* * Recentally I posted a project on PMC, But I feel like the description I posted with the project needed more attention as I feel its an important issue that has arrisen in the building world in Minecraft, so I decided that I would post this as a blog post  and spark more a discussion about my views. * *

The Build above in essence is a Contemporary Art Gallery based of the Turner Contemporary Art Gallery situated on the coast in Margate in the United Kingdom.  

I started this build as a simple experiment of translating a picture in to a minecraft build, but whilst creating the build I decided to do some research into minecraft art, but in particular 'Contemporary Minecraft Art' to better understand what I was creating. But the problem was I couldn’t find any! Which lead me to conducting some more research in to the general category of 'Minecraft Art', but to my dismay all that returned from my search on google was pixel art, which I personally feel is a wrong depiction of Minecraft Art. 

Minecraft building has become something of an 'Art-form' it has been categorised by themes, mostly moments in time, ranging from Nordic to Modern. Recently Minecraft building has turned more in to a movement, with the formation of Build teams to a recent project hosted by the Tate gallery 'Tate Worlds' which has used Minecraft as a canvas to recreate classic art.  

With Minecraft being recognised in such a way as a creative platform for art, Builders and Build teams are at the forefront of this revolution and are now considered by many as being creative and skilled at this hobby of ours. 

In my eyes we are ARTISTS.  

The definition of Art; 

"The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power." 

The definitions of an Artist; 

"A person who practises or performs any of the creative arts, such as a sculptor, film-maker, actor, or dancer." 
"A person who creates paintings or drawings as a profession or hobby." 
"A person skilled at a particular task or occupation." 



A Minecraft Builder/Artist can create anything the mind imagines, Minecraft builds can also send a strong message such as Equality to highlighting worldwide affairs such as China's one baby rule. (See below for an excellent example by Nidhux). Just showing that minecraft builds can trigger strong emotional feelings inside people.  


I feel like being referd to as a 'Minecraft builder' doesn’t do us justice, as many of you know who are reading this, becoming a minecraft builder takes dedication, practice and a highly creative mind. We create 3D art just like a sculpture would create a statue of a famous person. 

As I like the think of Minecraft building as an 'Art-form' I decided to create something different and new, something that has not yet even been accepted fully as Art outside this virtual platform. I wanted to challenge people’s opinions about building in Minecraft, I want to make peoples thoughts about building in minecraft more diverse, I don't want people to associate building in Minecraft with over-detailed castles, which we are all guilty of creating. This style of building in my opinion as become somewhat of a norm and what our community seems to judge how good a builder is based on their ability to build this, which is like comparing an elephant to a mouse by judging how good it is at fitting though tight spaces. 

In my opinion, although over detailed castles do look impressive it’s limiting the creativity of us builders, as we all seem to just be wanting to make a bigger and more detailed castle than the next. This is why I have created something different, even controversial, I want to push the idea that building in minecraft is ART and it can be presented in many different styles such as a contemporary style like I have created. 

I am planning on looking in to different ways in which I can build in a more contemporary style and push a new movement of building into the community. 

Thank you for reading and remember next time you are building, 

Your World is a Canvas 
Your Mouse is a Brush 
and you are an ARTIST.  




#MinecraftIsART 


Original PMC post - www.planetminecraft.com/project/contemporary-art-gallery--minecraftisart-/