Video Games in the Museum

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Video games are one of the most important art and design phenomena of our times. A game is a gesamtkunstwerk or 'total artwork', incorporating animation and architecture, cinematography and costume and product design and performance, scriptwriting and scenography, and many other disciplines. Millions of people are affected by the gaming industry through production, distribution or consumption. Techniques developed in this field are starting to be applied in many others, from education and training to advertising. In 100 years, people will look back on our moment as a key phase of emergence for the video game. Yet there has been little effort to preserve this history-in-the-making. Game developers have shown little interest in archiving their own work, and with few exceptions the museum and archive sector has been disengaged, perhaps seeing video games as a form of popular culture that lies outside its remit. With the support of specialist academic expertise at the University of Abertay, the V&A is now set to fill this gap. Our ambition is to ensure that the video games of today will be part of the cultural heritage of the future.While we expect the network to prompt new ideas about achieving this objective, our approach is to work with industry partners to create interpretive 'meta-versions' of games for acquisition. We will collaboratively create a digital artifact, designed explicitly for the purpose of museum acquisition alongside the standard commercial version. The 'meta-version' will be a palimpsest, in which the features of the game are layered with interpretation and archival material. For example, scenes and characters might be presented in step-by-step reconstructions, which are further annotated by developers using voiceover and graphics. This will provide viewers with an in-depth understanding of the game and the processes used to create it. Such a 'meta-version' will be rendered within the existing design language of the game and could itself be interactive, ideally in a way that is derived from the 'play style' of the commercial product. The result will be specific to the museum's collection (a unique and authentic artefact with historic value). Subject to agreement it could be made available to the public online, as well as in-gallery. The research network would discuss this proposed approach and develop case studies for acquisition and display. It will also encourage debate about the collection and display of video games generally. Four workshops will provide opportunities for knowledge exchange and dissemination:1) V&A, [Mar 2014]. Organized by Co-I Kieran Long with support from the Contemporary and Research Departments at the Museum, the first workshop will set objectives and propose models for partner feedback. Participants will include industry representatives; academic specialists; and industry observers such as Alex Wiltshire (the former editor of Edge magazine, commissioned in 2013 to report for the V&A on video game design & development).2) Dundee Contemporary Arts, [Aug 2014]. Organized by PI Gregor White, the second event will engage art and design specialists from the video games industry. This workshop will support ongoing work toward V&A Dundee, set to open in 2016. 3) Games Developer Conference/University of Southern California, [March 2015]. USC is a world-leading center for video game design. This workshop would serve as a platform to engage USA-based developers, permitting an expansion of the V&A's collecting activities and an opportunity for comparative study. 4) V&A, [June 2015]. The concluding event will present findings to an interested public. At this symposium we will release a report on our recommended protocol, and profile case studies showing how the research has been applied to the acquisition of specific games.