Hello Johannes (and everyone),
What I meant was that the current V&A proposal seemed unclear about who it
is targeting. I agree exhibitions should address a wide and general
publicı, what I like to call the culturally curious, but it was suggested
during the workshop that the exhibition was being aimed at gamersı, and
that provided the rationale for some of the section titles, themes and
curatorial choices being made.
Due to the current mainstreaming of digital games I find the term gamerı
increasingly anachronistic, irrelevant and restrictive. For a period
before digital games began to be taken seriously as culture or art, many
game players adopted the term gamerı as a subcultural label in the face
of negative perceptions of games and those who played them. The news
media, politicians and self-appointed guardians of the public goodı
continually made tenuous links between games and violence and portrayed
gamersı as socially inept losers who spent all day visiting virtual
violence upon any enemy the console threw at them. There was a kernel of
truth here but mostly gamersı deployed the term in response and
resistance to this negative portrayal, to 'circle the wagonsı against
would be enemies of their favourite pastime.
Things are changing. Digital games are growing up as a medium and being
taken increasingly seriously as culture and art, as the increasing number
of exhibitions proves. But still negative perceptions persist the
British Prime Minister proudly informed the media recently that his
children were banned from playing games and many still believe games are
inherently violent or of little cultural worth. For me the exhibition
shouldnıt be pandering to or reinforcing these opinions but challenging
them. It should showcase the variety and possibilities of digital games,
exposing the creativity and design processes behind such powerful
experiences.
The reason this doesnıt appear to be happening, as I see it, is because
the exhibition doesnıt currently seem to know who its audience is. This
might be a result of strategic policy within the V&A a desire to engage
a younger audience that has pushed the tone towards appealing to
gamersı who they believe mostly lie within this target demographic, or
for a variety of reasons Iım not privy to. Whatever, I think targeting an
exhibition at a diminishing niche audience of gamersı is not the way to
go. In a society where most of us now play digital games of some kind, an
exhibition should appeal to the culturally curious of all ages, genders,
ethnicities etc. and enable them to discover more about all kinds of
digital games and their production.
After all, weıre all gamers now.
Kind regards,
Chris Lowthorpe
Lecturer & PhD Researcher
School of Arts, Media and Computer Games
On 16/08/2014 21:10, "Johannes Birringer"
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>dear all
>
>I am reading the recent postings with interest and note the emphasis on
>"video games as designed objects and games development as a design
>process",
>and thanks for the report from this workshop (in Dundee?). Of course
>those of us not at the workshop or aware of the plans that may be being
>made at the V & A ("V&A has been collecting digital design and is now
>working towards an exhibition on videogames curated by Louise Shannon and
>Alex Wiltshire, opening in July 2017") won't have a clue what Chris may
>refer to, but I was wondering what exactly can be meant by
>
> [Chris Lowthorpe schreibt]
>>>My concerns about the current plans for the exhibition are that it
>>>doesn't seem to know who its audience is, and that it seems somewhat
>>>negative in its approach. Is this really an exhibition for 'gamers'?
>>>The term 'gamer' seems increasing irrelevant and indeed a subcultural
>>>ghetto in a world where games are now mainstream>>
>
>suggesting an exhibition (or its design process) does not know its
>audience?
>
>
>Thinking of recent shows in London, say, "The Fashion World of Jean Paul
>Gaultier From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk", or the Barbican's current
>"Digital Revolution:
>An immersive exhibition of art, design, film, music and videogames", or,
>just as well, the interesting exhibit at the Science Museum, titled "The
>Exponential Horn: In Search of Perfect Sound"
>[ side by side with Electronica, Radiophonics and Oramics], do not such
>exhibitions address a wide and general public? If that were the case,
>what is the specific mission of a design focus,
>in general terms, and a critical and/or historical/cultural and media
>archaelogical angle on "exposing" the practice and process of design in
>the creation of video games?
>
>And to make a small aside, something related to an article published (14
>Aug) in the FAZ,
>http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/oculus-rift-verschmelzen-mit-der-vir
>tuellen-welt-13096319.html,
>- here I read about the journalist's "Selbstversuch" with
>DevelopmentKit2 of Oculus Rift (alpha and beta stages developed by
>Palmer Luckey, then bought out by Facebook), and this "test writer"
>also mentions, in passing, a rather expansive field of users and
>audiences: <In der dreidimensionalen Scheinwelt toben sich nicht nur
>spieleverrückte Programmierer aus, sondern angesehene Wissenschaftler,
>vornehmlich Informatiker zusammen mit Physikern, Technikern, Biologen und
>Psychologen. Am United States Army Research Laboratory forschen daran
>auch Ingenieure des Militärs und zunehmend Mediziner>
> - trans. : "In the three-dimensional world of illusion, not only do
>crazy programmers play around, but also respected scientists, primarily
>computer scientists, together with physicists, engineers, biologists and
>psychologists. At the United States Army Research Laboratory, the
>military engineers do research with it, and increasingly medical
>professionals....."
>
>The interface object, as a design development kit, obviously already has
>a potentially unlimited market. But what does that mean? And what would
>"exposure" represent?
>
>
>regards
>Johannes Birringer
Abertay University
Scotland's leading modern university for psychology research (RAE 2008)
The University of Abertay Dundee is a charity registered in Scotland, no. SC016040
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