The Art of Video Games was a show at the Smithsonian American Art Museum from March 16 to September 30, 2012. The show aimed to show how art in video games has changed over 40 years. After its time at the museum, the show went to 10 more places in the United States. Chris Melissinos, who started Past Pixels and collects video games and gaming systems, was the organizer of the show.

Purpose

The Art of Video Games was one of the first exhibitions to show how video games changed over forty years as an art form. It highlighted eye-catching visuals and the creative use of new technologies. The exhibition included some of the most important artists and designers from five eras of game technology, starting with early pioneers and ending with modern creators (see grid below). It explored how graphics, technology, and storytelling work together in some of the best games for twenty gaming systems, from the Atari VCS to the PlayStation 3.

The Smithsonian had arcade games on display in the mid-1980s, including Pong, Pac-Man, and Dragon's Lair. These were coin-operated arcade video games that people played for a fee.

Public vote

The Smithsonian American Art Museum asked the public to help choose which video games would be part of an exhibition. A list of 240 games was created by Chris Melissinos, who worked with the museum and a group of advisors, including game developers, designers, industry experts, and journalists. The games were chosen based on different factors, such as their visual effects, how they used new technology creatively, and how well they connected to the story of the exhibition. People voted from February 14 to April 17, 2011. Over 3.7 million votes were cast by 119,000 individuals from 175 countries.

Galleries

Visitors to The Art of Video Games at the Smithsonian American Art Museum saw a large 12-foot screen that showed parts of most of the 80 games in the exhibition. The screen played music made with special sounds, created by 8 Bit Weapon and ComputeHer. Inside the museum, a gallery had short videos showing how people of all ages feel when playing video games. Five videos, each focusing on different themes—Beginnings, Inspiration, Narrative, Experience, and The Future—included parts of interviews with 20 important people in the gaming world, such as Nolan Bushnell, David Cage, Steve Cartwright, Jenova Chen, Don Daglow, Noah Falstein, Ed Fries, Ron Gilbert, Robin Hunicke, Henry Jenkins, Jennifer MacLean, RJ Mical, Mike Mika, David Perry, Jane Pinckard, George L. Rose, Kellee Santiago, Tim Schafer, Jesse Schell, Warren Spector, and Tommy Tallarico. These videos are also available on the museum’s website. A special display with five screens showed how basic game features, like avatars, jumping, running, climbing, flying, short movie scenes, and landscapes, have changed since the 1970s. The room also had concept art from games made in different time periods. Five playable games, each from a different era, allowed visitors to experience how players interact with different virtual worlds. These games included Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst, and Flower. In the final gallery, interactive kiosks covered five eras of game technology, from early pioneers to modern designers, and showed 20 gaming systems, from the Atari VCS to the PlayStation 3. Each kiosk had a game from four genres—action, target, adventure, and tactics—that visitors could choose to listen to commentary, dialogue, and music.

Games exhibited

The following list includes games that were chosen by Melissinos and the advisory board to be part of the exhibition. The exhibition is organized into five time periods, each showing video game systems from that era. For each system, three games from each of four game types were chosen first, and one game was selected by public voting to be included in the final exhibition. In addition, playable versions of five games are available: Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., The Secret of Monkey Island, Myst, and Flower.

Subsequent exhibitions

After its time at the Smithsonian, the exhibit was displayed at ten other museums across the United States from 2013 to 2016.

• Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. (March 16, 2012 – September 30, 2012)
• Boca Raton Museum of Art in Boca Raton, Florida (October 24, 2012 – January 13, 2013)
• EMP Museum in Seattle, Washington (February 16, 2013 – May 13, 2013)
• Phoenix Art Museum in Phoenix, Arizona (June 16, 2013 – September 29, 2013)
• Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York (October 25, 2013 – January 19, 2014)
• Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, New York (February 15, 2014 – May 18, 2014)
• Toledo Museum of Art in Toledo, Ohio (June 19, 2014 – September 28, 2014)
• Flint Institute of Arts in Flint, Michigan (October 25, 2014 – January 18, 2015)
• Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia (February 13, 2015 – May 10, 2015)
• Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis, Tennessee (June 6, 2015 – September 13, 2015)
• The Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University in Miami, Florida (October 9, 2015 – January 25, 2016)

Book

A book called The Art of Video Games: From Pac-Man to Mass Effect goes with the exhibition. Chris Melissinos wrote the book. Elizabeth Broun, who is the director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, wrote the foreword. Mike Mika, who is the head of development at Other Ocean Interactive and an important supporter of keeping video game history safe, wrote the introduction. The book includes more than 100 combined images of games created by Patrick O'Rourke. Welcome Books published the book in partnership with the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Reception

About 680,000 people visited the Smithsonian exhibit over six months.

Here is a list of some media coverage about the exhibition:

• Kohler, Chris. "Game|Life – Videogames Politely Invade Smithsonian Art Museum." Wired. 30 March 2012.
• Goldberg, Harold. "How The Smithsonian Screwed Up Its Video Game Exhibition." NPR. 26 March 2012.
• Bradner, Liesl. "Smithsonian scores with 'Art of Video Games' exhibit." The Los Angeles Times. 19 March 2012.
• Braver, Rita. ""The art of video games" with Rita Braver." CBS Sunday Morning. 18 March 2012.
• Kennicott, Philip. "Critic's Review: 'The Art of Video Games' at the Smithsonian American Art Museum." The Washington Post. 18 March 2012.
• Schiesel, Seth. "An Exhibition in Easy Mode." The New York Times. 16 March 2012.
• O'Brien, Jane. "Video game art gets the gallery treatment." BBC News. 15 March 2012.
• Snider, Mike. "Are video games art? Draw your own conclusions." USA Today. 13 March 2012.
• Mustich, Emma. "Five-Minute Museum – Video games as multi-player art project." Salon. 10 March 2012.