Art, pixels: Istanbul’s Akbank Sanat presents ‘Now in Digital Art: Game Room’
AKBANK Sanat, which opens its doors to every discipline of art, is hosting the exhibition “Now in Digital Art: Game Room,” which brings together the world of computer games with art.
Curated by Zeynep Arınç and Güven Çatak, the exhibition will meet art and game enthusiasts at Akbank Sanat from March 26 to May 18, 2024. Examining the indispensable role of computer games in today’s lives, the exhibition features works that integrate games with art.
The exhibition argues that computer games go beyond being just a form of entertainment, offering interactive experiences across a wide spectrum from education to the art world. Thus, it also addresses the social impact and potential for creating awareness of these games. The exhibition also aims to explore the interaction of computer games with the contemporary art world and discover the diversity and innovations in this field.
“Everything starts with ‘Spacewar!,’ developed by a group of engineers at MIT in 1962 to introduce a room-sized PDP-1 computer. This first video game, considered a laboratory experiment, garners significant attention in academic circles. Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari, played the game as a university student, which led to the discovery of video games’ mass appeal and commercial potential, thus marking the initial steps of a giant industry,” reads the exhibit’s announcement.
“Video games continue from one-dimensional representations in the 1960s to immersive virtual reality experiences enveloping players today. The gaming industry, which ended 2023 with a revenue of $184 billion, is both the naughty child and the largest of the creative industries. Türkiye is now a player in this arena, with our first “Unicorn” being a gaming company, representing our sector that receives the most investments and engages in exports. Relevant departments are continuously being opened in our universities. The gaming sector presents a world full of opportunities, especially for our young population,” it added.
Akbank Sanat invites art and game enthusiasts to the “Game Room,” which will showcase an interdisciplinary cross-section and offer a curious look at the relationship between contemporary art and computer games on such a scale for the first time in Türkiye.
Inspired by the merging and even overlapping of the real world and game worlds, the exhibition features works by internationally renowned artists and game designers. Some of the exhibited works include the emotionally engaging game “Florence” by the award-winning Australian game designer Ken Wong; Total Refusal’s awardwinning piece “Hardly Working;” “We Are Muesli” with their cultural heritage, historical, and artistic-themed games; Jon Haddock’s reinterpretation of both historical and fictional events in video game style with “Isometric Screenshots;” and Ouchhh’s first game “Ra Atlas.”