Games and Politics: An Interactive Exhibition by the Goethe-Institut in cooperation with ZKM | Center for Art and Media

The Goethe-Institut Boston and MIT Game Lab present the touring exhibition Games and Politics, which examines how computer games unfold their political potential. It explores the scope and limits of the computer game genre, constructing a counter-position within the entertainment industry with the aid of a repertoire of politically ambitious computer games from the past twelve years. This exhibit will be in the TSMC Lobby of the Stata Center (MIT Building 32) and is open from 6am to 6pm each day.

The exhibition Games and Politics covers a wide range of topics. Players experience the contingencies of political decision-making itself (Democracy III) and witness social injustices. The games address precarious labor conditions (Sunset) and gender issues (Perfect Woman), the surveillance state (Touchtone), the consequences of armed conflicts (This War of Mine), the treatment of refugees (Escape from Woomera) and revolutions against totalitarian systems (Yellow Umbrella). Adopting the characters of often-marginalized people such as a border official, housekeeper, drone pilot or war survivor, players will experience limited possibilities and negative sanctions through both the character and the game play.

Games and Politics comes to Boston as part of a world tour which started in November 2016 in Mexico and Korea. After this third stop in the United States, the exhibition will continue on to nineteen more countries including Brazil, Russia, Iran, Palestine, Nigeria, India, and Vietnam well into 2019.
The exhibition is accompanied by Art Games, a series of eight 48-hour game jams around the world where game developers, programmers, artists, musicians and other creatives come together to develop computer games. The winning games will be presented in Germany in mid-2018. The Boston edition takes place May 19-21 at the Goethe-Institut Boston in Back Bay. To apply to participate, contact annette.klein@goethe.de. For more information visit http://www.goethe.de/artgames.

For additional infomation, visit https://www.goethe.de/ins/us/en/sta/bos/ver.cfm?fuseaction=events.detail&event_id=20921563.

This exhibition is organized by the Goethe-Institut in cooperation with the Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien in Karlsruhe