Are Video Games Art? (MoMA Thinks So)

The Museum of Modern Art recently announced that they have acquired 14 video games and plan to add more to this new category of their art collection. This initial group, which will be installed in the Museum’s Philip Johnson Galleries in March 2013, includes Pac-Man, Tetris, Another World, Myst, SimCity 2000, vib-ribbon, The Sims, Katamari Damacy, EVE Online, Dwarf Fortress, Portal, flow, Passage, and Canabalt. But are video games really art? MoMA sure thinks so.

In a recent blog post, Paola Antonelli, MoMA’s Senior Curator for the Department of Architecture and Design, explained: “As with all other design objects in MoMA’s collection, from posters to chairs to cars to fonts, curators seek a combination of historical and cultural relevance, aesthetic expression, functional and structural soundness, innovative approaches to technology and behavior, and a successful synthesis of materials and techniques in achieving the goal set by the initial program. This is as true for a stool or a helicopter as it is for an interface or a video game, in which the programming language takes the place of the wood or plastics, and the quality of the interaction translates in the digital world what the synthesis of form and function represent in the physical one.”

Because the art of video games is often only visible through interaction, MoMA is considering a number of creative display options. Some games will be made playable in their entirety while others will be shown through demos, interactive displays, and guided tours. Over the next few years, MoMA also hopes to acquire Spacewar!, an assortment of games for the Magnavox Odyssey console, Pong, Snake, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Zork, Tempest, Donkey Kong, Yars’ Revenge, M.U.L.E., Core War, Marble Madness, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, NetHack, Street Fighter II, Chrono Trigger, Super Mario 64, Grim Fandango, Animal Crossing, and Minecraft.