Artworld Videogames

Background: Over the last decade, a new generation of artists and independent designers have used videogames for personal and artistic ends, speaking to issues of identity and place. Beyond the hegemony of corporate American and European entertainment products, we might also ask: can we identify videogame aesthetic trends based in particular cities? How might we make videogames tailored to specific “Melbourne” or Australian locations and audiences? How might we facilitate cross-continental dialogue? Contribution: Artworld Videogames was a three-week exhibition of playful media art and experimental videogames co-hosted by Bar SK, RMIT Games, and ACMI, curated by Wilson, Louis Roots, and Katie Stegs. The exhibition was funded by the National Gallery of Victoria and their MEL&NYC program, and featured new commissions and masterclasses from three leading NYC game makers: Robert Yang, Nicole He, and Zach Gage. In an attempt to foreground the cultural specificity of experimental videogame practices in both NYC and Melbourne, the exhibition flew out three NYC game makers to work together with the curatorial team to make three new game installations specially tailored to the space and audience of Collingwood’s world-renown game/art gallery Bar SK. For example, Robert Yang’s piece “Ruck Me” presented a homoerotic play on AFL, framed from the vantage point of an outsider observing Melbourne sport culture. Significance: Artworld Videogames showcased a fresh approach to videogame commissions and site-specific installations, presented to a wide audience of Melbourne’s artgoing public. Funded and advertised prominently by the NGV, the exhibition also enjoyed local press coverage from local radio and the ABC, as well as a major exhibition review on popular gaming press outlet Kotaku: “the different types of cultural, artistic and emotional impacts left by this small event will last a lot longer. For people in both cities.”