E for All 2008: Interview with Joseph Olin, President of The AIAS

Gravekeeper's Lab, by Mike McCarthy, from Fable 2

JS: Do you have any favorites in the show downstairs?
JO: I’m no different than anyone else who looks at art, there’s things I like a lot more than others, but I certainly respect the talent of things…I like the Rapunzel from the almost soon-to-ship American McGee’s Alice, I certainly like Davidicus’ rockstar Moscow poster, because it just makes me want to go grab one of my guitars and rock out again. Right next to that piece is the MC Escher-esque Bioware from Sonic Dark Brotherhood, Henry Hatsworth, the little side-scroller right next to that is something I like…always like Viva Piñata from previous’ years’ connection; the piece from 300, the soldiers up on the uh,…I think that’s very strong; and then over on that wall there’s a black and white charcoal illustration of the keeper’s lab and laboratory, I actually bought that at auction for my office because I just like the fact that you’re peering through this basement window and here’s this guy who’s obviously probably pretty bent, sharpening something, and—he’s going to kill you, and you know, can you escape? It tells a whole story.

JS: Are most of these for auction afterward?
JO: We hold two auctions a year and we use the funds to actually fund the Into the Pixel production process because it costs money to do all these master prints and everything else.

JW: I noticed you don’t have the medium listed.
JO: We have in the past. It just depends. I mean, some of the pieces from earlier collections; we have a print of Kirby, you can find it on the website I think 2005, that was basically tile and mosaic and it weighed 300 pounds, it couldn’t be judged precise, so we had a photographer do a high-res shoot of it and gone forward from there. We’ve had sculpture, we’ve had pen and ink, we’ve had just screen grabs—the screen from Flow is directly from gameplay, last year we had a screen from Darwinia. The jurors are open to choose what they like, the artists are invited to participate on any level. Send us slides first, though.

JW: Well, how do you feel about fanart?
JO: I think it’s great. I don’t think we’re at a point where we want fanart, we’re looking to the professional game design and game art community first and foremost as far as Into the Pixel, but I think that most publishers and certainly most magazines are very appreciative of what players and fans of games are willing to do and how they express themselves.

JW: Even cosplay…
JO: Sure. Fans have been drawing about their favorite things long before games. Otherwise there wouldn’t have been Teen Beat and David Crosby.

Thank you to Joseph Olin for taking the time to speak with us, Debby Chen for coordinating, and everyone involved with Into the Pixel for sharing these wonderful works with us. Read more about and see more art from Into the Pixel at their website.

First image: Rock Venue Poster: Moscow, by Davidicus, from Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

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