How
They Got Game Project Exhibit
Fictional Worlds, Virtual Experiences: Storytelling
and Computer Games
Lyn Krywick Gibbons Gallery
Roland K. Rebele Gallery
Geballe Family Balcony
Cantor Center for Visual Arts
November 12, 2003-March 28, 2004
Computer games are a textual, visual, and interactive
medium for telling stories and creating virtual worlds.
Focusing on the evolution of storytelling in computer
game development since the 1960s, this interdisciplinary
and interactive exhibition lays out the history and
cultural importance of interactive simulations, computer
games, and video games, proposing that their innovations
they represent the most significant emerging narrative
popular art form and emerging communication medium
of the early 21st century. The exhibition at Cantor
Center derives from research of the How
They Got Game project at the Stanford Humanities
Laboratory, a project seeking a path-finding narrative
for the historical and critical appreciation of computer
and video games. Physical artifacts, a timeline and
video clips will demonstrate how text, graphics, and
interactivity have established a narrative framework
in computer games. The exhibition will feature the
live and project projection of a networked, "massively
multiplayer" virtual world, and interactive game
stations will immerse visitors in the storytelling
aspects of games, the networked environments of virtual
worlds, while challenging them to contemplate the
history and the future of virtual gaming. Fictional
Worlds is guest-curated by Henry Lowood, Curator
for History of Science & Technology Collections,
Stanford
University Libraries, in collaboration with Casey
Alt, graduate student in the Program for History and
Philosophy of Science.
Read about Project Conference, Feb. 6, 2004:
Story Engines:
A Public Program on Storytelling and Computer Games
PRESS RELEASE
Exhibition and Conference Focus on Computer Games
"Fictional Worlds, Virtual Experiences:
Storytelling and Computer Games"
Nov. 12, 2003-March 28, 2004, Cantor Arts Center at
Stanford University
Video games shape our culture. It's time
we took them seriously.
- Henry Jenkins, "Art Form for the Digital Age,"
Technology Review (Sept.- Oct. 2000)
STANFORD, CA-Computer games and the narratives that
propel them are the focus of an exhibition opening
November 12 at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford
University. "Fictional Worlds, Virtual
Experiences: Storytelling and Computer Games,"
on view in three galleries through March 28, 2004,
is scheduled to coincide with two related exhibitions
at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco that open
in late January 2004. The exhibition is made
possible by the Lynn Krywick Gibbons Gallery Exhibition
Fund and the Cantor Arts Center members.
Computer
games are among the newest vehicles for telling stories
and creating virtual worlds. This interdisciplinary
and interactive exhibition lays out the history and
cultural importance of interactive simulations, computer
games, and video games, proposing that they represent
the emerging narrative form and communication medium
of the early 21st century. Physical artifacts,
a timeline, and video clips will demonstrate how text,
graphics, and interactivity have established a narrative
framework in computer games. The exhibition
will feature the live projection of a networked, "massively
multiplayer" virtual world, and interactive game
stations immerse visitors in the storytelling aspects
of games, while challenging them to contemplate the
history and the future of virtual gaming.
The
exhibition derives from research of the "How
They Got Game Project" at the Stanford Humanities
Laboratory, a project seeking a path-finding narrative
for the historical and critical appreciation of computer
and video games. "Fictional Worlds"
is guest-curated by Dr. Henry Lowood, Curator for
History of Science & Technology Collections, Stanford
University Libraries, in collaboration with Casey
Alt, graduate student in the Program for History and
Philosophy of Science.
"The
Cantor Arts Center encourages Stanford University
faculty and students to utilize the museum for research
and as a showcase for campus initiatives," said
Patience Young, the curator for education who is the
coordinating curator for the exhibition. "This
show bridges the worlds of art and technology in ways
that we expect to be provocative and informative for
museum visitors of all ages and backgrounds."
A
free conference on Friday, February 6, entitled "Story
Engines: A Public Program on Storytelling and Computer
Games," presents speakers from the industry and
academia, addressing aspects of the role of narrative
in computer games. The conference will take
place 9 a.m.-5 p.m. in the Cantor Arts Center auditorium.
Space is limited, with open seating and no reservations.
Call 650-725-6788 for details.
The
Cantor Arts Center is open Wednesday - Sunday from
11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday until 8 p.m. Admission
is free. The Center is located on the Stanford
University campus off Palm Drive, at Museum Way.
Call 650-723-4177 or visit web site http://www.stanford.edu/dept/ccva/
for information, including exhibitions in the Center's
24 galleries and sculpture gardens.
Read about Game
Scenes exhibit at Yerba Buena opening January
2004...
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