Roundtable Statement
In this round table discussion, curators and practitioners with diverse perspectives on game art and interactive media art explore the historical, cultural, and political stakes of exhibiting interac-tive new media works that incorporate game technology across a spectrum of experimental, institutionalized, and commercial con-texts. In response to digital games’ emergence as a powerful component of contemporary culture, large cultural institutions are beginning to collect, archive and exhibit videogames. The result-ing ‘blockbuster’ initiatives fall in line with established main-stream ludo-industrial narratives, but they do little to explore the roles digital game technology is starting to play in new media art practices. This panel considers the contributions of independent cultural initiatives (exhibitions, festivals, etc.) to this process of exploring game culture and game technologies beyond commer-cial and consumerist contexts. Drawing on their own practices, perspectives, and experiences with art-making and curation, the participants will engage in an open discussion on topics includ-ing: *historical gaming exhibitions; *early avant-garde game modification practices; *the institutionalization of experimental game art; *the rise of the new arcade and ‘indie game’ cultures; *the establishment of the practice of machinima; *the emergence of appropriative practices under the banner of ‘game art,’ and the use of game-like interfaces in new media installations.
Key Questions Addressed:
- What are the implications of exhibiting games under the larger umbrella of New Media Art?
- What curatorial methodologies are employed in the field?
- What are the consequences of the disciplinary siloing that we can observe within game ration?
- How can critical questions of interdisciplinarity be addressed within the field?
- How can we unpack the problematic categories of ‘game art’, ‘art games’ and ‘indie games’?
- How can we create critical historiographical investigations of the roles games occupy within gallery cultures, blockbuster ex-hibitions, festivals and alternative spaces?
- What future contexts are possible in light of these histories?
Moderators:
- Isabelle Arvers (FR), art and games curator. A graduate of the Political Sciences Institute and a Master in Management of cultural projects, Isabelle Arvers specializes in new media in 1993. Pioneer in the field of game art in France , she curated Playtime – the gaming room of Villette Numérique (2002), as well as the net.art gallery on “sound games”. Her following exhibitions and projects then presented the video game as a new language and as a medium for artists. Organizing a gameboy music concert at Project 101, Paris, 2004 She also curated Mind Control, a net.art exhibition for Banana RAM Ancona, Italy , 2004, and Node Runners game festival, for the Region Ile de France in Paris, 2004. Curator Reactivate under Gametime festival , Melbourne, Australia 2004 / 2005.
- Skot Deeming, Researcher / Doctoral Student, T.A.G Research Centre, Concordia University, CA. mrghosty (aka skot deeming) is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, researcher and doctoral student in Concordia University’s Individualized Program in the Humanities. As a new media art and game curator in galleries and the new arcade, as well a researcher at Concordia’s TAGlab, skot draws upon a wealth of practical experience and theoretical knowledge while investigating the intersections between gamer cultures, hacker cultures and new media.
- Lynn Hughes, Artist / Professor, TAG Concordia, Canada
- Matteo Bittanti
- Eddo Stern
- Martin Zeilinger