games. Computer games by artists 11.10.2003 — 30.11.2003

From October 2003 to the end of 2004 the Reserveteillager – a disused spare part warehouse – at Phoenix West will be host to the events and exhibitions of hartware medien kunst verein. Phoenix West is a redundant blast furnace site in Dortmund-Hörde. The 2.000 square meter "Reserveteillager" has been recently redeveloped and is now in use as a multifunctional event hall of "dortmund-project" and thus is also at the disposal of hartware.

The first hartware medien kunst verein project at Phoenix West is the exhibition games. Computer games by artists, which takes place from October 11 till November 30, 2003 an which is based on a concept by the media art theorist Tilman Baumgärtel (Berlin). "games" seeks to display the varied range of artistic approaches to the phenomenon of computer games with nearly 30 exemplary works of art.

On Sunday, October 12 several artists will be available to personally present their work at the exhibition. Additionally, the artist Olaf Val (Cologne) will run a workshop for young people within the context of the exhibition. There will also be a film and lecture program (21 - 23 November), which sets about addressing the issues involved in computer games and film.

A catalogue will accompany the exhibition. It will be presented towards the end of the exhibition.

Concept

games seeks to display the varied range of artistic approaches to the phenomenon of computer games with nearly 30 exemplary works of art. Thus, it addresses a subject, which has intensely occupied the young media art scene over the past few years.

In the works shown commercial computer games such as, "Pong", "Jet Set Willy", "Super Mario", "Tetris", "Quake" or "Counter Strike", have been modified in various ways. Their visual aesthetics as well as their functions have been tampered with. In addition to games that can be played on computers and consoles the exhibition also encompasses installations, videos, objects and graphics. The range of artistic strategies displayed in the exhibition spans from the adaptation of the programming code to the manipulation of the hardware through to the "translation" of digital scenes and motifs into the language of analogue visual media and objects.

All works shown in the exhibition display a constructive rather than simply reactive approach towards the hardware and software of the rapidly expanding computer games industry. The artists utilise the given standards, whilst at the same time deconstructing them with subversive gestures and infusing them with new meanings.

The works deal with different aspects of computer games: for example their binary logic of winning/loosing or on the assumed predictability of the game’s outcome. Also, the flexibility of role and identity allocation is examined within game scenarios. Other works concentrate on the creation of an alternative reality in the 3D-space of computer-generated game scenes (and thus on the interaction between simulation and reality) or question the apparent unequivocalness of hard and software, the console and computer and even the infallible black box.