"The Art of Video Games" museum exhibit

www.miamiherald.com/videos/?media_id=136838351#storylink=misearch

With video games exploding at the rate they have been recently, it is about time they get the attention they deserve. I found this video on the Miami Herald website that closely relates to James Paul Gee’s article, “Why Game Studies Now?” In it, it talks about a new exhibit that was introduced to Washington DC’s Smithsonian American Art Museum, named “The Art of Video Games.” This exhibit, which will be there until the end of September, attempts to show its visitors that there is more to video games then simply entertainment - It is a true art form.  A game designer is just as artsy as a painter, with the computer being their canvas, and coding being their paint and brushes. This idea was also shown in the video “Indie Game- The Movie,” that we watched this week. We saw how the game designers spent years stressing over every detail, down to the smallest pixel in the game, and gave up their whole life to devote themselves to their passion. This is very similar to how any artist will over analyze every paint stroke it makes in its painting. In order to demonstrate how video games are a new art form to the average person, the exhibit takes people through the history of videogames using interviews, game screenshots, old consoles, and even a few playable games. It brings the “story elements” that James Paul Gee talked about to life by blowing up the still shots and allowing the museum visitors to create the story behind the game.