Kairo and Abstract Art



After playing through Kairo (Richard Perrin, October 2012) I found that while it lacked a lot in gameplay (it was extremely confusing at some points and way too simple in others) some of the shapes I actually found quite pleasing. The sheer variety of abstract shapes that the creator managed to achieve with simple cubes was very surprising.
However, in terms of abstraction I honestly believe Kairo represents abstract art quite successfully. All of the levels use minimalistic shapes to convey an idea or image of something recognisable to the player. One such example is the level in which the player finds themselves in a garden type area with trees made of intermittently placed cubes.


Image retrieved from: http://www.electrondance.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/kairo-garden-crazy-theory.jpg
This level alone shows what can be created purely just by using cubes and while some of the objects of the objects can be hard to read or interpret, the skill of which they have been constructed comes across as very deliberate and calculated.
It seems that the creator of Kairo (Richard Perrin) was very interested in Cubism as the majority of his levels and art are created from some form of cube and are extremely simple. However, in saying that there are some more complex creations that a reminiscent of realism that have snuck their way into the game; such as the skeleton the player encounters later in the game,

Image retrieved from: http://www.electrondance.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/kairo-skeleton.jpg
The staircase in the generator room,

Image retrieved from http://www.electrondance.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/kairo-generator.jpg
And the balconies and columns in the water channel room,

Image retrieved from: http://www.electrondance.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/kairo-water-channel.jpg

It almost seems that Perrin has tried to use some constructivism here, art with a purpose which makes sense, however, Constructivism requires a social aspect for the art created and in Kairo, the player is alone, there is no interaction available with anything other than the puzzles. There are also a couple of other scenes after the player completes the game that are super realistic in their representation:

 
Image retrieved from: http://www.electrondance.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/kairo-second-chance.jpg
 
Image retrieved from: http://www.electrondance.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/kairo-shuttle.jpg
 
I do feel that if Perrin was going for a true abstract art style, these images and those models that crept their way in that seem very realistic break the theme. They don’t fit into the game as near the entirety of what we have seen has been very abstract and if there is a story to the art, it is not obvious through the gameplay. Kairo comes off as simply a puzzle quest game that is very ambiguous at times while being very easy at other times. What the game is about is very hard to grasp, I had no idea what I was doing or why. All I knew was that there was a lot of abstract art within that was sometimes at odds with some other artistic representations within and that I needed to complete puzzles. Once I completed the game, the following scenes confused me greatly: Why are they there and how do they contribute to the story of the world and why are they so realistic when the rest of the game is so abstract? I was unable to answer these questions and found myself quite frustrated with the game at this point. Kairo offers no concrete information as to the purpose of the players’ existence and why they are playing the game.

I get the strong feeling that there is a strong message behind the art style, but the ambiguity is so strong that I was completely at a loss as to what it is.
Despite my confusion, I did enjoy a lot of the abstract art within the game: many of the shapes are simple yet convey a recognisable shape most of the time and the rest of the time they are at the least, interesting.

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