LABORAL - CENTRO DE ARTE Y CREACIÓN INDUSTRIAL

Concept

"Toys are not really as innocent as they look. Toys and games are the preludes to serious ideas".
Charles Eames

Over the last ten years, the art world, academia and industry have been deploying a whole plethora of initiatives aimed at securing the status of the videogame as a medium in its own right and defending the potential of gaming as a creative strategy. LABoral has made a notable contribution to this process with its trilogy of exhibitions titled Gameworld, Playware and Homo Ludens Ludens, perhaps the most exhaustive exploration of the theme to date by any cultural institution.

Now that artists’ interest in the videogame no longer raises eyebrows; now that many universities have Game Studies departments and the Independent Games movement is finding its own space and public, what are the new horizons for the game as language and as industry?

ARCADIA: Games from a Culture of Innovation is posited as an observatory to explore the main lines of investigation undertaken today in the various fields of contemporary game culture; from the design of toys and games to the independent development of videogames, not overlooking game art and so-called 'serious games'.

The thirty plus projects selected for the exhibition, most of which have been produced over the last three years, are examples of an emerging sensibility that oversteps our preconceived ideas on the function and form of games.

New genres like "slow games" by Tale of Tales, that eschew adrenaline and instead look to submerge us in all-enveloping atmospheres; studios and designers like Jason Rohrer and Thatgamecompany, whose emotional and disturbing games are located beyond the adolescent imaginary of commercial videogames; sensual anti-narrative experiences like the exceptional Eliss by Steph Thirion... and games that comment and editorialise on contemporary social, political and environmental crises.

Stretching beyond the confines of software, Arcadia also explores areas like the design of products and gadgets, the toy and self-construction culture, and game hacking.

ARCADIA is the first project to be presented at MEDIATECA EXPANDIDA, a new space at LABoral conceived to experiment with new presentation formats that foster sociability and go beyond the limits of the conventional exhibition.

Curated by: José Luis de Vicente

Spatial design: Longo +  Roldán

Graphic design: The Studio of Fernando Gutiérrez

Projects:

2D BOY World of Goo
Abelardo Gil-Fournier The Croopier
Bandai Tutukki Bako
Bill Viola / USC Game Innovation Lab The Night Journey
Copenhaguen Game Collective Face Off in the Magic Circle
Crispin Jones Tengu
Erik Loyer Ruben and Lullaby
Erik Svedang Blueberry Garden
Ethan Kennerly Civilization IV: Quality of Life
Hayes Raffle, Amanda Parkes Topobo
Hobermann Associates:

Boom-o-Ring
Brain Twist
Hoberman Sphere
Switch Pitch
Tulu Rattle
Ian Bogost Jetset: a Game for Airports
Ian Bogost Killer Flu
Impact Games Play the News
Jason Rohrer Passage
Jun Fujiki & Sony Japan Studio OLE coordinate System + Echochrome
Keita Takahashi Noby Noby Boy
Media Molecule LittleBigPlanet
Microsoft Research Kodu
Petri Purho Crayon Physics Deluxe
Plastic Linger in Shadows
Secret Exit Zen Bound
Serious Games Interactive:

Global Conflicts: Latin America
Global Conflicts: Palestine
Snug and Outdoor Snug Kit
Steph Thirion Eliss
Take Action Games In The Balance
Tale of Tales:

The Graveyard
The Path
thatgamecompany Flower
York Zimmermann Inc. A Force More Powerful

To download the first number of the Mediateca Expandida magazine, please click here