The Game Artist
Making video games more than just entertainment
Can you imagine a video game in an art gallery? DU Associate Professor Rafael Fajardo can.
The director of DU's digital media studies program is at the forefront of a new art movement that takes video game platforms and infuses them with social commentary.
He's one of maybe a dozen artists and academics around the world who tackle issues through video games.
"It's a sort of libertine idea for someone who's not afraid to be a public intellectual through graphic design," Fajardo says.
His first games reflected the issues that surrounded him during his first teaching job at the University of Texas at El Paso. While there, he became fascinated with immigration and, employing several students and colleagues, built a border-crossing game based on the arcade classic "Frogger." But in Fajardo's game, "Crosser," immigrants try to come to the United States illegally.
Fajardo also designed "La Migra," which puts the player in the position of a border patrol agent trying to enforce immigration law.
After Fajardo started teaching at DU and helped form one of the nation's only video game majors, he began working on a multi-chapter video game called "Juan and the Beanstalk." In the game, the player is a Colombian farmer who has to decide whether to grow poppy plants, which can be used to make illegal narcotics, or coffee. The game is intended to express the social complexity of Fajardo's native Colombia in the last 30 years.
Fajardo's creative approach to art and willingness to tackle tough issues has gained him worldwide recognition. He was invited to present his work at the annual La Caixa symposium in January 2006 in Barcelona, Spain.
Here at DU, however, Fajardo uses his games to motivate critical thinking and enhance the educational experience.
"If I've engaged [players'] intellect or intelligence in some way, then that teacherly thing has happened," Fajardo says.
Published on Sept. 11, 2006