Game art

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Publications

• Anne-Marie Schleiner, "Parasitic Interventions: Game Patches and Hacker Art", c1998. Lecture.

• Switch: "Art & Games", CADRE Laboratory for New Media/San Jose State University, 1999. Special issue of online magazine.

• Tiffany Holmes, "Art Games and Breakout: New Media Meets the American Arcade", 2002.

• games. Computerspiele von KünstlerInnen, ed. Tilman Baumgärtel, Dortmund: hARTware medien kunst verein, and Frankfurt/M: Revolver, 2003, 127 pp. Exh. catalogue. Exhibition. Editor. [1] [2] (German),(English)

• Tilman Baumgärtel, "Zu einigen Themen künstlerischer Computerspiele", MedienKunstNetz, 2004. (German)
  • "On a Number of Aspects of Artistic Computer Games", MediaArtNet, 2004.

• Celia Pearce, "Games as Art: The Aesthetics of Play", Visible Language 40(1): "Fluxus After Fluxus", eds. Ken Friedman and Owen F. Smith, Jan 2006, pp 66-89.

• Matteo Bittanti, Domenico Quaranta (eds.), Gamescenes: Art in the Age of Videogames / GameScenes. L'arte nell'era dei videogiochi, Monza: Johan & Levi, 2006, 456 pp. TOC, Book website. Review: Debatty (WMMNA). (English)/(Italian)
  • Domenico Quaranta, "Game Aesthetics: How Videogames Are Transforming Contemporary Art", pp 297-308.

• Joline Blais, Jon Ippolito, "Deep Play", section in At the Edge of Art, Thames & Hudson, 2006. Book website, Book introduction. [3]

• Journal of Media Practice 7(1), eds. Grethe Mitchell and Andy Clarke, 2006. Special issue on videogames and art. [4]

• Andy Clarke, Grethe Mitchell (eds.), Videogames and Art, Bristol: Intellect, 2007, 283 pp; 2nd ed., 2013.

• Mary Flanagan, "Artists' Locative Games", ch 6 in Flanagan, Critical Play: Radical Game Design, MIT Press, 2009, pp 189-222.

• Mary Flanagan, "Critical Computer Games", ch 7 in Flanagan, Critical Play: Radical Game Design, MIT Press, 2009, pp 223-249.

• Grant Tavinor, "Videogames as Art", ch. 9 in Tavinor, The Art of Videogames, Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. Publisher.

• Mathias Jansson, Everything I Shoot Is Art, Brescia: Link Editions, 2012.

• Iluminace 24(2): "Počítačové hry jako expresivní médium", ed. Jaroslav Švelch, Prague: Národní filmový archiv, 2012, 142 pp. (Czech)

• Larissa Hjorth, "The Art of Games: Machinima and the Limits of Art Games", in Understanding Machinima: Essays on Filmmaking in Virtual Worlds, ed. Jenna Ng, New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013, pp 129-146.

• Brian Schrank, Avant-garde Videogames: Playing with Technoculture, forew. Jay David Bolter, MIT Press, 2014, 217 pp, EPUB. Publisher.

• Erin Gavin, "Press Start: Video Games and Art", Valley Humanities Review, Spring 2014.

• Stephan Schwingeler, Kunstwerk Computerspiel. Digitale Spiele als künstlerisches Material. Eine bildwissenschaftliche und medientheoretische Analyse, Bielefeld: transcript, 2014, 376 pp. [5] (German)

• Helena Bendová, "Hry jako umění pohledem kritiky: případ Games.cz", Game Art: Web o umění počítačových her, Prague, 7 Jan 2014. (Czech)

• John Sharp, Works of Game: On the Aesthetics of Games and Art, MIT Press, 2015, 160 pp. [6]

• Helena Bendová, Umění počítačových her, Prague: NAMU, 2016, 354 pp. TOC. Publisher. Reviews: Franc (Sešit), Tesař (Cinepur), Lukavec (iLiteratura), Komínek (25fps). (Czech)

• Lana Polansky, "Towards an Art History for Videogames", Rhizome, 3 Aug 2016.

