211. Changing The Game

When we think about how we can improve our lives, the range of our imagination is often limited. We have been raised and educated within the context of a given society. The options open to us seem predetermined by the ideals of that society and the existing lives of its members. Any possible change to the society itself seems unlikely or even impossible. We cannot imagine a major change, as we have never experienced one before.

We find ourselves trapped in a game with a limited set of moves. This is the game that corresponds to our society’s existing form of life. In deciding how to live, we feel forced to choose from the moves that are permitted within the game, and this places heavy restrictions on what we can do and be.

The task of art is to expand the scope of the game. It is to show us that there are possible moves that are not included in the official rules. It is to show us that the game is only a small part of a richer and more diverse world. The way an artwork does this is by showing us something that goes beyond the confines of the game. All art is a kind of fiction, an imagining of what could be but does not yet exist.

At the same time, the fiction an artwork presents is grounded in the reality of the game we are already playing. This grounding allows us to see how the new scope the artwork offers is compatible with most of our existing game. It shows us how our game could carry on in a slightly different way than it does at present.

The reality of the game is no different from the reality of the artwork. Both are true and false. They are two constructions — human-made artifacts — that arrange the pieces of human experience in alternative ways. Art creates tension between the fiction of our constructed society and the fiction of the artwork. It is this tension that prompts us to question our experience and to investigate how we might live different and better lives.