[game_preservation] MoMA Game Collection

[Helen Stuckey]

Hi Alex,

I would also be interested to hear more about their strategies for
exhibiting the games. MOMA has offered one of the
clearest statements about the challenges of creating
meaningful  relationships with these works for audiences in the gallery and
have obviously had some success in working with developers to produced
exhibition friendly versions and/or other materials for display. This
produces artefacts that may be distinct from those of 'preserving
the original work' but important to the museums curatorial narratives.

Also can you ask why it sits in the Architecture and Design collection when
MOMA have a Media and Performance Collection? Is this philosophical or is
their an individual driving the collection who is located in Architecture
and Design?

many thanks
Helen


On 7 December 2012 08:23, Henry Lowood <lowood at stanford.edu> wrote:


>  Alex,

>

> Any question that puts more meat on the bones of "we will preserve the

> games" or "source code is important to have" would be valuable, from my

> point of view.  I just would like to know more about their thinking on

> these topics.  For example, source code is obviously important (and

> difficult) to get, but there are issues with using source code, matching it

> to versions of software, being sure it is the version of the game that you

> are showing, etc.  Just wondering if they could say more about why source

> is a priority in their minds.  Writing this I realize that some of the

> issues in my mind are museum issues, some are archival/documentation

> issues, some are historical.

>

> As background, I should say that I am not aware of software preservation

> activity at MOMA.  I'm not saying they are not doing anything, just that it

> would be nice to know what they are doing or propose to do.

>

> Henry

>

>

>

> On 12/6/2012 9:50 AM, Alex Handy wrote:

>

> Hey guys, I am speaking to the MOMA about their exhibit and collection

> next Friday dec 14. Anyone got any questions they want me to ask?

> On Dec 6, 2012 3:46 AM, "Devin Monnens" <dmonnens at gmail.com> wrote:

>

>> I'm sure many of you are aware of this, but I wanted to bring it up here

>> because I had a few observations/questions.

>>

>>

>> http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2012/11/29/video-games-14-in-the-collection-for-starters

>>

>>  First, I like how they have selected a series of criteria for which to

>> evaluate the games (even though the casual dismissal of 'of course, games

>> are art!' was a bit surprising, even for someone who has taught a class on

>> it).

>>

>>  What interests me though is the images they chose, the emphasis on

>> source code and original hardware, and technical data for the games.

>> Essentially, with Tetris, they show a picture of the Electronika 60

>> version, which is really quite surprising. Does this mean the MoMA acquired

>> one? And with something like MYST and Another World, are they looking at

>> the original release or a re-release? (Especially important with Another

>> World since later PC releases added new material.) Is anyone here involved

>> with the project who can clarify?

>>

>>  It's interesting they put a lot of focus on being able to get the games

>> to run in the future - hence source code and documentation, as well as

>> collection of original hardware. It looks like they are taking both methods

>> as possible approaches.

>>

>>  --

>> Devin Monnens

>> www.deserthat.com

>>

>> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>>

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>>

>>

>

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>

> --

> Henry Lowood

> Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections;

>   Film & Media Collections

> HSSG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall

> Stanford University Libraries, Stanford CA 94305-6004650-723-4602; lowood at stanford.edu; http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood

>

>

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