Play and the Exhibition: The problematic fun of showcasing of videogames in informal and formal contexts

Gregor White,Lynn H C Love,Clare Brennan

doi:10.14236/ewic/eva2020.6

Abstract

This paper contributes to the developing body of videogame exhibition knowledge by evaluating the methods utilised within informal and formal contexts of videogames exhibition from the perspective of reception theory. The study of both large-scale exhibitions such as those by the Victoria and Albert museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum alongside the one-night indie game night is a unique contribution to the field, with studies typically focussing on one given context. Reception theory and the hermeneutic circle provide lenses through which the active participative role of the player/reader in meaning-making can be evaluated. Exhibition method analysis across formal and informal contexts allows modelling of a connection between the need for player/reader specialist knowledge and the resulting co-participation in meaning-making possible. These models suggest the ways that exhibition methods and settings can shape audience profiles and the potential for co-participation. The results of this study may provide curators and game developers with alternative modes of thinking about player/reader meaning co-participation across exhibition and audience contexts.

Highlights

Videogames are a relatively new medium that struggle to command cultural legitimacy in society (Reed 2018) driven perhaps by its playful nature being associated with childishness and frivolity or their association with violence
Profiling of videogame exhibitions led to the emergence of three layers of meaning-making opportunities for the reader/player, driven by showcase methods: the game objects, the curatorial mediation of these objects and setting
There is no one size fits all approach to videogame exhibition; the setting, curatorial goals, audience and game objects themselves create complex interactions and dependencies which alter potential for reader/player meaning-making co-participation

Summary

Introduction

Videogames are a relatively new medium that struggle to command cultural legitimacy in society (Reed 2018) driven perhaps by its playful nature being associated with childishness and frivolity or their association with violence (both digital and real world). In 2012 The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) purchased 14 videogames to add to its permanent collection (Antonelli 2012). This was seen by some as cultural acknowledgement of videogames as an artform (Zuckerman 2012), yet this has not permeated general society (Faber 2019). Videogames exhibitions motivated by an art or design institution tend to propagate discourse regarding the cultural value and highlight their technological innovation or historical development Exhibitions motivated by organisations specialising in videogames exhibition move beyond historical or cultural discourses, instead interrogating the form through playful, critical and political framings (e.g. Chaotic Interfaces, 2020)

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