Games as an Art Medium: Critical Art Game Exhibitions in the Twenty-first Century 

Alba García-Martínez,1 University of Barcelona, Spain 

Games and art have coexisted, at least since the beginning of the twentieth century, as we can see in the use of the Exquisite Corpse of the Surrealists, in Duchamp’s obsession with chess, and in the Fluxus games boxes. During the last twenty years, the separation between games and art has dissipated as much for the artists as for the creators of games. The field in which games and art have converged, superimposed, collided, found and, above all, interacted has not yet been widely explored. This research is about finding new ways of thinking about games, new ways to use games to think about the rest of the world, how games can contribute as an artistic medium, and how art can subvert games order of the power. 

This article is related to doctoral research “Games as an Artistic Medium with a Social Function” and will discuss the most important exhibitions that have been a turning point to accept games as a critical medium in the exhibition space. This article analyzes the different exhibitions that have included, in some instances, critical games. First, the article presents the exhibitions that serve as a reference and begin this movement in the twentieth century. After, the article will demonstrate how, with the introduction of new technologies, artistic spaces started to show video games as art. The movement of the exhibition spaces toward a more underground environment, years later, meant that art spaces started to include games with a certain social content. 

In this way, the article will expose all the art exhibitions that have exhibited games with a certain content or social purpose until critical games exhibitions are reached. This expedition helps us analyze the pros and cons of these exhibitions in order to develop our argument. Finally, as a conclusion, we will analyze the communicative problems of these exhibitions to serve as a reference to develop the “NEGOCIO” exhibitions. 

Beginnings of Exhibitions about Art and Game 

The first exhibition where art demanded attention in a game came at Marcel Duchamp’s hand. Julien Levy, together with Marcel Duchamp and Max Ernst, presented an exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York called “The Imagery of Chess.” This was held from December 12, 1944, to January 31, 1945. Duchamp was undoubtedly the impetus behind the exhibition.

Sources:

Alba García-Martínez, Design and Visual Arts Department, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, 08028, Spain. email: albagarciamartinez@ub.edu 

The International Journal of New Media, Technology, and the Arts 

Volume 15, Issue 1, 2020, https://artsinsociety.com
© Common Ground Research Networks, Alba García-Martínez, All Rights Reserved. Permissions: cgscholar.com/cg_support
ISSN: 2326-9987 (Print), ISSN: 2327-1787 (Online) https://doi.org/10.18848/2326-9987/CGP/v15i01/21-39 (Article)