Exhibit Strategies for Videogames in Art Institutions

2016

Editor's note: Emilie is a strong writer, and this is a much-needed and well-considered guiding work and description of models for exhibiting video games as art and within the context of larger exhibitions and museum practices.

A much needed and well-written guide to contextualizing and exhibiting video games in museums and art spaces.

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Exhibition Strategies for Videogames in Art Institutions

Blank Arcade 2016

Author: Emilie M. Reed
Publication Info:
Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association
November 2018, Vol 4 No 2, pp 103-135
ISSN 2328-9422
©The text of this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution—NonCommercial—NonDerivative 4.0 Lic

While debate over videogames’ cultural status can still become contentious, theorist Bruce Altshuler describes the contemporary exhibition form as a route into art history, and exhibitions of videogames and their display choices have already drawn videogames into the discursive construction of the history of art. Therefore, contextualizing past exhibitions of videogames and104 Exhibition Strategies examining curatorial practices is a vital part of shaping an interdisciplinary history of videogames. This paper summarizes my research and practical work in games curation within this context through a case study of The Blank Arcade 2016, specifically focusing on unexpected ways spectatorship and interaction coexist in videogame exhibitions. By reviewing the process of exhibition organization and the resulting visitor feedback, and finding intersections in game studies and contemporary art perspectives on tensions between spectatorship and interaction, I reflect on the effectiveness of the present curatorial process at addressing the varied ways gallery visitors experience videogames as an art object or aesthetic experience.