Games and Politics - Columbia GSAPP

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Exhibitions

The exhibition Games and Politics, developed by the Goethe-Institut in cooperation with the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (ZKM) as a traveling exhibition, examines how computer games unfold their political potential in a playful way. Following San Francisco, Bucharest and São Paulo Games and Politics will now be presented in Istanbul at Studio-X in cooperation with the Bahçeşehir University Game Lab (BUG) from 22 February to 16 March 2019.

Since the 1970s, the genre of computer games has undergone rapid development. Its rudimentary forms at the outset, such as PAC-Man or Super Mario, have now been transformed into wide-ranging configurations of various worlds and regularly reflect or challenge complex social realities. Today the computer games are considered as a new artistic expression.

The exhibtion examines how computer games unfold their political potential in a playful way. Based on politically ambitious computer games of the last thirteen years, the exhibition seeks to discover the scope and limits of the genre and projects an opposing position for it within the entertainment industry.

The exhibition includes 18 computer games, 16 of which visitors can experience actively. They represent current social issues and challenges: precarious working conditions (Sunset), gender issues (Perfect Woman), consequences of armed conflict (This War of Mine), treatment of immigrants and refugees (Escape from Woomera), the security state (TouchTone) and revolutions against totalitarian systems (Yellow Umbrella).

Games and Politics is curated by Stephan Schwingeler (former curator at the ZKM and currently Professor of Game Design at the media Academy - Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences), Jeannette Neustadt-Grusche (curator Goethe-Institut) and Sophie Rau (co-curator Goethe-Institut).

PROGRAM

Friday, February 22, 7 pm
Opening

Friday, March 1, 7-9 pm
Artist Talk with Joseph DeLappe, developer of the game Killbox
Location: Studio-X Istanbul

Saturday, March 2, 10am–6pm
Workshop with Joseph DeLappe
(Participation only by invitation)
Location: Bahçeşehir University Game Lab (BUG)

Thursday, March 7, 7pm
Panel: Art Games and Game Art
Participants:
Güven Çatak (BUG Lab Director – moderator)
Efe Alaçamlı (Game Developer)
Semih Bertuğ Benim (Game Developer)
Altuğ Işığan (Academic)
Diğdem Sezen (Academic)
Location: Studio-X Istanbul

Saturday & Sunday, March 16-17
36-hour Game Jam
(Participation only by invitation)
Location: Bahçeşehir University Game Lab (BUG)

GAMES OF THE EXHIBITION

Madrid (Gonzalo Frasca, 2004)
The Cat and the Coup (Peter Brinson and Kurosh ValaNejad, 2011)
Papers, Please (Lucas Pope, 2013)
Democracy 3 (C.P. Harris, 2013)
Perfect Woman (Peter Lu & Lea Schönfelder, 2014)
Killbox (Joseph DeLappe with Malath Abbas, Tom deMajo and Albert Elwin of Biome Collective, 2016)
Unmanned (Molleindustria and No Media Kings, 2012)
Phone Story (Molleindustria, 2011)
This War of Mine (11 bit studios, 2014)
Orwell (Osmotic Studios, 2016)
Coming Out Simulator (Nicky Case, 2014)
Dys4ia (Anna Anthropy, 2012)
TouchTone (Mike Boxleiter & Greg Wohlwend, 2015)
Sunset (Auriea Harvey & Michaël Samyn, Tale of Tales, 2015)
Yellow Umbrella (Awesapp, 2014)
The Westport Independent (Coffee Stain Studios, 2016)
1378 (km) (Jens M. Stober, 2010)*
Escape from Woomera (The Escape From Woomera Collective, 2004)*

*Not playable

Feb 21 – Jun 8, 2019

OFFSETTED

Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery

Feb 27 – Jun 27, 2025

Prospecting Ocean

Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery, Buell Hall