Calling all gamers, classic game enthusiasts and n00bs! The Chicago Design Museum (ChiDM) is thrilled to announce that its latest exhibition, “Hey! Play! Games in Modern Culture,” will open on October 20.
“Hey! Play! Games in Modern Culture” is an interactive experience for all ages, demonstrating that games live in our minds and social relationships as well as in consoles and controllers. Through game design, artists critique culture and society, facilitate spiritual awakening, and project the personal challenges of life.
“Gaming is a huge $100 billion dollar industry, but most people only think of one type of game,” said exhibition chairperson Lance Curran. “This exhibition will show the diversity of the medium, and serves as a launching point for exploring all that games can do.”
Curated by DePaul University School of Design faculty members Dr. Brian Schrank (chair of Game Design) and LeAnne Wagner, the exhibition will feature nine games that visitors are encouraged to play.
“People aren’t going to see things like Pac-Man or Pokémon,” explained curator Wagner, “but rather a broad range of play experiences they may not be familiar with. The game pieces take diverse physical forms, from cardboard-box interfaces and virtual reality headsets to entire hallways and even parachutes, demonstrating how game design is a medium of self-expression, social change, cybernetic spiritual practice and formal aesthetics, among others.”
The games on display include “SuperBetter” by Jane McGonigal, “Slapsie” and “Parachute” by Bernie DeKoven, “Videoball” by Tim Rogers, “Spacebox” by the Champlain College Sandbox team, “Long March: Restart” by Feng Mengbo, “SoundSelf” by Robin Arnott, “Untitled Game” by JODI, a collection of games by Anna Anthropy and a console running Terry Davis’s specialized TempleOS operating system.
Schrank, who’s penned a book on the subject of creating, critiquing and playing video games as an art form, explained that the games featured will explore the complex and varied gaming avant-garde.
“There is a political avant-garde who provoke, hack and challenge the status quo with their games, while there is also a formal avant-garde of artists who are content exhibiting works in museums or online, focusing on advancing the medium’s aesthetic or experiential potential,” Schrank said. “There are other artists who extend literary traditions, advancing a kind of narrative avant-garde of games. This exhibition explores the possibilities of games, presenting a range of approaches to game design.”
The opening reception for “Hey! Play! Games in Modern Culture” will take place at the Chicago Design Museum on the third floor of Block 37 on October 20, 2017. The event is open to the public and tickets are available for purchase. The exhibition will be open Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 7 p.m., until February 17, 2017. Admission to the museum is free, but donations are encouraged.
