Over the weekend, I visited Washington, D.C. with my brother. We did most of the usual tourist things: memorials, museums, tons of photographs. After a bad experience with some nasty staff at the National Gallery of Art, we decided to stick with the Smithsonian museums. It was a good call. The Smithsonian American Art Museum is running a beautiful exhibit called The Art of Video Games through 30 September. The conceit is a simple one. The history of video games is a history of interactive art.
From the moment you enter the exhibition, you know you're in for something different. A large sign on the right encourages you to use flash photography. Anyone who donates $10 or more is featured on an ever-updating credits scroll to the left of the entrance. The entryway itself is a large projection of video game action from all the different gaming systems.
The first room of the exhibit sets the tone for interactivity. A video screen shows live video of three randomly selected people playing video games. The rest of the room is covered in all sorts of fan art. Some is by the game creators. Others are by commissioned artists. Still others are reference drawings and scribbles in notebooks from long before the creation of the game. Inspirational quotes about the video game creation process flank the room over large screens with rotating clips of interviews about gaming.
The second room is one of the best arguments I've ever seen for video games as art. The random live video comes from a collection of gaming platforms from all different systems. One station features Pac-Man; another, Super Mario Bros.. Turn around and you'll see Flower. The gameplay is projected onto curved dividing wall, segregating each console from the others.
In front of each glowing blue station is a bright red podium. The controller is mounted as close as possible to the top to impair movements. If you want to play, you'll be standing as still as you can. Instructions are printed on the top of the podium if you're not sure what to do. Each time you go up, you get about three minutes of gameplay before the system resets.
As brief as the time is, each player on the exhibit floor drew a large crowd. People would arch around the player, unintentionally completing a circle with the arch of the game display. Whispers filled the room with gameplay memories. One man remembered his struggles with the first person puzzles of Myst. A woman cheered on a particularly strong run at Pac-Man under her breath, "Get the dot...get that cherry...hurry after the ghosts." Many people started nodding their heads with approval when one gamer took the shortcut to level four in Super Mario Bros.
These people were all having such a visceral reaction to other people playing video games without any motion at all. The limited movement of the player at the podium allowed everyone else to view that player as a surrogate. We were all playing along with the participants even if we didn't get to control the character on the big screen.
The final room was a detailed history of all the major video game console releases. Each station featured the actual console and four short videos describing the development and impact of major game releases. The glass-encased stations were presented in chronological order, broken up by generation. Again, the guests were reacting to their video game memories. I got to relive my joy at the opening credits sequence of Sonic Adventure for the Dreamcast while an actual game developer described the impact of that cut scene on the historical narrative of gaming.
The Art of Video Games is an exhibit that simultaneously honors the entire genre of entertainment and validates it as an art form. How is a room full of people reacting to the visual impact of The Secret of Monkey Island any different from a room full of people reacting to a video installation or sculpture in the same gallery? I don't think it is.
In honor of the fantastic gallery display, I will be giving away a The Art of Video Games prize pack next Monday. This includes a copy of the book The Art of Video Games: From Pac-Man to Mass Effect by Chris Melissinos (the curator of the exhibit) and a commemorative magnet from the exhibit in Washington, D.C.
Here's what you do to enter. Comment on this post with your favorite video game memory. Make sure you use a valid e-mail address so I can contact you for your shipping information. On Monday, 21 May at 12PM EST, I will use a randomizer to select which entry wins the prize pack. It's as simply as that.
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