"The Art of Video Games" Smithsonian Exhibition Is Here!

[iSmartMan]

I haven't gotten a chance to see the exhibition proper, but I was able to attend the discussion panels at the opening. I'll try to report back in a few days once I've seen the exhibition itself, but I must say, the things said during those panels by industry veterans certainly were thought-provoking.

Anyone here besides me planning to visit? It's going to be up until September, so there's no rush. Even if you can't make it to Washington DC, I'm still interested in hearing what you guys think about this.

Oh, and by the way, here's something amusing I heard while I was there. According to what he said at the panel, designer Don Daglow once almost accidentally ruined the gaming industry. In 1981 he was at a computer career fair, where he met a young man named Richard Garriott, and desperately tried to persuade him to abandon all this "Ultima" stuff he was working on. Thank god Don failed!

 

[Lucem712]

I'm currently keeping an eye on the artbook edition but amazon is having some issues; so, gotta wait for that to be solved :\

Captcha How quaint

 

[Kahunaburger]

Just got back from that. Initial impressions:

1) There was a huge emphasis on arcade-ish games over the more slow-burn ones - it's not the selection I would have picked to showcase games as art. This is probably because:

2) Games don't really lend themselves to a museum very well for basically the same reason that music, literature, and film don't. These are continuous, longer-term experiences, whereas a museum is designed for more static pieces of art that are experienced for, at the most, a couple of minutes.

3) They did their best to include an interactivity component - you can actually play the games in the museum if you're okay waiting in line. I'm very glad they did this, as interactivity is obviously very important to the artform.

4) One of my favorite parts of the exhibit was one that showed people's faces while they played games. The emotional reactions - or lack thereof - were very interesting.