THE INTRODUCTION OF COMPUTER AND

VIDEO GAMES IN MUSEUMS EXPERIENCES AND POSSIBILITIES FROM

FINNISH POINT OF VIEW

MA Tiia Naskali, PhD Jaakko Suominen & PhD Petri Saarikoski

Digital Culture, Faculty of Humanities, University of Turku

Making the History of Computing Relevant

History of Computing Conference June 2013

RESEARCH PROJECT — Home Computer Era

and the Heritage of Technological Hobbyist Culture

Over the last ten years, the spectrum of Finnish studies on the history of

computing has become wider than ever. In addition to documenting the

history of technological artifacts, research projects have also started to

focus on the role of computers in everyday life.

Our approach is to look for the roots of today’s phenomena in the home

computer era of the 1980s and 1990s.

The project is coordinated by the University of Turku, Digital Culture

Studies, and runs from 2013 to 2014.

More information about the project: http://kotikone.wordpress.com/

We would like to thank the Kone Foundation for funding the

research project.

THE INTRODUCTION OF COMPUTER AND

VIDEO GAMES IN MUSEUMS

THE AIM OF THIS PAPER

This presentation creates an overview of how digital gaming

devices have been introduced in museum exhibitions over the

last 15 years. The following presentation will give examples of

exhibitions from different countries, especially from Finland,

and provides an answer to the question:

• Can digital games and gaming devices be used as

promotional tools for attracting new audiences to

museums?

PULLING IN WITH DIGITAL GAMES

• Games are linked to changes in players’ social relationships, as well as

the uses of media and technologies, and their consumption of forms of

popular culture.

• When people recollect their game histories and articulate these

recollections, they often express feelings that can be interpreted in the

context of nostalgia.

• Game-related (positive) feelings are often collective, social and personal,

as well as being individual at the same time.

• Gamer generations are employed in the workforce and, in such positions,

they are able to institutionalize something that is important for them.

Growing number of game exhibitions and an interest in games.

A photo from the Berlin computer game

museum in 2011. Photo: Päivi Lahdelma

A photo from the Game On! traveling

exhibition in 2003. Photo: Petri Saarikoski

EXHIBITION TIME MUSEUM

PERMANENT/

TEMPORARY/

TRAVELING APPROACH

Videotopia 1996–2011 traveling exhibition

(worldwide) traveling

art/ science/ cultural

history

Game On 2002– traveling exhibition

(worldwide)

temporary,

traveling cultural history/ art

C:/DOS/RUN –

Remembering the 80s

Computer

25.8.–

9.10.2005

Film Archive, New

Zealand temporary art

READY – The Golden Age

of Commodore

9.3.–

28.5.2006

Rupriikki Media Museum,

Finland temporary

cultural history/ one

platform

From Computer Clubs to

Homes

27.9.–

12.11.2006

Satakunta Museum,

Finland temporary cultural history

WoW: Emergent Media

Phenomenon

14.6.–

4.10.2009

Laguna Art Museum,

California, United States temporary

art/ focused on cultural

products based on World

of Warcraft -game

Play! – game and art

exhibition

20.11.2009–

31.1.2010 Salo Art Museum, Finland temporary cultural history/ art

From Pong to

PlayStation

from May

2010 to

December 2011

24.4.2013–

26.1.2014

Elektra Sähkömuseo

[Museum of Electricity],

Finland

Museum of Technology,

Finland

temporary,

traveling cultural history

Computer Games –

The evolution of a medium 21.1.2011–

Computerspiele Museum,

Berlin, Germany permanent art/ cultural history

Pac-Man - Older than

Pori Art Museum 14.5.2011 Pori Art Museum, Finland temporary

cultural history/ one

game

Finnish Games Then

and Now 5.-10.6.2012

Rupriikki Media Museum,

Finland temporary

cultural history/ Finnish

game industry

The Art of Video Games 16.3.–

30.9.2012

traveling exhibition

(United States)

temporary,

traveling art

Spacewar! Video Games

Blast Off

15.12.2012–

3.3.2013

Museum of the Moving Image,

New York, US temporary

cultural history/ focused

on the Spacewar! -

game

Applied Design 2.3.2013–

31.1.2014

The Museum of Modern Art,

New York, US temporary art/ design

THE VARIETY OF GAME EXHIBITIONS —

FROM GENERALISM TO SPECIALIZATION

• Games are audiovisual products with a variety of features.

• Games have tangible and intangible features, which provide

multiple – and multimodal – ways for examining games and

relating them to different kinds of exhibitions and museums.

• The interest in general exhibitions has already started to

decrease and more original and special theme exhibitions have

become even more popular.

• People who design these exhibitions, are gaining more

experience and new ideas about how to display games in

exhibitions.

A Photo from the Pac-Man Older than Pori Art Museum

-exhibition project in 2011. Photo: Janne Karvinen

GAMES AS AN EXHIBITION ATTRACTION

• Game and technology related exhibitions have attracted young

people that don’t visit museums very often.

• Interactivity, participation, the possibility to handle objects and play

games interests many visitors.

• Games can be used as promotional or pull in products for attracting

new audiences, particularly male-visitors.

• Digital gaming and digital technologies have their own unique

cultural history while at the same time, the cultural heritage of digital

technology is constantly emerging.

Games are, on their own, important and that is why games

should not be used only as promotional gimmicks.

CONCLUSION – KEY QUESTIONS

• What is the museum context for the exhibition? (cultural historical

museum, art museum, museum of science and technology, museum

of communication, games, computers etc.)

• What is the role of game in its in entirety? (main topic, supporting

role, or an instrumental role in introducing something else)

• What is the context of the introduction of games? (popular

cultural, artistic, everyday life, certain era, military, technological,

design, innovation process etc.)

• How to use freshly multimodal and interactive affordances of

games?

• Who is the audience?

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THANK YOU!

PowerPoint presentation (pdf): http://kotikone.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/london/