"The Art of Video Games" opens at Smithsonian

denny427

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"The Art of Video Games" opens at Smithsonian

Found this article in Vending Times. I am planning to catch the display when on tour.


The Art of Video Games

WASHINGTON -- The Smithsonian American Art Museum's exhibition on videogame art features 80 landmark games spanning the medium's 40-year history, along with video-recorded interviews of designers and programmers, as well as live performances, lectures and symposiums.

Museum officials said the videogame industry "has attracted exceptional artistic talent" and that games comprise "an amalgam of traditional art forms -- painting, writing, sculpture, music, storytelling, cinematography -- [that] offer artists a previously unprecedented method of communicating with and engaging audiences."

Featured games put the spotlight on classic coin-operated models and home console titles. They include Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Marble Madness, Super Mario Brothers, the Secret of Monkey Island, Myst, Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy and Super Mario Galaxy.

Exhibit contents were determined by 3.7 million votes cast by 119,000 people in 175 countries in an online poll. Exhibit curator Chris Melissinos, a former game executive at Sun Microsystems, said 240 nominees were selected based on new technology and striking visual effects.

The exhibit will be accompanied by a performance of videogame music by the University of Maryland's Gamer Symphony Orchestra on April 29. Atari founder Nolan Bushnell gave a talk on videogame history at the museum on March 16. | SEE VIDEO

The exhibit runs in the nation's capital through Sept. 30, then travels to 10 cities nationwide. A list of dates and participating venues is available on the Smithsonian's website.

The U.S. government first declared videogames to be an art form in spring 2011, when the National Endowment for the Arts announced it would fund games as art projects. | SEE STORY
 
I checked out the exhibit in DC two weeks ago. It's a little weird seeing videogames presented as still frames, but they did some pretty neat things to get games into a traditional "gallery" space. The playable games are probably the highlight, and it was great to see kids lining up to play Pac-man (emulated, unfortunately, with a micro-switch joystick) and Super Mario Bros. (NES true, with an actual NES controller!)
 
Went by today during lunch to check out the show. I thought it was OK -- my two word review would be "Videotopia lite". Lots of screenshots but not alot of game action...Still, it was nice to see it in the museum anyway.

The Corcoran Gallery (also in DC) did an arcade art exhibit back in the 80's -- called ARTcade. That one was, as can be expected for the time, really geared towards arcade games. They had tons of cabinets and everyone was allowed to play. They had high score contests for each game. I played in the one for Star Trek SOS -- I am really bad at that game but no one else there was any good either. It was weird playing these games in an art gallery, I guess, and now that I look back on it it was really a fund raiser more than anything. I remember the local news also did a live shot from the final contests (the top two on the leader boards for each game had a face off). Lots of prizes, etc.
 
Went by today during lunch to check out the show. I thought it was OK -- my two word review would be "Videotopia lite". Lots of screenshots but not alot of game action...Still, it was nice to see it in the museum anyway.

Would you say it was worth a 4-5 hour drive (each way) specifically for it ?
 
Would you say it was worth a 4-5 hour drive (each way) specifically for it ?

I saw the exhibit yesterday. It was one of our stops to see while in the area.

While there is a ton of great stuff to see while in DC, it's certainly not worth a 8 hour round trip just for the exhibit. It's very small and there's no wow-factor at all. I really appreciate the effort that went into it, but it's a very basic, general history of the evolution of game consoles.
 
It's rather rediculous IMO since the games are blown up onto HUGE LCDs. They could have enev just put a real Pac-Man machine! There's no such feel as playing Pac-Man on a true clasic arcade cabinet with a CRT and Pac art...
They could have also used a Heavy Sixer model Atari 2600 and shown the Sears versions of some of the consoles. Was there a 5200 and 7800? I don't remember.
 
Yes, there was pacman on the 5200.


It's rather rediculous IMO since the games are blown up onto HUGE LCDs. They could have enev just put a real Pac-Man machine! There's no such feel as playing Pac-Man on a true clasic arcade cabinet with a CRT and Pac art...
They could have also used a Heavy Sixer model Atari 2600 and shown the Sears versions of some of the consoles. Was there a 5200 and 7800? I don't remember.
 
I know Ms Pac was on 7800. Pac came as a pack in on the 5200 (my box has the sticker on it) and both games were done fairly well on that hardware (400/800 computer was essentially the same hardware as the 5200).

My first home game experience of any quality was Ms Pac on Atari 800 with a Wico red ball stick. Those were the days.
 
I just got the book on this exhibit and I'm not very impressed.

No mention of arcade machines at all. Like it never existed. The book touches on Pac-Man and Donkey Kong -- but shows and discusses the home console versions. Its the same with Space Invaders and talks about the 'limitations' of the consoles at the time -- but then shows a screenshot from the arcade game.

For something focused on the "art", you think they'd at least get it right and show the originals. Unphotoshopped and un-ported screenshots of games were few and far between.

I didn't get a feel that the authors had a deep grasp of the videogame industry, honestly.

stupid hipsters
 
Would you say it was worth a 4-5 hour drive (each way) specifically for it ?

I would not recommend that. I describe it as Videotopia Lite, and I do mean LITE. If you are in town anyway check it out but it is not really a destination type event. I didn't even spend an hour there.

It is too bad the museum didn't, you know, bring in Videotopia! But what do I know?
 
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