Game On (exhibition)

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Game On is a traveling exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery that explores the history of computer game development from its early days in 1962 to the present day. It is considered the largest exhibition of its kind and has been expanded since it first opened in the Barbican Art Gallery in 2002. Since 2010 there has been another, more extensive form of the exhibition called Game On 2.0 . According to the company, more than a million visitors worldwide had visited the exhibition by 2008.

concept

The exhibition was conceived by the British Barbican Art Gallery in cooperation with the National Museum of Scotland , which, through co-curator Lucien King, funded the initial research for the exhibition. The aim of the original curator of the exhibition, Conrad Bodman, was “ […] [to] look at the history, culture and the future of video games and try to unlock that for the general public” ”(German:“ […] auf to see the history, culture and the future of computer games and to decipher them for the general public. ”) The creators hope to show the cultural influence of computer games and game consoles. The concept of the exhibition therefore also means that visitors can see the games up to the beginning in the 1960s on the PDP-1 on site, but also social issues such as “Are games responsible for our children's obesity?” and “Do games make children violent?” are addressed.

If possible, the allusion takes place on original hardware and software. The problem with the exhibition included the fact that only a few of the objects on display are part of public collections. Most of the pieces come from private collectors. Another problem is the maintenance of the old devices, as there is hardly any knowledge about the repair and the necessary spare parts. The Barbican Center hired a technician from a retro games store in London , Barry Hitchings, who has been accompanying the exhibition since then. In cases where it is no longer possible to play on original hardware , emulator software such as MAME is used.

Bodman described the development of the exhibition as particularly interesting because many of the machines on display cannot be found in public collections, but are only kept by a small number of collectors around the world. It is largely thanks to fans and software pirates that insights into the early days of computer games are still possible .

On July 3, 2010, a revised version of the exhibition entitled Game On 2.0 was published in Launceston , which goes beyond the content of the original Game On . It includes more exhibits and games, including Uncharted 2: Among Thieves , Jak and Daxter, and Tomb Raider . The section on the future of game development has been expanded to include aspects of virtual reality , 3D technology and control with mind commands. However, the exhibition under this name was announced as early as February 2006, with the repeated exhibition in Chicago, after the collection had previously been increased by 20 new titles such as Centipede , Madden NFL 06 , Pro Evolution Soccer 5 and Star Wars: Battlefront II .

construction

At the beginning, the exhibition covered the history of games from the mainframe computers of the 1960s (e.g. PDP-1) to the GameCube , later expanded to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 . In addition to the games, concept drawings are also exhibited (e.g. by Shigeru Miyamoto or Grand Theft Auto III ) and connections to other cultural forms such as anime , manga and films are shown. The number of games on display rose from around 120 to 150. The exhibition was initially divided into eleven, later into 13 thematic sections:

  1. Early computer and arcade games
  2. Game consoles
  3. Game types (families)
  4. Sound
  5. Relationship between games and modern cinema (+)
  6. Game culture in the US and Europe
  7. Game culture in Japan
  8. Games for children
  9. Multiplayer title
  10. The creative development process
  11. Character design
  12. Marketing and Sales
  13. Historical interaction of the most modern game hardware and software

Exhibition locations

Game On

Over the years the exhibition has been exhibited in several technology and art museums around the world:

Game On 2.0

Game On 2.0 has so far been exhibited in the following locations:

reception

Reviews

The exhibition has been considered the largest exhibition of its kind since it was first opened. Henry Lowood of Stanford University , who dealt with the preservation of computer games and their culture, said “ Since the late 20th century, cultural history includes digital game culture. [...] It is not only the case that the history of this medium will be lost if we do not preserve the history of digital games, but also that we will not be able to provide a complete cultural history of this period ”(German: "Since the 20th century, cultural history has also included digital gaming culture. [...] It is not only the case that the history of this medium will be lost if we do not receive the history of digital games, but that we do not will be able to give a full cultural history of that time ”). The cultural scientist Raiford Guins, Associate Professor of Culture and Technology at Stony Brook University , described Game On in comparison with other contemporary exhibitions as “ perhaps the most ambitious in scale and curatorial aims ” (German: “perhaps the most ambitious in terms of scope and curatorial aims ” Aims.")

The British daily The Guardian commented positively on the first opening in London:

“In the end, that is what makes the Barbican exhibition important: it brings together the raw materials needed by anyone who wants to develop an aesthetic for a new genre. But if you are a gamer who doesn't care two hoots about the cultural implications, it still looks like a terrific day out. "

“Ultimately, that's what makes the Barbican exhibition so important: it brings together the raw materials that anyone who wants to create a new aesthetic for a new genre needs. But even if you're a gamer who doesn't pay a cent on the cultural implications, it feels like a terrific day trip. "

Culture24 judged the 2006 exhibition in the London Science Museum:

"Game On manages to highlight the ever deteriorating boundaries that exist between genres, as film, music, gaming and art all overlap to create a hybrid of unimaginable proportions and without limits."

