Lyn Krywick Gibbons Gallery
Roland K. Rebele Gallery
Geballe Family Balcony
Cantor Center for Visual Arts
November 12, 2003-March 28, 2004

Computer games are a textual, visual, and interactive medium for telling stories and creating virtual worlds. Focusing on the evolution of storytelling in computer game development since the 1960s, this interdisciplinary and interactive exhibition lays out the history and cultural importance of interactive simulations, computer games, and video games, proposing that their innovations they represent the most significant emerging narrative popular art form and emerging communication medium of the early 21st century. The exhibition at Cantor Center derives from research of the How They Got Game project at the Stanford Humanities Laboratory, a project seeking a path-finding narrative for the historical and critical appreciation of computer and video games.

Physical artifacts, a timeline and video clips will demonstrate how text, graphics, and interactivity have established a narrative framework in computer games. The exhibition will feature the live and project projection of a networked, "massively multiplayer" virtual world, and interactive game stations will immerse visitors in the storytelling aspects of games, the networked environments of virtual worlds, while challenging them to contemplate the history and the future of virtual gaming. Fictional Worlds is guest-curated by Henry Lowood, Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections, Stanford University Libraries, in collaboration with Casey Alt, graduate student in the Program for History and Philosophy of Science.

Read about Project Conference, Feb. 6, 2004:
Story Engines: A Public Program on Storytelling and Computer Games

PRESS RELEASE

Exhibition and Conference Focus on Computer Games
"Fictional Worlds, Virtual Experiences:  Storytelling and Computer Games"
Nov. 12, 2003-March 28, 2004, Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University

Video games shape our culture.  It's time we took them seriously.
- Henry Jenkins, "Art Form for the Digital Age," Technology Review (Sept.- Oct. 2000)

STANFORD, CA-Computer games and the narratives that propel them are the focus of an exhibition opening November 12 at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University.  "Fictional Worlds, Virtual Experiences: Storytelling and Computer Games," on view in three galleries through March 28, 2004, is scheduled to coincide with two related exhibitions at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco that open in late January 2004.  The exhibition is made possible by the Lynn Krywick Gibbons Gallery Exhibition Fund and the Cantor Arts Center members.

Computer games are among the newest vehicles for telling stories and creating virtual worlds.  This interdisciplinary and interactive exhibition lays out the history and cultural importance of interactive simulations, computer games, and video games, proposing that they represent the emerging narrative form and communication medium of the early 21st century.  Physical artifacts, a timeline, and video clips will demonstrate how text, graphics, and interactivity have established a narrative framework in computer games.  The exhibition will feature the live projection of a networked, "massively multiplayer" virtual world, and interactive game stations immerse visitors in the storytelling aspects of games, while challenging them to contemplate the history and the future of virtual gaming.
        
The exhibition derives from research of the "How They Got Game Project" at the Stanford Humanities Laboratory, a project seeking a path-finding narrative for the historical and critical appreciation of computer and video games.  "Fictional Worlds" is guest-curated by Dr. Henry Lowood, Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections, Stanford University Libraries, in collaboration with Casey Alt, graduate student in the Program for History and Philosophy of Science.
        
"The Cantor Arts Center encourages Stanford University faculty and students to utilize the museum for research and as a showcase for campus initiatives," said Patience Young, the curator for education who is the coordinating curator for the exhibition.  "This show bridges the worlds of art and technology in ways that we expect to be provocative and informative for museum visitors of all ages and backgrounds."
        
A free conference on Friday, February 6, entitled "Story Engines: A Public Program on Storytelling and Computer Games," presents speakers from the industry and academia, addressing aspects of the role of narrative in computer games.  The conference will take place 9 a.m.-5 p.m. in the Cantor Arts Center auditorium.  Space is limited, with open seating and no reservations.  Call 650-725-6788 for details.
        
The Cantor Arts Center is open Wednesday - Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday until 8 p.m.  Admission is free.  The Center is located on the Stanford University campus off Palm Drive, at Museum Way.  Call 650-723-4177 or visit web site http://www.stanford.edu/dept/ccva/ for information, including exhibitions in the Center's 24 galleries and sculpture gardens.

Read about Game Scenes exhibit at Yerba Buena opening January 2004...