• Helena Bendová, Co je nového v počítačových hrách, Prague: Nová beseda, 2019, 100 pp. Publisher. (Czech)

• Mike Sell, "Modernist Afterlives In Performance—Playing the Avant-Garde: The Aesthetics, Narratives, and Communities of Video Game Vanguards", Modernism/modernity 4:3, Oct 2019.

• Jaroslav Švelch, Jak obehrát železnou oponu. Počítačové hry a participativní kultura v normalizačním Československu, Prague: Akropolis, 2021, 416 pp. Publisher. (Czech)

• Klaudia Jancsovics, "Play the Art: Artistic Value in Video Games", Replay. The Polish Journal of Game Studies 8:1, 2021, pp 37-51.

• Frank G. Bosman, Archibald L.H.M. van Wieringen, Video Games as Art: A Communication-Oriented Perspective on the Relationship between Gaming and the Art, De Gruyter, 2022, 115 pp. OAPEN.

• Flash Art CS 69: "Gaming", Oct-Nov 2023. [7] (Czech),(Slovak)

• Worldbuilding: Gaming and Art in the Digital Age, ed. Julia Stoschek Foundation, intro. Hans Ulrich Obrist, Hatje Cantz, Aug 2024, 176 pp. Publisher. Exhibition, [8].

• Aleksandra Prokopek, Agata Waszkiewicz, "Avant-Garde is Dead? On Arrière-Garde and Digital Games", Games and Culture, 2024. DOI.

• Enter the Room, Prague: Galerie hlavního města Prahy, 2025, 212 pp. Exh. cat. Publisher. Exhibition. (Czech)/(English)

Films shot inside video games

• Molotov Alva and His Search for the Creator: A Second Life Odyssey, 10 eps, dir. Douglas Gayeton, 2008, 35 min. Film website. WP. IMDB.

• Parallel I-IV, dir. Harun Farocki, 2012-2014, 16, 9, 7, 11 min. About, [9].

• Total Refusal: How to Disappear. Deserting Battlefield, dir. Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner, and Michael Stumpf, 2020, 21 min. IMDB.

• Hardly Working, dir. Susanna Flock, Robin Klengel, and Leonhard Müllner, 2022, 20 min. IMDB.

• Knit's Island, dir. Sam Crane and Pinny Grylls, 2023, 95 min. About. IMDB.

• Grand Theft Hamlet, dir. Ekiem Barbier, Guilhem Causse, and Quentin L'Helgouac'h, 2024, 89 min. Film website. WP. IMDB.

• USS Callister: Into Infinity, Black Mirror S07E06, dir. Toby Haynes, 2025, 88 min. WP. IMDB. Reddit.

Recent exhibitions

• Notgames Fest, Cologne Game Lab, 2011; 2013; 2015.

• Game No Game, Deák 17 Gallery, Budapest, 15 Jan-25 Feb 2023. Curated by C3 Foundation. [10]

• 8-bit, Satelit Gallery/Slovak Design Centre, Bratislava, 8 Mar-30 Apr 2023. Curated by Maroš Brojo.

• No Fun III: Trans*grese, etc. galerie, Prague, 28 Mar-14 May 2023. Curated by No Fun Collective. [11]

• Game Society, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, 12 May-10 Sep 2023. Curated by Hong Leeji. [12] [13]

• Worldbuilding: Gaming and Art in the Digital Age, Centre Pompidou Metz, 10 Jun 2023-15 Jan 2024.

• Enter the Room, Prague City Gallery, 28 Mar-14 Sep 2025.

Resources

• List of exhibitions and bibliography, compiled by Mathias Jansson.

• Game Art Worlds: The Early Years, interviews with pioneers of game art by Mathias Jansson and Matteo Bittanti.

• Gamescenes, ed. Matteo Bittanti, launched 2006.

• Resource on Game art at CAS FAMU Prague, launched 2013. Bibliography. (Czech)

See also

• Harun Farocki

Links

• Wikipedia

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