"Game On succeeds in showing how the boundaries that exist between the genres are becoming ever narrower after film, music, games and art overlap in order to create a hybrid of unimaginable proportions and without limits."

The Australian game website PALGN ruled in 2008:

“Game On presents an incredibly diverse range of items and information to those that wander its floorspace. The exhibition is a great gathering of the cultural items that have created the imaginative alternate worlds gamers have immersed themselves in over the age. "

“Game On presents an incredible range of things and information to those who roam their showrooms. The exhibition is a great collection of cultural things that have created the imaginary alternative worlds that players have immersed in over the years. "

Visitor numbers

By 2008, more than a million visitors visited the exhibition at the various exhibition locations. In Melbourne (2008) the exhibition drew more than 117,000 visitors, 99,500 during the exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery in London (2002) and 127,000 in Chicago (2005/2006). 55,000 visitors visited the exhibition in Edinburgh, 20,000 in Tilburg and 40,000 in Helsinki.

Games on display

literature

  • Lucien King (Ed.): Game on: The History and Culture of Videogames (exhibition catalog) . Laurence King, London 2002, ISBN 978-1-85669-304-2 .
  • Stefan Schmitt: Half a Century of Digital Gaming: Game On, at the Science Museum, London, 21 October 2006-25 February 2007 . In: Technology and Culture . Vol. 48, No. 3 . Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, July 1, 2007, ISSN  0040-165X , p. 582-588 , doi : 10.1353 / tech.2007.0130 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Simon Carless: Game On Exhibition Returns To Chicago In 2.0 Form ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM, plc . February 2, 2006. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  2. ↑ a b c d Jack Schofield: Down memory lane ( English ) In: The Guardian . Guardian News & Media. May 16, 2002. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  3. ↑ a b c d e Jason Hill: Museum piece ( English ) In: The Age . Fairfax Media . March 8, 2008. Retrieved September 3, 2008.
  4. ↑ Video game exhibition announced ( English ) British Broadcasting Corporation . September 18, 2006. Retrieved September 2, 2008.
  5. ↑ a b c Dave Standen: Video Gaming Celebrated In Game On At The Science Museum ( English ) In: Culture24 . October 27, 2006. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  6. ↑ a b c Matthew Wocks: Ontario Science Centers Game On 2.0 exhibition all about interactivity ( English ) In: Financial Post . March 7, 2013. Accessed March 30, 2014.
  7. ↑ a b c Barbican International Enterprises - Game On ( English ) In: Official website . Barbican. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
  8. ↑ a b Barbican to exhibit computer games ( English ) British Broadcasting Corporation . November 23, 2001. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  9. ↑ Christopher Grant: Game On returns to the UK, London's Science Museum ( English ) In: Joystiq . AOL . September 18, 2006. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  10. ↑ a b c Amelia Duggan: Interactive video game exhibit arrives in Chile ( English ) In: The Santiago Times . March 29, 2013. Accessed on March 30, 2014.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / santiagotimes.cl  
  11. ↑ a b Game On at ACMI ( English ) In: Herald Sun . The Herald and Weekly Times. March 9, 2008. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  12. ^ Exhibition structure at the State Library of Queensland (2008) ( Memento from September 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ cf. Schmitt 2007
  14. ↑ Game On: The history, culture and future of computer games ( English ) Barbican. Retrieved September 2, 2008.
  15. ^ Exhibition information of the Science Museum (2006/2007) ( Memento of February 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  16. ↑ Game on: Play your way through the history of videogames ( English ) Australian Center for the Moving Image. Archived from the original on September 15, 2008. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 2, 2008.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.acmi.net.au
  17. ^ Exhibition information from the State Library of Queensland (2008) ( Memento from September 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  18. ↑ Game on for video game history exhibit ( English ) ABC News. July 3, 2010. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
  19. ↑ Game On 2.0 - the world's largest exhibition of computer games ( English ) In: Official website . Tekniska museet. Archived from the original on October 13, 2013. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 29, 2013.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tekniskamuseet.se
  20. ^ Raiford Guins: Game After: A Cultural Study of Video Game Afterlife . MIT Press, London 2014, ISBN 978-0-262-32018-4 , pp. 281 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  21. ↑ Tristan Kalogeropolous: We visit ACMI's Game On exhibition ( English ) PALGN. March 6, 2008. Archived from the original on May 26, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 3, 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / palgn.com.au
  22. ↑ Game On exhibition at ACMI to close this weekend ( english ) In: Herald Sun . The Herald and Weekly Times. July 9, 2008. Archived from the original on May 24, 2012. Retrieved on September 2, 2008.
  23. ↑ Mastiff: "Pump It Up: Exceed" Selected for Game On Exhibit ( English ) In: Press release . Gamesindustry.biz . September 19, 2005. Retrieved March 30, 2014.