30 augustus 2010 - ART
Video games are a $40 billion-a-year industry, and have moved well beyond the simulated table tennis world of Pong. But is it art? Film critic Roger Ebert recently argued that video games can never be art. Author and game addict Tom Bissell begs to differ and breaks down his argument in his book Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter. However, the last thing you want to tell a gamer is what their medium can't be. Gaming by definition rails against that sort of arbitrary small-mindedness.
In
'Space Invaders: Art In The Computer Game Environment' the Netherlands Media Art Institute brings art and games culture together. In an artistic, playful yet serious manner, Space Invaders reveals the influence of games on art and society. This group exhibition with Dutch and international media artists examines the increasing blurring of the boundaries between game worlds and reality. In Space Invaders media art works illuminate the migration of the physical world into gaming systems. Conversely, gaming elements are more and more finding their way into physical space. By infiltrating both game environments and real spaces, the artworks clarify the nature and influence of the computer game environments, and provide greater insight into the role that computer games play in contemporary culture.
In short, Space Invaders shows the increasing blurring of the boundaries between the real world and the game world. In this exhibition gaming is more than sitting in front of a screen and playing a game; the relation with the real world is never far away.
Space Invaders: Art In The Computer Game Environment opens on Saturday, August 28th at the
Netherlands Media Art Institute. The last day of the exhibition coincides with this year’s museumnight on the 6th of November.