When Link swept over the Temple of Time with a paraglider in his hand and the whisper of the forest in his ears, as if the centuries-old rise and fall of the continent of Hailar had nothing to do with this adventure.
The blindfolded maiden sat draped over the old machinery, and the distant tower filled with dust. crumbling buildings covered with vines, strange vegetation growing between the rocks, indifferently covering that wooden bridge at the junction of life and death.
The uncle and the young girl walk wordlessly on the west coast of the United States in the post-apocalyptic world, the air is faintly filled with dust. A piece of decay, as far as the eye can see is the imaginable past glory.
But at the same time, there is more life growing here, as if human society was not destroyed by the virus, but rather disintegrated out of reverence for nature.
The dead are gone, the living are still alive. From the industrial ruin photography that is emerging all around us to the urban ruin adventure that is common in Douban groups, it is easy to see that ruin aesthetics has become a kind of pop culture. Artists are particularly fond of this melancholic subject matter, using a rich and varied palette, and a perfect brushstroke to paint a beautiful picture.
From Czech artist Filip Hodas
Art about ruins is also becoming more common in the gaming world, whether it’s the nuclear wasteland world of Fallout.
The Palace of Genji in Only Wolves, which best reflects the core of the work and the Eastern aesthetic.
and even the mysterious post-apocalyptic world of Ark of Tomorrow.
From single-player to handheld games, more and more games set important scenes and even the entire world structure in ruins, but often win both commercial and word-of-mouth successes. Players will have a strong sense of identification with these anti-utopian worlds outlined by the game, even if the world is dilapidated and negative, it does not prevent it from being harmonious and beautiful in the eyes of players.
So the question arises, how does this undoubtedly decadent and negative artistic subject matter become the mainstream aesthetic of today’s game field?
Before we discuss this question, let’s start from the beginning and talk about “ruins” and its art.
“Ruins have a formal beauty, transforming the beauty of the stripped earth into the beauty of the converted earth. In a few years, it will be transformed into dirt and completely integrated into the earth. The stage when it will melt but not yet melt is the ruins.”
Under Yu’s writing, architecture is a kind of “beauty stripped from the earth”, which is a typical man-made product. Like the playground in “Neil: Automata” or the restored Chernobyl in “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare”. The contradictory visual contrast is often particularly fascinating.
The “stage of melting” is a kind of time dislocation, showing us the prosperity of the past, the desolation of the present, and the rebirth of the future at the same time, so that we can start to think about life and history in our minds.
Many games today are based on such thinking. Hidetaka Miyazaki has thought in this way, so in “Dark Souls” there are many imposing scenes of ruins. The sky is a strange bright red, large ruins stranded in the sun, being quietly baked, with a silent way to explore the core theme of “reincarnation”.
Chen Xinghan has also thought in this way. When he created “Wind Traveller”, he wrote an astronomically complicated backstory for the game, but deleted it all in the end, creating a lonely world with a mountain peak and a trek to make you reminisce.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is also a very classic example. When we operate Link for the first time to break into the full of Hailar Castle, or no one in the snowy mountains to find one hidden temple after another, as if the ruins are the end of all great things, seen prosperity and withering, meet and part.
This fits all the temperament of real life, and makes the game worldview logical and self-consistent, with an extra sense of immersion.
The aesthetics of ruins explores the meaning of life’s existence, and the core can often map the heart. This is also the reason it is extraordinarily close to the creators of the ninth art.
Then we discuss another question: when did ruins become a mainstream art aesthetic?
In traditional Eastern culture, there is a natural aesthetic feeling for historical and natural ruins. Whether it’s “the country is broken, the mountains and rivers are here, the grass and trees are deep in the spring” in our literature or “the beauty of mourning” in Japanese literature, it’s a good example.
What is special is that the ancient Chinese understanding of ruins is based on the notion of “natural death”, which often refers to the “emptiness” left by destroyed wooden structures, thus triggering the memory of the past. The “charm” of the overall environment is more important than the specific “shape”.
This can also be seen in games developed in Asia, such as Breath of the Wild and Nier: Automata, which depict a calm, neutral world, with a slight sadness of the past and the past, but also a natural greenery and vitality.
European and American games with ruins as the main scene are more wildly pessimistic, like the “Fallout” or “Metro” series, mostly set in the nuclear wasteland after the war, filled with elements of survival, horror, and human evil. These works are more uniformly classified as “wasteland style”, which is a subgenre of science fiction themes.
The reason for the difference is not only the U.S.-Soviet Cold War, but also the long-standing mainstream aesthetics of the West. In the Middle Ages, the West strongly rejected the aesthetics of ruins. Their artworks were often sublime, full of color, robust and full of life.
The situation changed, however, as early as the 15th century. When the literati of the European Renaissance saw the ruins of the ancient Greek and Roman periods being re-excavated, and saw the immensity of time dissolving in the ruins, they discovered for the first time that absence was also a form of beauty.
At that time, European painters began to depict historical scenes with wild leaves and rough landscapes, moreover, these bigwigs realized that history seemed more epic if it had a desolate background.
One person who had a profound influence on this art was Titian Vecellio, a representative painter of the late Italian Renaissance, who tried to skip the “classical beauty” of religion and gods and use nature to evoke the emotions of the audience.
His style was an important influence on two 17th century painters, Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain. If you look at the works of these two brothers, you will understand where the aesthetics of ruins in the West today originate.
Finally to the Romantic movement at the end of the 18th century. This was the period when the industrial revolution and the downside of the capital market began to emerge. Artists of the time began to express the theme of rebellion against industrialism and a return to nature in a negative and ironic way. This anti-mainstream aesthetic style had quite a deep impact on the pop culture image and continues to this day.
For me, ruins are the ultimate unique aesthetic. There is infinite time, and infinite possibilities. You can lay down your mission to be a Heneral rogue, you can turn into a flame to burn out the decay of the old world, or you can bet your life to accompany a girl across America. It is the entity of history, recording the desolation of mankind and witnessing the greatness of mankind.
We marvel at the visual experience brought by those shocking ruin scenes in the game, and enjoy more the reflection it brings us on the spiritual level. The stars have shifted, prosperity has risen and fallen, all coalesced in this crumbling building, and we will remember all and forge ahead.
It is a remembrance of the past, a reflection of the present, and a wake-up call for the future.
