all know what sunflower oil is.. and sesame oil, peanut oil, olive oil... but what of the horror that is baby oil... and the Beard has often visited pork butcher in search of cut up pig and sausage, but the father of a friend of beard Junior claims to be a family butcher.. should the police be informed...

But i digress... it is nearly midnight, and this short entry must suffice... but until all our sausages become emulsified high fat offal tubes, Wisebeard salutes you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1