[game_preservation] MoMA Game Collection

[Henry Lowood]

A propos Helen's last question, did you notice in the statement that a 
distinction was made between "art" and "design?"

Henry

On 12/6/2012 12:16 PM, Helen Stuckey wrote:

> 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 

> <mailto: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

>>     <mailto: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 <http://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 94305-6004

>     650-723-4602  <tel:650-723-4602>;lowood at stanford.edu  <mailto:lowood at stanford.edu>;http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood  <http://www.stanford.edu/%7Elowood>

>

>

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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 94305-6004
650-723-4602; lowood at stanford.edu; http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood

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