Videogame Museum?
May 3rd, 2008 eolson3
So, I had this crazy (or not) thought the other night. Let me set the scene. You and I are walking right down the middle of the National Mall, having just left Natural History Museum and the Mars Colony Monument (I made this up, of course, to help establish the setting). We stroll toward some of the fantastic art galleries when we run smack-dab into the Museum of Videogames and Virtual Entertainment. Like an art museum, there are rows and walls with videogames from throughout the generations. But unlike the National Gallery, they ENCOURAGE us to touch the exhibits. We hop from game to game, engrossing ourselves in the digital goodness.
So, moral of the story, when will videogames take their place in the annals of art history? Film faced a struggle similar to this one while it was being established. Film today stands as an art form as legitimate and beautiful as a work of literature or art. Videogames are still relatively young. I see at least a segment of the videogame indutry being accepted as a true art form within the next two generations. I say a segment, because there will always be pieces that will be viewed as well outside the realm of art. I really don’t think we are going to find anyone who sees Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle as an equivalent to The Godfather.
Museums are constantly trying to find ways to make their exhibits more interactive in an attempt to keep the attention of the modern human being (thanks a lot TV). What would be better than every exhibit being a videogame? Does anyone that has gone through this class not feel this is inevitable?
Entry Filed under: Game Log
1 Comment
1. asteven5 | May 3rd, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Interesting point! This reminded me of an exhibit I saw at the Hirshhorn Museum of Modern Art a could weeks ago called "Cinema Effects." The website describes it as:The Hirshhorn marks this coming year with an unprecedented two-part exploration of contemporary moving-image art and the ways in which the cinematic has blurred distinctions between illusion and reality. The two exhibitions, Dreams and Realisms, include film and video installations by a range of influential and emerging international artists, including Omer Fast, Gay Hill, Runa Islam, Isaac Julien, Anothony McCall, Steve McQueen, Tony Oursler, and Andy Warhol among others. Dreams addresses film’s ability to transport viewers out of their everyday lives and into states that lie between wakefulness and sleep, sending them on journeys into the darker recesses of the imagination.(http://hirshhorn.si.edu/exhibitions/view.asp?key=1&subkey=40) While it certainly isn’t about videogames, it is all about "engrossing ourselves in the digital goodness" as you say. It is a really facinating exhibit and a lot of things that really suck the viewer in. There are a lot of pieces that look very "videogamey" for a lack of a better word. (like this one :http://hirshhorn.si.edu/dynamic/pages/image_4_159.jpg). I definitely see videogames getting their own museum soon, and there might be some already. However, as far as our National Mall goes, I think we have some waiting to do. The things is, these days movies and videogames fall under "pop culture" and not "art." It wouldn’t surprise me to see some things in the American History Museum about videogames at some point, maybe even having their own little exhibit, but I think that’s all we’ll be getting in the near future.