We took a video crew inside the new Applied Design exhibit and talked to the curator of the video game exhibit in New York City.
The Museum of Modern Art’s new Architecture & Design installation features 14 recently acquired video games on view for the first time. This initial selection, from a wish list of about 40 to be acquired in the near future, features: Pac-Man (1980), Tetris (1984), Another World (1991), Myst (1993), SimCity 2000 (1994), vib-ribbon (1999), The Sims (2000), Katamari Damacy (2004), EVE Online(2003), Dwarf Fortress (2006), Portal (2007), flOw (2006), Passage (2008), Canabalt (2009). Most of the video games in the installation will be playable.
There are still people who think that design is just about making things, people, and places pretty. In truth, design has spread to almost every facet of human activity, from science and education to politics and policymaking, for a simple reason: one of design’s most fundamental tasks is to help people respond to change. A designer today can choose to focus on interactions, interfaces, the Internet, visualizations, socially minded infrastructures and products, 5-D spaces, bioengineering, sustainability, video games, critical scenarios, and yes, even furniture. Several outstanding examples of this vitality and diversity are presented in this installation, ranging from a mine detonator by young Afghani designer Massoud Hassani to a vessel made by transforming desert sand into glass using only the energy of the sun. Also on display are 14 videogames—including Pac-Man, The Sims, and Katamari Damacy—that constitute the beginning of a new branch of MoMA’s collection.
The exhibit was organized by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator, and Kate Carmody, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Architecture and Design.
