“弹性”的创意：电子游戏的美术劳动

Flexible Creativity: Artistic Labor in Videogames

本文以信息社会的"弹性"为历史背景,梳理了电子游戏与弹性生产、创意产业与弹性专业化之间的关系。在此基础上,以电子游戏的美术劳动为研究对象,选取5名具有不同经历的游戏从业者进行深度访谈,从美术劳动市场、企业劳动组织、个体劳动认同三个方面入手,考察当下电子游戏的美术劳动过程与"弹性"生产如何互动并产生影响。通过本次研究发现,随着中国电子游戏产业在全球产业链中扮演角色的变化,电子游戏的创意劳动会变得更加具有弹性,这种弹性体现的是创意劳动和资本之间的博弈;创意劳动在服从资本盈利规律的前提下,通过弹性协作获得一定的自主空间;个体创意劳动者会强化自身的网络协同能力,"多技能、边学边做"这些和弹性相匹配的理念会成为个体劳动者自觉服从的目标,他们会从竞争、流动、协作等层面认同创意劳动。

Based on the historical development of flexibility in information society, this article tries to relate video game production with flexible production and clarify the relationships betweencreative industry and flexible specialization. By these theoretical constructs, researchers make in-depth interview with 5 interviews, mainly with previous artistic working experiences. They are now working at different positions in video game companies. By asking questions related to artistic labor market, in-house artistic labor organization and individual identification with artistic job, researchers gather evidences to describe artistic labor process and analyze its interaction with flexible specialization. The results reveal that creativity and flexibility are related because China＇s videogame industry has evolved deeply into the value chain of global video game industry. While there is always tension between creativity and commercialization, creativity will find some room for autonomy if it can make flexible negotiations and co-operations. For individual artists, they will need more network sociality, and will take multi-skillful, leam-by-doing as their work ethics. At the same time, the will identify themselves with creative labor as to be competitive, to be mobile and cooperative.