Never Alone: Video Games and Other Interactive Design is a new exhibit at the MoMA centered on the ways
tech and software designers make considerations for user input when designing for interactivity. The
exhibit contains a collection of game systems and interactive tech. Some monitors had been set up with
games inviting viewers to play for themselves.
As a fan of video games, I was initially excited to see the MoMA's exhibit on interactive design. The now
tired debate over whether or not video games are art (they are) lead me to believe the exhibit might have
something new and interesting to say about interactive media and how it can evoke certain emotions that
other mediums cannot. However, the main thesis of the show was simply to highlight the complexities of
interactive design from a designer's perspective. While insightful, it definitely felt like a shallow exploration
of everything interactive design has to offer, especially when considering the recent advancements in
interactive technology (VR, AR, AI, etc.) and what it means for our future. In fact, the exhibit seemed to
brush off any philosophical, moral or ethical questions and accept the current trajectory of technology to be
an inevitable given that we as humans must become privy to. Perhaps by making us aware of the
relationships between users and designers, the exhibit aims to make its audience conscious of the
dynamics and think more critically of interactive design going forward.
I had a similarly lackluster experience with this show. I felt like the thesis of the show was really just a nostalgia pull rather than an actual commentary. I think a lot of my issue lay in the way the show was presented as well. I remember walking through it and saying it almost felt like being in a kids dentist's waiting room with all the games being played around me. It felt like an off shoot space that needed to be filled.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you that this show was quite uninspiring, I felt as though there was so much room for more. More technology, more information, more anything really would have been nice because I felt as though this concept had the potential of being incredibly interesting. What was in the show did grab me, make me feel nostalgic but that feeling was short lived as there simply was not enough volume in this show. I think your review does an excellent job of explaining what the show did well but also the poorly executed aspects.
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