Video Games? Art and Technology

Pippin Barr, Sandee Moore, and artist collective SpekWork (Cat Bluemke and Jonathan Carroll)

October 6, 2022 - January 29, 2023

Video Games? Art and Technology is a group exhibition featuring Pippin Barr, Sandee Moore, and artist collective SpekWork with Cat Bluemke and Jonathan Carroll, who examine video games as an artform for design and self- expression. From computer art to digital art, to animation and web-based art, photography and film, to AR, VR, and Video Games, the Art and Technology movement of the 1960s provided artists the tools to mix technology, art, and science.

As technology advanced and progressed, gaming design grew as an artistic practice. In the 1990s digital artists explored the historical dimension of the computer and its development as a creative medium. Video Game creation allows artists to play with technological tools and game mechanics to question our perception of the physical world. Today in 2022, how has Video Games shaped and contributed to the way we learn history and understand issues in the contemporary world? In this exhibition Sandee Moore investigates the representation of female skateboarders in her version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. Meanwhile Cat Bluemke and Jonathan Carroll look at architecture and labour through their Assassin's Creed Art History series, which explores the making of video games and the making of history. And Pippin Barr sheds light on videogame designs and mythology in Let's Play: Ancient Greek Punishment with the story of Sisyphus.

Video Games? Art and Technology aims to create a digital artistic experience that allows us to reflect on how technology and art can be used together to dissect design structures and societal themes. Through re-interpretation of classic video games and their aesthetics, the artworks offer a new way of seeing in our digital age.

The following text was projected at the entrance of the exhibition as opposed to a traditional didactic

What started out as an idea many years ago after experiencing digital artworks in London, UK has led to the fascination and interest in the advancement of technology. The seed continued to grow in the curator’s mind as she moved to Grande Prairie in 2020, during the Pandemic, its lockdowns, and survival through the digital world. Conversations about this concept with artists across the country has led to the exhibition:

Video Games? Art and Technology.

From computer art to digital art, to animation and web-based art, photography and film, to AR, VR, and Video Games, the Art and Technology movement of the 1960s provided artists the tools to mix technology, art, and science.

During the computing era of the 60s, the gaming industry was an important element in the ‘digital revolution’ and became a billion-dollar enterprise. Games and digital art shared a connection to the military industry, which lead to the creation of the internet and laid the groundwork for many digital technologies.

Artists started to get involved in the creation of video games and gaming design using computers and machines as an artistic practice, through computer art in the 60s, and digital art in the 70s, and so on, until technology and art became a movement.

As technology advanced and progressed, Games became an important part of digital art’s history, and by the 1990s digital artists explored the historical dimension of the computer and its development as a creative medium.

Video Game creation allowed artists to play with technological tools and game mechanics to question our perception of the physical world. While many works developed their own unique worlds, many artists created games that build on aesthetics of existing games, or hack them by breaking and modifying the original code.

Many gaming artworks have a more symbiotic relationship with their commercial counterparts, some games often created very realistic and exciting visual worlds, while others used simpler aesthetics.

Some artists would look back and take a critical look at their predecessors and counterparts and explore their paradigms in a different context. Such as Sandee Moore who investigates the representation of female skateboarders in her version of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2.

Through video game technology, Pippin Barr explores the creative and narrative boundaries of video game design as an artistic medium. In his games he sheds light on videogame designs and the reiteration of mythology such as in Let's Play: Ancient Greek Punishment with the story of Sisyphus.

Cat Bluemke and Jonathan Carroll look at architecture and labour through their Assassin's Creed Art History series, exploring the making of video games and the making of history using the Assassin’s Creed video game franchise.

What do we mean when we talk about video game art and how can video games investigate moments in our life?

Today in 2022, how has Video Games shaped and contributed to the way we learn history and understand issues in the contemporary world?

Have fun and Question Everything

Featured artists

Pippin Barr

Sandee Moore

Cat Bluemke and Jonathan Carroll

Curated by Manar Abo Touk

Curator, Exhibitions & Collections

Exhibition & Collections team

Mohsen Ahi Andy

Rob Swanston