Video Games & Art
![](r.smith-thelastbrawl-2008.jpg)
The Last Brawl (2008) - R. Smith
Are video games art? They sure are, but they are also design, and a design approach is what we chose for this new foray into this universe. The games are selected as outstanding examples of interaction design—a field that MoMA has already explored and collected extensively, and one of the most important and oft-discussed expressions of contemporary design creativity. Our criteria, therefore, emphasize not only the visual quality and aesthetic experience of each game, but also the many other aspects—from the elegance of the code to the design of the player’s behavior—that pertain to interaction design.
Art games
Alien Garden (1982)
Jaron Lanier
Moondust (1983)
Jaron Lanier
LORNA (1983)
Lynn Hershman Leeson
Afternoon, a story (1987)
Michael Joyce
Trigger Happy (1998)
Thomson & Craighead
SOD (1999)
JODI
The Intruder (1999)
Natalie Bookchin
Facade (2005)
Michael Mateas & Andrew Stern, Procedural Arts
The Marriage (2006)
Rod Humble
Game, Game, Game And Again Game (2007)
Jason Nelson
POP Methodology Experiment 1 (2012)
Rob Lach
Game art
Super Mario Clouds (2002)
Cory Archangel
Level Sounds like Devil / Baby in Christ vs. His Father (2007)
Eddo Stern
Kool-Aid Man in Second Life (2010)
Jon Rafman
READY FOR ACTION: Grid #1 (2012)
Kent Sheely
Machinima
Diary of a Camper (1996)
United Ranger Films
KarmaPhysics<Elvis (2004)
Brody Condon
Molotov Alva and His Search for the Creator (2008)
Douglas Gayeton
Games recontextualized as art
From the MOMA show (2012):
- Pac-Man (1980)
- Tetris (1984)
- Another World (1991)
- Myst (1993)
- SimCity 2000 (1994)
- vib-ribbon (1999)
- The Sims (2000)
- Katamari Damacy (2004)
- EVE Online (2003)
- Dwarf Fortress (2006)
- Portal (2007)
- flOw (2006)
- Passage (2008)
- Canabalt (2009)